Mobile Banking and Financial Inclusion: Evidence from bKash Discussion Xavier Giné, World Bank

Summary Interesting paper that looks at the introduction of mobile money among migrants and their families 815 households randomly assigned to treatment and control.

Summary Interesting paper that looks at the introduction of mobile money among migrants and their families 815 households randomly assigned to treatment and control. Treatment: bKask training and incentive Is migrant “first mover” or not Pro-social family oriented SMS messages Control: no bKash training (and incentive?) Mention that there are complementarities in the returns to owning an account. Remittance is cheaper if both sender and receiver have an account. Would like data on 2x2: Migrant has account or not, Receiving family has account or not. How more expensive are OTC transactions?

Results Outcomes of Interest: Admin Data Take-up (+) Remittances from migrants using Mobile (+) Survey Data Remittances from migrants: Overall (0) Overall Borrowing (-) Children’s Education (+) Health (+) Consumption, Ag input, Savings (0)

Sample Rural families with migrants to Dhaka Could there be families that with offer of bKash decide to send migrant to Dhaka? Could bKash offer change migrant job or frequency of travel back to village? Do migrants receive salary into bKash account or in cash?

Results Outcomes of Interest: Admin Data Take-up (+) Remittances from migrants using Mobile (+) Survey Data Remittances from migrants: Overall (0) Overall Borrowing (-) Children’s Education (+) Health (+) Consumption, Ag input, Savings (0)

Take-up (and Usage) of bKash Complementarities in the returns to owning an account. Remittance should be cheaper if both sender and receiver have an account. Data on 2x2: Migrant has account or not, Receiving family has account or not. How more expensive are OTC transactions? Who are the non-users in this sample of migrants?

Results Outcomes of Interest: Admin Data Take-up (+) Remittances from migrants using Mobile (+) Survey Data Remittances from migrants: Overall (0) Overall Borrowing (-) Children’s Education (+) Health (+) Consumption, Ag input, Savings (0)

Context relative to M-Pesa Paper says there are other providers. Do they operate in the area? Were they growing fast? Did controls use their service? Adoption of M-PESA

Context relative to M-Pesa What is M-PESA used for?

Context relative to M-Pesa What is M-PESA used for?

Context relative to M-Pesa Related, what is the average balance in the MM account? Frequency of M-PESA use

Remittances In Kenya, individuals equally likely to receive and send remittances Here, individuals more likely to send as they are migrants Do remittances respond to shocks? Under risk-sharing, HH with negative shock should receive more (and/or larger) remittances Are remittances at regular intervals or in response to shocks? Total annual value of remittances does not increase Noise relative to administrative data?

Results Outcomes of Interest: Admin Data Take-up (+) Remittances from migrants using Mobile (+) Survey Data Remittances from migrants: Overall (0) Borrowing (-) Children’s Education (+) Health (+) Consumption, Ag input, Savings (0)

Borrowing Is the result referring to “expensive” borrowing from moneylenders or also to borrowing from institutions like BRAC? What happens to agricultural investment or business startups?

Results Outcomes of Interest: Admin Data Take-up (+) Remittances from migrants using Mobile (+) Survey Data Remittances from migrants: Overall (0) Borrowing (-) Children’s Education (+) Health (+) Consumption, Ag input, Savings (0) Hard to interpret effects on children’s education and health… These are SDs of indexes..

Consumption No effects on levels or also volatility?

Consumption Consumption Treated Shocks don’t hurt users so much (b) c = a +  Shock + Treated + bTreated * Shock + controls Shock No shock Consumption Treated Control (a) Shock status Treated consume more () Shocks hurt () Shocks don’t hurt users so much (b)

Consumption No effects on levels or also volatility? Heterogeneous Effects Predict high usage of bCash and interact dummy with treatment. Are effects concentrated on high users?

Agents Did they refuse to make transactions? Is the network of agents growing? Are they benefitting from becoming agents? Compare businesses that became agents to similar one that did not. Are they using the service? Are they procuring inventory using bCash?