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Data
A primary mandate of CFSP is to generate and facilitate research about financial systems and poverty. Below you can review detailed summaries of the data collection we are supporting around the world:
Africa (Sub-Saharan)
The Adoption and Impact of Mobile Banking in Kenya [Kenya]
Examining Underinvestment in Agriculture [Ghana]
Evaluation of Privatized Delivery Model for Savings and Internal Lending Committees (SILCs) [Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda]
Graduating from Ultra Poverty: Evaluating the Effect of Services in Ghana [Ghana]
East Asia and the Pacific
Latin America and the Caribbean
Savings and Intermediation in Chile [Chile]
South and Central Asia
Informal Insurance, Social Ties, and Financial Development: Evidence from a Lab Experiment in the Field [India]
Finding Headwaters of Household Financial Assets [Sri Lanka]
An Applied General Equilibrium Evaluation of Financial Systems and their Impact on the Poor [Thailand]
Near East (North Africa and Middle East)
United States and Canada
Africa (Sub-Saharan)
The Adoption and Impact of Mobile Banking in Kenya
Country:Kenya
Researcher(s): Tavneet Suri
Survey Time Frame and Rounds:
- Round 1: Summer of 2009
- Round 2: January 2010
- Round 3: July 2010
- Experimental component of survey, Fall 2009-Fall 2010
Modules:
- Household
- Agent
- Micro entrepreneur (experimental component)
Survey size: 4,700 (3,600 households, 500 agents, and 600 micro entrepreneurs [300 assigned to the treatment and 300 to control]).
Sample: Households and agents from districts of Kenya with at least M-PESA agents as well as 600 micro entrepreneurs.
Intervention:
- Provide incentives for customers of M-PESA to accumulate savings on the M-PESA account by making payments comparable to markets rate of interest on balances held in the accounts and by subsidizing transaction costs of making deposits and withdrawals.
- Make payment reimbursing half of the transactions costs incurred, to more closely mimic conditions that might be present in a more competitive system.
Summary:
This project will build on an existing survey to administer three more surveys to the 3,000 households and M-PESA agents from an earlier sample. In the first round, households from a range of districts in Kenya with access to at least one M-PESA agent were sampled in an effort to identify and interview users of the service. The second round allows for the creation of a GIS map of the universe of M-PESA agents, agents of other mobile banking services, and other financial institutions, and to map the network of cell towers. Finally, the third round, in collaboration with CFSP Member Christopher Woodruff, focuses on a specific experimental intervention using this mobile banking technology in order to identify paths to efficient cash management.
Examining Underinvestment in Agriculture [1]
Country:Ghana
Researcher(s): Christopher Udry
Survey Time Frame and Rounds:
- Round 1: Baseline Ghana Living Standards Survey 5+, April-September 2008
- Round 2: First follow-up, February-March 2010
- Round 3: Second follow-up, February-March 2011
Modules:
- Household instrument
- GPS plot measurement
- Soil testing
Survey size:1,055 households
Sample:Maize farmers in northern Ghana
Intervention:
- Rainfall-based index insurance initially provided for free,
- Second round at randomized prices; capital grants; both interventions; control group.
Summary:
This project uses a randomized design to evaluate the effectiveness of various interventions targeted at increasing farmers’ investment in agriculture. 125 different clusters of maize farmers have been assigned one of seven interventions, which include: free rainfall insurance, subsidized rainfall insurance, rainfall insurance, capital drops, capital drops and free rainfall insurance, capital drops and subsidized rainfall insurance, capital drops and rainfall insurance. There is also a control group. Baseline and endline surveys will gather detailed information on socio-demographic indicators, household well-being and nutrition, agricultural investment and yields, allowing for measurement of the interventions’ impact on numerous variables.
Evaluation of Privatized Delivery Model for Savings and Internal Lending Committees (SILCs)
Country:Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda
Researcher(s): Joseph Kaboski
Survey Time Frame and Rounds:
- Round 1: Randomization of first group, December 2009
- Round 2: A before survey of households and groups in the treatment and control areas, early 2010
- Round 3: Follow-up survey run 18 months after the initial randomization
- Round 4: Follow-up survey 36 months after the initial randomization
Modules:
- Field agents
- SILCs
- Member households
- Non-member households
Survey size:
- 800 agents
Sample:Field agents, SILCs, member and non-member households
Intervention: Areas are divided between those that receive savings and internal lending committees (SILCs) and those that do not. For areas that do receive SILCs, the structure of field agents is varied between SILCSs that are provided with a field agent paid directly by Catholic Relief Services and those with field agents who work as private entrepreneurs.
Summary:
Savings and internal lending committees (SILCs) are savings and intermediation groups intended to provide financial services to the poorest of the poor. In East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda) these groups have normally been implemented by NGOs, who train and pay field agents to found and administer SILCs. In an attempt to lower the required resources needed to subsidize SILCs, the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is changing the format in which it runs its SILCs program. After training agents, CRS will slowly decrease payments, transitioning the agents to being private entrepreneurs, who are paid for their services.
This project will conduct a randomized evaluation of the CRS SILCs program in order to understand how this new innovation will affect the successfulness of the SILCs. In particular, the project investigates the success of the private entrepreneurs in comparison to the paid agents in terms of their ability to mobilize savings, lend judiciously, maintain membership, and secure high repayment rates. Related, the project seeks to find out if the private entrepreneurs will be more successful in founding additional groups. 800 agents are involved in the study, with 40 percent being paid by CRS. The project administers surveys to field agents, SILCs, and both members and non-member households.
Graduating from Ultra Poverty
East Asia and the Pacific
No current data sets.
Top
Latin America and the Caribbean
Savings and Intermediation in Chile [2]
Country:Chile
Researcher(s): Esteban Puentes
Survey Time Frame and Rounds:
- Main Round, October to December 2010
- Follow-up, March to April 2011
Modules:
- Household Demographic
- Employment
- Savings
- Borrowing
- Type of Entrepreneurship
- Financial Literacy
- Saving Obstacles and Access to Public Sector Programs
Survey size:3,000 households
Sample:Self-employed workers and employers in Chile
Intervention:N/A
Summary:
This survey of micro-entrepreneurship builds on a survey taken in 2008. The objective of the survey is to characterize small and medium entrepreneurship activities in Chile. Special attention will be given to the effects of the earthquake and the savings behavior of these households.
South and Central Asia
Informal Insurance, Social Ties, and Financial Development: Evidence from a Lab Experiment in the Field
Country: India
Researcher(s): Cynthia Kinnan, Arun Chandrasekhar, Horacio Larreguy
Survey Time Frame and Rounds: June-August 2010
Modules:
- Risk aversion, education and financial literacy
- Game data (the data collected during the experiment)
Survey size:1,280 (40 villages, 32 individuals per village)
Sample: individuals in villages in rural Karnataka, India (individuals must have lived in the village since 2007 and be between the ages of 15 and 45)
Intervention: Individuals play 4 different games as part of the data-collection process, and are paid for one randomly selected choice that they make, as well as being paid for their participation.
Summary:
Individuals or households wishing to insure one another against risk face an asymmetric information problem wherein they may not know the income or the savings of their insurance partners. Further, these insurance agreements are often not externally enforceable ("limited commitment"). To study how hidden savings, hidden income and limited commitment affect the insurance relationships, this project consists of 4 games: observed income and savings; hidden income, observed savings; hidden income, hidden savings; and hidden income, hidden savings, limited commitment.
Individuals play each game with a partner. Half of the players in each village are randomly assigned a partner for each game while the other half pick partners they want to play with but not the game that they play together. In each period, individuals receive uncertain income and make decisions about how much to consume, save for next period, and transfer to their partner. Our data consist of the choices they make in each game; whether they picked their partners or had them randomly chosen; information about risk aversion, education and experience with financial services; and detailed data on the social linkages between the households in the villages where we will conduct our experiment.
Finding Headwaters of Household Financial Assets
Country:Sri Lanka
Researcher(s): Christopher Woodruff
Survey Time Frame and Rounds:
- Baseline, August 2010
- Monthly follow-up rounds for 12 months.
Modules: All are administered to a single individual and include:
- Household characteristics
- Agricultural business
- Non-agricultural business
- Consumption
Survey size: 800 Individuals (400 members of 100 separate ROSCAS and 400 non-ROSCAS members)
Sample: ROSCA members and non-ROSCA members
Intervention: Around half of the sample are being offered weekly collections from a savings bank, using a point-of-service terminal to make instantaneous deposits. Collections are made at the house or business of the treated respondent.
Summary:
A sample of 800 female participants of informal savings groups are being surveyed monthly for 13 months. Data is being gathered on individual and household characteristics, agricultural and non-agricultural businesses, and consumption. The individuals are located in rural areas surrounding two towns in the Badula district of Sri Lanka.
An Applied General Equilibrium Evaluation of Financial Systems and their Impact on the Poor [3]
Country:Thailand
Researcher(s): Robert M. Townsend
Survey Time Frame and Rounds:
- Annual Survey Baseline in Four Provinces: 1997
- Annual Survey Baseline in Two Southern Provinces: 2004
- Annual Survey Baseline in Two Northern Provinces: 2005
- Annual Survey Baseline in Urban Areas: 2005
- Annual Resurveys in Six Provinces: 1998 - Present
- Monthly Survey Baseline in Four Provinces: 1998
- Monthly Resurveys in Four Provinces: 1998 - Present
Modules:
- Annual Surveys
- Household
- Financial Institutions
- Key Informant
- Banks of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) Joint Lending Groups
- Soil samples
- Plot photos
- Overhead aerial photos of survey villages
- Monthly Surveys
- Household Surveys
- Environmental Data
Survey size:
- Rural Annual Baseline Survey in 1997
- 2,880 households
- 262 BAAC groups
- 161 village financial institutions
- 192 key informants
- 1,920 individual plots
- Rural & Urban Annual Resurvey (1998-Present)
- 1,230 households
- 75 BAAC groups
- 45 village financial institutions
- 64 key informants
- Monthly Resurvey
- 720 households
- 80 environmental stations
Sample:
- Heads of households in rural and urban villages in six provinces in Thailand; rural and urban financial institutions; village headmen; joint lending groups
Intervention:N/A
Summary:
The project seeks to evaluate informal and formal financial institutions and markets and to construct and evaluate macro models of growth, fluctuations, and crisis. This survey evaluates the role of informal institutions such as the family and local networks in helping to support the welfare of individuals in semi-urban and rural areas of Thailand; risk, and the potentially adverse and direct consequences of household- and firm-specific shocks; and the mediating role of the family, as well as social and economic networks in the mobilization of savings and allocation of credit.
The onset of the Asian Financial Crisis has allowed the survey to track the impact of the crisis on households and businesses, and to understand the micro-underpinnings of the movement in the macro variables. Annual resurveys of households, headsmen, and institutions allow the project to continue to follow the impact of the crisis.
Questionnaires and Data:
Questionnaires and data summaries available at http://cier.uchicago.edu/
Townsend Thai data available for download at http://dvn.iq.harvard.edu/dvn/dv/rtownsend/
Near East (North Africa and Middle East)
No current data sets.
United States and Canada
No current data sets.
[1]Data collection is jointly funded by Consortium on Financial System and Poverty and The International Growth Centre
[2]Data collection is jointly funded by Consortium on Financial System and Poverty and The Ministry of Economics.
[3]CFSP does not directly fund the collection of the Townsend Thai data. CFSP's research leverages over 12 years of annual and monthly panel data from rural and urban villages in Thailand.
