2024-03-29T11:31:00
114434
Fri Mar 29 11:31:01 EDT 2024
Replication data for: Digital Financial Services Go a Long Way: Transaction Costs and Financial Inclusion
Pierre Bachas
Paul Gertler
Sean Higgins
Enrique Seira
114434
https://doi.org/10.3886/E114434V1
Debit cards reduce the travel distance to access bank accounts and can increase financial inclusion. We show that in Mexico, cash transfer beneficiaries who already received their transfers in bank accounts and subsequently received debit cards reduce their median distance to access the account from 4.8 to 1.3 kilometers and report being less likely to forgo important activities (childcare, work) to withdraw their transfer. Using account level data, we find a strong negative correlation between the reduction in travel distance and financial activity: beneficiaries facing the largest reductions in distance increase both their number of withdrawals and their savings balances.
D23 Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
E42 Monetary Systems; Standards; Regimes; Government and the Monetary System; Payment Systems
G21 Banks; Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
O16 Economic Development: Financial Markets; Saving and Capital Investment; Corporate Finance and Governance