BREAD Working Paper No. 605, February 2022

Is Digital Credit Filling a Hole or Digging a Hole? Evidence from Malawi   Valentina Brailovskaya, Pascaline Dupas and Jonathan Robinson   Abstract Digital credit has expanded rapidly in Africa, mostly in the form of short-term, high-interest loans offered via mobile money. Loan terms are often opaque and consumer financial literacy is low, providing opportunities […]

BREAD Working Paper No. 552, April 2020

Saving for Multiple Financial Needs: Evidence from Lockboxes and Mobile Money in Malawi Shilpa Aggarwal, Valentina Brailovskaya, Jonathan Robinson Abstract We test whether the provision of multiple labeled savings accounts affects savings and downstream outcomes in an experiment with 761 microentrepreneurs in urban Malawi. Treatment respondents received one or multiple savings accounts, in the form […]

BREAD Working Paper No. 548, February 2020

Market Access, Trade Costs, and Technology Adoption: Evidence from Northern Tanzania Shilpa Aggarwal, Brian Giera, Dahyeon Jeong, Jonathan Robinson, Alan Spearot Abstract We collect data on prices, travel costs and farmer decisions to quantify market access and its impact on agricultural productivity in 1,183 villages in two regions of Tanzania. Villages at the bottom of […]

BREAD Working Paper No. 515, July 2017

Grain Today, Gain Tomorrow: Evidence from a Storage Experiment with Savings Clubs in Kenya Shilpa Aggarwal, Eilin Francis, Jonathan Robinson Staple food prices in rural Africa display predictable, sizeable seasonal price changes, from post-harvest troughs to lean season peaks. We experimentally evaluate a group-based grain storage scheme with 132 savings clubs in Kenya. Treatment clubs […]

BREAD Working Paper No. 509, April 2017

Decentralization and Efficiency of Subsidy Targeting: Evidence from Chiefs in Rural Malawi Pia Basurto, Pascaline Dupas, Jonathan Robinson Abstract Developing countries spend vast sums on subsidies. Beneficiaries are typically se- lected via either a proxy-means test (PMT) or through a decentralized identification process led by local leaders. A decentralized allocation may offer informational ad- vantages, […]