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on Microfinance |
| By: | Greco, Giulia; Gulesci, Selim; Prabhakar, Pallavi; Sulaiman, Munshi |
| Abstract: | We present evidence from a randomized controlled trial in Uganda where married women were randomly provided unconditional cash transfers. Among treated women, we randomized the modality of payment (in cash or mobile money) and whether the beneficiary's spouse was informed about the transfer or not. We find that using mobile money for cash transfers is more effective in improving women's economic independence and decision-making power. In particular, women in the mobile money treatments have higher individual labor income and more of a say in household decisions. On the other hand, cash-based transfers are more effective in reducing intimate partner violence (IPV), especially when both partners are informed. This highlights a trade-off between improving the effectiveness of cash transfers on women's economic empowerment versus reducing IPV. While providing cash transfers digitally is more effective in improving women's control over resources, this may lower their effectiveness in addressing IPV. |
| Keywords: | Women's empowerment; Domestic violence; Cash transfers; Digital services; Privacy |
| JEL: | C93 D10 D82 J12 |
| Date: | 2025–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:20261 |
| By: | Yeandle, Alex; Doyle, David |
| Abstract: | Mobile money platforms are ubiquitous in many emerging economies. Hailed for raising financial inclusion and economic wellbeing, governments have now turned to mobile payments as a source of tax revenue. Transaction levies are often regressive, unpopular, and can encourage a return to cash. We present experimental evidence that they may also harm tax morale, a core component of the social contract between citizen and state. We present results from a survey experiment in Ghana, in which priming a controversial mobile transaction levy significantly lowers support for the state's right to collect taxes and willingness to comply with tax laws. We combine this with focus group discussions and analyse effect heterogeneity to examine two pre-registered explanations: transaction taxes cost citizens more than they expect to gain (reciprocity) and provoke particular backlash from non-government voters (partisanship). Our findings suggest that taxing mobile money can undermine efforts to expand fiscal capacity, while raising important mechanistic and policy questions for future research. |
| Keywords: | Africa;experiment;mobile money;public opinion;tax morale |
| JEL: | J1 E6 |
| Date: | 2026–06–24 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:140135 |
| By: | Niazi, Kamran; Poudel, Dixit; Burrone, Sara; Bologna, Giulio; Lombardi, Niccolo; Scognamillo, Antonio |
| Abstract: | Anticipatory cash transfers, i.e. disbursed before climate shocks materialise rather than after, are expanding rapidly across fragile settings, yet rigorous evidence on their effectiveness in slow-onset drought contexts remains scarce. This study provides one of the first quasi-experimental evaluations of Early Warning-based Anticipatory Cash Transfers (EWACT) targeting a slow-onset drought in a fragile, conflict-affected setting, using three rounds of panel data from 1, 635 households in Baidoa district, Somalia (2024–2025) and a difference-in-differences design with inverse probability weighting. Results show that treated households significantly increased savings and crop reserves and improved debt repayment capacity, the intermediary outcomes of the asset-protection, savings, and debt-management pathways, which translated into a 33 percentage-point improvement in food consumption scores and a 7 percentage-point reduction in crop losses at midline. No significant effects on livestock mortality were detected. Effects on mobility and displacement, reveal a reduction in both, with mobility effect that deepens from 5 to 12 percentage points between midline and endline, even as food security gains dissipate. An instrumental variable extension shows that food security benefits are front-loaded and fade with elapsed time since transfer, while financial stock outcomes persist across seasons. This temporal asymmetry, transient food security improvements alongside a strengthening and durable reduction in mobility, is the paper's central empirical contribution, with implications for the design, sequencing, and cost-effectiveness of anticipatory action in fragile, drought-prone contexts. |
| Keywords: | Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea26:404575 |