Social Capital, Network Effects, and Savings in Rural Vietnam
研究越南农村妇女联合会网络中的社会资本如何通过信息共享提高正规储蓄，发现高质量网络成员储蓄更多，但低质量网络中的错误信息也会影响行为。
Information failures are a major barrier to formal financial saving in low‐income countries. We explore the extent to which social capital in rural V ietnam plays a role in increasing formal savings where knowledge gaps exist. Social capital is defined as information sharing and the elimination of information asymmetries through active participation in the Women's Union. We consider high‐ and low‐quality networks in terms of the quality of information transmitted. We find that membership of high‐quality networks leads to higher levels of saving in formal financial institutions and saving for productive investments. Our results support a role for social capital in facilitating savings and suggest that transmitting financial information through the branches of the Women's Union could be effective in increasing formal savings at grassroots level. We also conclude that it is important to ensure that the information disseminated is accurate given that behavioral effects are also found in networks with low‐quality information.