Financial Inclusion, Human Capital, and Wealth Accumulation: Evidence from the Freedman’s Savings Bank
研究美国内战后为自由黑人设立的储蓄银行如何通过提供金融服务，改善家庭的人力资本、劳动市场表现和财富积累，发现开户家庭子女入学率、识字率、就业和收入均更高。
Abstract This paper studies how access to financial services among a previously unbanked group affects human capital, labor market, and wealth outcomes. We use novel data from the Freedman’s Savings Bank—created following the American Civil War to serve free Blacks—employing an instrumental variables strategy exploiting the staggered rollout of bank branches. Families with accounts are more likely to have children in school, be literate, work, and have higher occupational income, business ownership, and real estate wealth. Placebo effects are not present using planned but unbuilt branches, or for Whites, suggesting significant positive effects of financial inclusion.