Access to banking, savings and consumption smoothing in rural India
通过随机提供银行账户的实地实验，研究发现银行服务可及性并未改变平均消费水平，但通过缓解储蓄约束改善了消费平滑，使家庭能通过顺周期储蓄应对收入波动。
To what extent does access to banking help poor households to save and smooth consumption? To answer this fundamental question, we combine a field experiment that randomly provides access to a bank account with weekly interviews on household finances. Access to banking does not change average consumption, but it improves consumption smoothing by alleviating savings constraints. Indeed, the control’s expenditures follow income more closely than the expenditures of the treated. The latter handle variations in income by engaging in pro-cyclical saving in their account. These results provide an important new insight into the role of banking in low- and middle-income countries.