Are Mobile Savings the Silver Bullet to Help Women Grow Their Businesses?

In Tanzania and Indonesia, we promoted the expansion of mobile savings accounts among women micro-entrepreneurs and provided them with business related training. In doing so, we simultaneously relaxed supply- and demand side constraints to savings that women might face. In both countries, the training enhanced the impact of promoting mobile savings. In Indonesia it led women to save more overall, including a nascent use of mobile accounts, and report greater decision making power within the household. In Tanzania, it led to substantially higher mobile savings, new businesses and products, more capital investment, labor effort, and better business practices. However, these short-term impacts have yet to translate into higher business profits. In Indonesia, we observe increased household welfare, but no discernible effects on business outcomes shortly after the training ended. In Tanzania, the increased business investments were not accompanied by greater profitability.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Bastian, Gautam, Bianchi, Iacopo, Buvinic, Mayra, Goldstein, Markus, Jaluka, Tanvi, Knowles, James, Montalvao, Joao, Witoelar, Firman
Format:	Brief biblioteca
Language:	English
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2018-09
Subjects:	MOBILE BANKING, FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS, WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS, ACCESS TO FINANCE, FINANCIAL INCLUSION, FINANCIAL SERVICES, SAVINGS ACCOUNTS, BUSINESS TRAINING, GENDER INNOVATION LAB, AFRICA GENDER POLICY, EAST ASIA AND PACIFIC GENDER POLICY, WOMEN AND AGRICULTURE, WOMEN AND PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT,
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/512121538488834978/Are-Mobile-Savings-the-Silver-Bullet-to-Help-Women-Grow-Their-Businesses https://hdl.handle.net/10986/30496
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