Promises and Pitfalls of Mobile Money in Afghanistan: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial

Promises and Pitfalls of Mobile Money in Afghanistan: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial
We present the results of a field experiment in Afghanistan that was designed to increase adoption of mobile money, and determine if such adoption led to measurable changes in the lives of the adopters. The intervention we evaluate is a mobile salary payment program, in which a random subset of individuals of a large firm were transitioned into receiving their regular salaries in mobile money rather than in cash. While mobile money salaries led to immediate and significant cost savings to the employer, we find little consistent evidence that mobile money had an impact on several key indicators of individual wealth or well-being. Taken together, these results suggest that while mobile salary payments may greatly increase the efficiency and transparency of traditional economies, in the short run the benefits may be realized by those making the payments, rather than by those receiving them.

 
Datalab Faculty
Joshua Blumenstock

Collaborators
Michael Callen, Tarek Ghani, and Lucas Koepke

Publications
http://www.jblumenstock.com/files/papers/jblumenstock_ictd2015.pdf