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Financial exclusion in developed countries : a field experiment among migrants and low-income people in Italy
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Barboni, Giorgia, Cassar, Alessandra and Demont, Timothee (2017) Financial exclusion in developed countries : a field experiment among migrants and low-income people in Italy. Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy (JBEP), 1 (2). pp. 39-49.
An open access version can be found in:
Official URL: http://sabeconomics.org/jbep/jbep-1-2/
Abstract
We designed an experiment to estimate the socio-economic and behavioral characteristics associated with financial exclusion in a developed economy and the demand for savings products progressively trading-off flexibility for commitment. Our sample includes people in Italy living below the poverty line, stratified by migration status. Despite a large bank branch penetration in the study area, we find a high rate of financial exclusion, with households below the sample median income being unbanked at twice the rate of those above (30% vs. 15%), a difference that is especially significant for migrants. Financial exclusion is associated with poverty and social exclusion, as measured by unemployment, low food consumption, and little help from personal networks. Despite a high-declared willingness to open new accounts and a strong interest in commitment products following a financial education training seminar, actual uptake in the year to follow remains low, suggesting that demanddriven factors besides knowledge hamper access to formal financial services, namely incomes that are perceived too low to make accounts worthwhile. Yet, migrants, especially if non-Muslim, appear more willing to become financially included than non-migrants, suggesting that there are gains to be made by targeting minorities.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School > Finance Group Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School |
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| Journal or Publication Title: | Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy (JBEP) | ||||
| Publisher: | The Society for the Advancement of Behavioral Economics (SABE) | ||||
| Official Date: | 2017 | ||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 1 | ||||
| Number: | 2 | ||||
| Page Range: | pp. 39-49 | ||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Open Access | ||||
| Related URLs: | |||||
| Open Access Version: |
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