Violence and financial decisions: evidence from mobile money in Afghanistan
Blumenstock, J., Callen, M.
, Ghani, T. & Gonzalez, R.
(2024).
Violence and financial decisions: evidence from mobile money in Afghanistan.
Review of Economics and Statistics,
106(2), 352–369.
https://doi.org/10.1162/rest_a_01147
, Ghani, T. & Gonzalez, R.
(2024).
Violence and financial decisions: evidence from mobile money in Afghanistan.
Review of Economics and Statistics,
106(2), 352–369.
https://doi.org/10.1162/rest_a_01147
We provide evidence that violence reduces the adoption and use of mobile money in three separate empirical settings in Afghanistan. First, analyzing nationwide mobile money transaction logs, we find that users exposed to violence reduce use of mobile money. Second, using panel survey data from a field experiment, we show that subjects expecting violence are significantly less likely to respond to random inducements to use mobile money. Finally, analyzing nationwide financial survey data, we find that individuals expecting violence hold more cash. Collectively, this evidence suggests that violence can impede the growth of formal financial systems.
Explore Further
- O17 - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements: Legal, Social, Economic, and Political
- O33 - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
- D14 - Personal Finance
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Callen, M., Ghani, T., Blumenstock, J. & Gonzalez, R.
(2021).
Replication Data for: Violence and Financial Decisions: Evidence from Mobile Money in Afghanistan.
[Dataset]. Harvard Dataverse.
https://doi.org/10.7910/dvn/z1h2fc