Using lotteries to encourage saving in low income households

Busara

SECTOR

Financial Inclusion

PROJECT TYPE

Lab Experiment

DOI

Location

Kenya

BEHAVIORAL THEME

Savings behavior | Risk preferences | Regret aversion
OVERVIEW

Can prize-linked savings gamify savings and build stronger habits?
In Kenya, 27.5% of low income households own an account but only 9.9% save with a financial institution1 . Though saving is one of the most important avenues toward economic development, there are numerous obstacles that prevent poor households from accruing savings to their advantage. Knowledge gaps, mistrust of financial institutions and behavioral biases contribute to preventing the poor from saving as much as they would like. Product designs that target behavioral barriers have been shown to be extremely cost effective, especially compared to direct subsidies.

THEMATIC AREAS

One such product design is prize-linked savings which is a savings mechanism dating back to the 15th century that bundles interest payments and pays out larger sums probabilistically. PLS interventions can leverage the rapid rise of mobile betting among Kenyans, where high mobile phone penetration has given rise to some of the highest rates of mobile sports betting in Africa. Indeed Kenya has the highest number of betting youth (76% have tried gambling), with 79% of bets placed on football matches.