| Abstract: |
Is financial knowledge change necessary for lasting savings behavior change?
Or, akin to the canonical Friedman billiards player, can behavior persist “as
if” such knowledge is held? We randomize 240 Ugandan young-adult clubs to
financial education, savings account access, both, or neither. Each education
arm, but not the account-only arm, increases financial knowledge and trust in
banks at one-year. But at five-years the knowledge effects disappear, and the
trust effects diminish. Savings activity, wealth, and income increase at both
one-year and five-years for all treatment arms, suggesting that knowledge
change is unnecessary for lasting impacts on behavior and outcomes. |