@article{Mehrotra:293768,
      recid = {293768},
      author = {Mehrotra, Rahul and Somville, Vincent and Vandewalle,  Lore},
      title = {Increasing trust in the bank to enhance savings:  experimental evidence from India},
      publisher = {Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI)},
      address = {Bergen. 2016},
      number = {BOOK},
      series = {CMI working paper ;  no. 1},
      pages = {1-39},
      year = {2016},
      abstract = {Recent evidence highlights the importance of trust in  explaining bank account savings. According to economic  theory, repeated interactions can play a crucial role in  shaping trust. We designed the first field experiment that  tests whether increased interactions between clients and  bankers influence a client's trust in bankers. We promoted  interactions by randomly (i) opening accounts for the  unbanked and (ii) making weekly payments on their accounts.  At the end of these interventions, we measured trust by  playing trust games between clients on the one hand, and  their own local banker as well as an anonymous other banker  on the other hand. The only intervention that has a  significant impact on the number of interactions is opening  a bank account. It also greatly increases trust in the  anonymous banker, but not in their own banker. Next, we  investigate the importance of trust for account savings. We  find a strong positive correlation between the clients'  trust in their own banker and savings in the account, but  their trust in another banker does not correlate with  savings. From the decomposition of trust in its different  determinants,we learn that expected trustworthiness matters  most in explaining savings, while there is a minor role for  social preferences and no role for risk attitudes. We  conclude that the personalized client-banker relationships  are crucial, but not malleable. Strategies which can deal  with the expected trustworthi- ness - such as providing  access to an ATM, or to a denser network of local bankers -  might promote bank account savings.},
      url = {http://repository.graduateinstitute.ch/record/293768},
}