Mobile Banking and Remittance among Migrant Workers: Experimental Evidence from Bangladesh

District: Gaibandha

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The experiment, titled “Mobile Banking and Remittance among Migrant Workers: Experimental Evidence from Bangladesh”, is being conducted to understand the impacts of mobile banking among urban migrant workers and their rural households in Bangladesh using field experiments.

MOMODa in a partner’s collaboration with New York University, South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM), International Growth Centre (IGC), and Gana Unnayan Kendra (GUK) implemented the project.

The project aims to analyze the adoption behavior of mobile banking services, and the impact of using the service on the wellbeing and shock absorption capacity of the participants of the experiments.
From a pool of 2100 samples, we have finally randomized among 835 samples and divided them into statistically identical two groups- treatment and control. These samples also have their urban counterpart working in different sectors. We have conducted a baseline survey for both rural households and urban migrant worker(s) from those households.
We have, then, trained our treatment group on how to open a mobile banking account and how to operate it. During the provision of treatment, we divided the treatment group into four subgroups to test peer effect and others. We are now conducting a Willingness To Pay (WTP) survey to test the consumption behavior of the treatment and control group with or without having a mobile banking account.
After conducting a follow-up survey we will be analyzing the data and preparing for dissemination and policy dialogue.