Rural Banks Can Reduce Poverty: Experimental Evidence From 870 Indian Villages
Speaker(s) Dr. Giorgia Barboni, Warwick Business School Publication Online
ABSTRACT

We evaluate an at-scale experiment that randomized branch placement by a private-sector bank across 870 South Indian villages. Within two years of branch opening, one in three households in treated villages had taken a formal loan and roughly a quarter had taken up an insurance or savings product. Survey data show a 10% reduction in informal borrowing levels. These changes impact individual and aggregate well-being: Relative to control villages, poverty rates in treatment villages are 8% lower and hair-sample based stress biomarkers also show a reduction. Alongside, occupational diversification and village economic activity rise:  households in treated villages are 7% more likely to have a member working in non-agriculture self-employment, have 20% higher business income, and 6% higher wage income. Our evidence is consistent with a model of entrepreneurship in which access to cheaper formal credit increased village-wide labor demand.