Gender and Financial Misconduct: A Field Experiment on Mobile Money

Abstract

We construct a census of the market for mobile money in village Ghana and estimate that 1 out of every 4 mobile money transactions is overcharged relative to mandated rates. In an experiment, we randomize the matches between vendors and customers, finding strong evidence of “gender misconduct gap”: female vendors are +37% more likely to commit such misconduct relative to male vendors. Misconduct is discriminatory and asymmetric: female customers are relatively more likely to suffer misconduct, and while female vendors discriminate against customers of their gender, male vendors favor their gender. Beliefs about gender, low female empowerment and income are relevant mechanisms. Several other possible mechanisms are ruled out empirically.

Keywords: forensics and discrimination, household finance and fintech, culture and misconduct

JEL Classification: J16, O12, D18, G23, Z13, G41