The benefits (and limits) of digital financial capability training: Evidence from Cambodian payroll accounts

Abstract

How effective are financial capability trainings at expediting adoption of financial technology in lowincome settings? What key frictions need to be overcome when financial access has been established but usage is stalled? We provide evidence on these questions using a large-scale and staggered intervention delivered by a leading Cambodian mobile money provider (-turned-commercial bank) to factory workers across its payroll account clientele. We further exploit wage shocks, driven in part by the pandemic, as a mechanism for examining heterogeneous effects of the training under (un)favorable economic conditions. We show that the intervention led to significant and persistent increases in workers' e-account usage on both the extensive and intensive margin, and further knock on effects complementary to financial deepening and women's economic empowerment. However, effects are generally conditional on stability of post-intervention wage conditions and muted when other factory-level frictions exist.

Keywords: Digital financial capability, mobile banking, technological adoption, consumer protection JEL Codes: G2, G5, 033, L1

JEL Classification: G2, G5, 033, L1