This document summarizes preliminary results from a midline survey evaluation of the LISTA project, which aims to provide tablet-based financial education in Colombia. The summary includes: 1) LISTA uses tablets preloaded with financial education modules to potentially provide a scalable solution. 2) The evaluation examines the impact of LISTA on financial literacy, practices, and performance using a randomized controlled research design. 3) Preliminary midline results show some improvements in financial knowledge, savings habits, and reported savings amounts, but no impact yet on all measures.

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Tablet-based financial
education, Colombia
Impact evaluation: Midline
survey results
Principal Investigators:
Orazio Attanasio
Matthew Bird
Pablo Lavado

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Outline
LISTA Project
Context and motivation
Advantages of the tablet
Evaluating LISTA
Theory of change
Research design
Baseline analysis
Demographics
Savings and budgeting
Preferences
Preliminary midline results
Financial literacy
Financial practices
Financial performance

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LISTA Project

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Context and motivation
 3 of 4 newly banked (375 to 600 million people) have never
received any form of financial training (Deb & Kubzansky 2012)
 In-person or classroom-based interventions are difficult to scale
at low cost (Cohen & Nelson 2011) and can be ineffective
(Fernandes et al. 2014, Drexler et al. 2013)
 Alternative solutions include use of new channels, including
mobile phones, online courses, DVDs, videos, radio, and television
(Lundberg & Mulaj 2014; Berg & Zia 2013; Karlan et al. 2011;
Carpena et al. 2011).

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By “Freeing Financial Education” via a
tablet application
By “Freeing Financial Education” via a
tablet application
How to create a scalable,
customizable, efficacious solution?

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Advantages of tablets
Can work in
remote areas
Allows people to
train themselves
Simple user
design
Can rotate within the communities
taking advantage of local social
capital

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Register – Survey – Module Content – Program Information – Practice – Games

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Evaluating LISTA

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OF CHANGE
INPUTS OUTPUTS IMPACTS
Tablets
Printed material
SMS
Information on CCT
Financial information
 How to financially plan
 How to save
 Financial products
Acquire practice
 Using ATMs
 Using mobile-banking
CCT practices
Financial literacy
Financial practices
Financial
performance
Theory of change

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+ +
Use LISTATablet Financial Capability Kit SMS Rules ofThumb
1. Greater financial knowledge
2. Higher financial practice adoption
3. Better financial performance
Research hypotheses

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Municipalities
Treatment neighborhoods
Randomization

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Treatment
Control

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Evaluation process
Tablet SMS
DataCollection
BASELINE MIDLINE ENDLINE
TELEMETRIC
ADMINISTRATIVE
May 2015 October 2015 April 2016
Randomization

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Baseline analysis

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Sample characterization
Demographics
50% Rural
91% Women
Educational level:
 42% primary
 43% secundary education
Household structure:
 Mean size: 5,2
 Mean income contributers: 1,4
 14% with nobody working
Relation with financial
institutions
74% used an ATM at least once in
his life
82% physically withdrawn the
CCT
33% believe that cannot leave
any money in their CCT account

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Informal savings
82% physically withdrawn the cash
transfer
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
<15 15-30 30.1-75 75.1-150 150.1-260 260.1-300 300.1-600 >600
PIGGY BANK/HOUSE SAVINGS CHAIN PIGGY BANKS AND SAVINGS CHAIN
42% of the
sample save
money
informally

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Formal savings
82% physically withdrawn the cash
transfer
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
<15 15-30 30.1-75 75.1-150 150.1-260 260.1-300 300.1-600 >600
BANK COOPERATIVE SAVINGS GROUP MULTIPLE
18% of the
sample have
money saved
formally

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Budgeting practices
82% physically withdrawn the cash
transfer
No
17%
Share the
responsibility
16%
Yes
67%
Written
22%
Mentally
78%

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Today 7 months later
Intertemporal discount
Today 1 month later
34$
25$
25$
5%95%
25$
26%74%
34$
25$
29% 71%
25$
25$
20%80%

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Bank account Cash
Liquidity preference
25$25$
62%38%
31% of people
prefering cash would
switch with 34$

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Preliminary midline results

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Preliminary short term findings
IMPACT
• General financial knowledge
• Savings knowledge
• Budgeting knowledge
• Savings goal
• Number of people saving in a
bank
• Number of people saving in a
piggy bank
NO IMPACT
• Debts knowledge
• Number of people saving in a
cooperative
• Number of people saving in
savings group
FINANCIAL LITERACY
SAVINGS

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Preliminary short term findings
IMPACT
• Written budget
• Total amount of money saved
• Amount of money saved formally
• Amount of money saved
informally
NO IMPACT
• Responsible person for household
account management
FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE
BUDGETING

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Conclusions
Promising preliminary results:
improved savings habits
higher amounts of self-reported formal and informal savings
Final results will be analyzed to assess the impact of LISTA in the
medium- and longer-term together with robustness tests of the
midline analysis