Tying Odysseus to the Mast: Evidence From a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines
Dean Karlan, Nava Ashraf, Wesley Yin
Harvard College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Quarterly Journal of Economics
May 1, 2006
Dr. Dean Karlan, Dr. Nava Ashrad, and Dr. Wesley Yin conducted an experiment in Philippines, where they offered commitment savings products to a subset of 710 randomly selected clients of a Phillipine bank. Since after 12 months the average savings balances increased, this study demonstrated that commitment savings products can result in lasting change in savings beyond the initial, positive short-term response to the new product.
