The Economics of Financial Innovations and Social Networks in Sub-Saharan Africa

Uninsured risk continues to be a significant barrier to investment and asset accumulation for low wealth households, and arguably, is a major driver of poverty traps. In response, there has been a recent push to develop and scale innovative financial products to manage risk. I explore financial innovations which leverage insights from behavioral economics and novelties in information and communication technologies. I particularly focus on the impact of such formal financial innovations on existing networks, as well as the impact of these networks on the adoption of these financial innovations. In the essays in this dissertation, I study the interaction of formal risk mitigating microfinance with existing informal networks using two separate randomized controlled trials (RCTs): one implemented in Kenya, and another in Burkina Faso and Senegal. In Chapter 1, I provide a brief description of behavioral economics and network economics, as well as their origins.;In Chapter 2, I study the effect of improved access to microsavings on informal risk-sharing arrangements (IRSAs). In the absence of formal markets to manage risk, individuals often rely on state-contingent and mutual interpersonal transfers, otherwise known as IRSAs. Theoretically, improved access to savings can lead to substitution away from informal risk-sharing arrangements (IRSAs), which can reduce the capacity to manage risk. I estimate the effect of a randomly assigned microsavings account, labeled for emergency expenses, on IRSAs between vulnerable women in Kenya. The microsavings initiative reduced risk-sharing and the reduction in interpersonal transfers was unique to IRSAs. However, I show that reduced risk-sharing did not reduce the capacity to manage risk. Improved access to savings directly improved the ability of women to cope with negative shocks, and had no adverse spillover effects on the untreated.;In Chapter 3, I reverse the direction of the analysis and study the effect of social networks (or peers) on the adoption and usage of the same microsavings account in Kenya. The lack of knowledge about the benefits of a new technology can hinder individuals to adopt the technology. I study two sources of learning about a novel microsavings account, and their implications for the usage of the account. I find evidence for both independent learning and social learning, but I find differences in how these sources of learning affect account usage. Receiving account benefits increased knowledge about account features. Moreover, this independent learning led to an increase in account usage. To measure social learning, I distinguish the subset of peers who provide information about financial products. These peers increased one's knowledge about account features, but then consequently decreased account usage. This indicates that the overall social effect on adoption and usage need not be positive even if there are positive social learning effects, and more broadly that we should be cautious when leveraging social networks to diffuse information.;In Chapter 4, I study both directions of the analysis in a different context. I use an experiment conducted simultaneously in Burkina Faso and Senegal to study the impact of financial innovations on networks and the impact of networks on the adoption of these innovations. Each person in a sample of small-holder farmers was randomly assigned one of four financial products: index insurance, and three savings products which varied in the level of commitment and the purpose it was labeled for. Insurance was more effective at increasing purchases of farm inputs compared to savings, but individuals chose to save more than to purchase insurance. I observe larger positive spillover welfare effects from a financial product that did not greatly restrict liquidity compared to one that did, consistent with the results from Chapter 2. Unlike Chapter 3, I find that peers increase the demand for a low commitment savings product, suggesting the possibility for strategic complementarity in this particular context.