@techreport{ab4a8785710148c4b685cb160536d2e5,
title = "E-Payment Technology and Business Finance: A Randomized Controlled Trial with Mobile Money (revision of CentER DP 2019-032)",
abstract = "We conducted a randomized controlled trial with small and medium-sized enterprises in Kenya to estimate the causal impact of an e-payment technology on business finance. Using an encouragement design, we exogenously increased e-payment usage among a random subset of firms by relaxing adoption transaction costs and information barriers. Sixteen months after the intervention, we find that the e-payment technology increased access to mobile loans (in number of loans, as well as in the amount borrowed) by at least 50% (0.17 sd), likely due to the reduction of information asymmetries brought by an increase in digital transactions. We find no effect of the e-payment technology on sales and profits, but we do find a reduction of sales volatility and precautionary investment, especially for smaller firms. This suggests that mobile loans help smaller firms cope with short-term negative shocks. We provide a stylized model of business finance that rationalizes these findings.",
keywords = "SME Finance, financial integration, Mobile-Money, E-Payments",
author = "Patricio Dalton and H. Pamuk and R. Ramrattan and {van Soest}, Daan and Burak Uras",
note = "CentER Discussion Paper Nr. 2022-031",
year = "2022",
month = nov,
day = "25",
language = "English",
volume = "2022-031",
series = "CentER Discussion Paper",
publisher = "CentER, Center for Economic Research",
type = "WorkingPaper",
institution = "CentER, Center for Economic Research",
}