Five Questions on YouthSave’s Research in Ghana

Question 1: What are the main objectives of the research in Ghana?

The objective of the Ghana research experiment is to understand how the YouthSave intervention impacts youth development. Specifically, the research aims to measure the uptake, savings outcomes, experiences, and impact of youth-tailored savings accounts at the institutional level. The research also will evaluate the effects of the YouthSave Enidaso account on youth outcomes, including health, educational, psychological, and financial. To this end, together with our partners at the Institute of Statistical, Social, and Economic Research (ISSER) at the University of Ghana, we have planned at least two data collection points: baseline and follow-up. Given the enthusiasm and expertise of our research partners at ISSER, we are confident the successful data collection at the beginning of the project will also be effectively replicated in 2014. This will allow us to continue to obtain quality data that will provide insight into how the YouthSave intervention may or may not have impacted development outcomes.

Question 2: The Ghana research experiment is a cluster randomized design. Why did you choose this framework?

Our main research goal was to build on current studies to advance the knowledge base of the broader field. Many assets and savings-related studies have covered the first step of establishing relationships between assets and potential health, educational, and psychological outcomes, but they have focused on short-term impacts. To build on what we know without reinventing the wheel, the important next step in this body of work was to get closer to testing long-term effects of youth savings. This meant creating a rigorous research design that allowed us to test long-term outcomes for an entire country without compromising the experimental framework ideal for assessing impacts.

Our major concern was to minimize possible diffusion of the effects of the YouthSave intervention to all project participants, whereby we would not be able to say with sufficient confidence that the results were due to the YouthSave intervention. An efficient and scientifically appropriate way to address this risk was to assign entire clusters of schools randomly to either the treatment or control conditions, one of the best practices in the scientific field for minimizing the risk of being able to say with certainty that the results are not due to the YouthSave intervention. It also would allow us to understand group-level factors (i.e., school- and bank-level factors) that may affect individual saving behaviors. Very few savings-related studies focus on group-level predictors of saving performance.

Question 3: How is this research unique from other efforts in this field? YouthSave is the first savings-related project with a strong research design that allows rigorous examination of potentially causal relationships between youth savings and development outcomes. The research method—from the cluster randomized design, student random assignment, and longitudinal data to the large sample size for adequate statistical power—sets the Ghana Experiment apart from other youth saving studies, many of which are evaluated with smaller sample sizes and mostly without randomization. Another distinguishing feature is that it employs multiple methods by combining survey questionnaires, savings demand assessment (i.e., a savings monitoring mechanism), and integrated case studies to better understand and explain results. All of this work is possible because of the collaborative partnership with researchers at ISSER.

Question 4: What are the most interesting findings out of the Ghana experiment so far? Has anything surprised you?

We have gathered only pre-intervention data thus far, so we are unable to draw conclusions about the impact of savings yet. However, even at this early stage, we are already gleaning enormous insight about Ghanaian youth and their parents’ educational, health, and financial lives. Below are some of our early findings:

Relating to financial capability 1. Parents and youth judge themselves to be active money managers. 2. Parents and youth have favorable views of savings and financial institutions, but they appear to lack experience with both.
3. Most youth save but for short durations and for immediate needs, such as school supplies. 4. Boys have and save more money and have a little more experience with banks. 5. Most youth have received only a few hours of financial education, mainly from their parents.

Relating to education 1. Academically, youth in lower income (i.e., northern) regions perform equally as well as—and in some cases better than—those in less deprived regions. 2. Working does not affect academic performance, contrary to what conventional wisdom would argue. 3. Youth concerned that financial constraints could interfere with their education tend to save more.

Relating to health 1. Most youth have negative attitudes toward sex at a young age and positive attitudes toward HIV prevention. 2.The majority of youth believe condoms are an effective way to prevent HIV/AIDS infections.

Relating to future orientation, expectations, and aspirations 1. Fathers have higher academic expectations for their children than mothers. 2. Parents’ and youths’ expectations are consistent. 3. Youths’ academic expectations are positively associated with math and English scores.

Question 5: What should we look for next from the research in Ghana?

We look forward to collecting follow-up data in 2014 to evaluate the impact of the YouthSave intervention on youth savings, asset accumulation, and a wide range of social, health, financial, psychological, and educational outcomes. In the meantime, we will continue to analyze rich data points from the baseline survey to learn more about youth in our sample and youth in similar socio-economic situations throughout the developing world using advanced statistical methods.