The paper examines effects of individual characteristics, household characteristics and impact of having a child in a household on usage of formal savings services in Malawi. The result of the paper suggests that individuals with certain characteristics do increase their chance of having at least one formal savings account and total amount in the saving account. Typically, males and household head have positive correlation. In addition, having a stable income occupation increases individuals’ usage of formal savings services. Lastly, there is negative effect on formal savings account if an individual has a child under 3 in the household. Data used in this paper is collected through field experiment in over 320 villages in Malawi.

Doctor of Philosophy / Family Studies and Human Services / Duane W. Crawford Jr / Farrell J. Webb / This investigation sought to examine the role of acculturation and generational theory and influenced social and cultural practices among Saudi Arabian students who were currently residing in the United States. Theoretically, it sought to answers questions that help determine how Americanization—the adaptation and acculturation of a visiting culture to absorb and incorporate the host culture into their lives, customs, and social practices, and in this case savings behavior. A comprehensive model was developed to test the idea that living in America can and does have an influence on social and cultural practices. What was of interest in this study was whether or not these same influences could have an impact on particular cultural practices, in this case how people felt about, reacted to, and addressed the concept of savings—the stockpiling of funds for future needs. Information was gathered from a sample of over 500 Saudi Arabian students living in the United States. The model as structured was tested using SEM analytic techniques in an effort to fully explore and expose the nuanced and subtle differences among the respondents. The concept of savings behavior being influenced by Americanization as originally discussed was not substantiated by the model even though some of the indicators were within expected parameters (χ² = 217.241, p < .001; CFI = 0.839, TLI = 0.732, RMSEA = 0.034). Despite the general problems the overall model revealed that at least 17% of what was termed as savings behavior could be explained by the model. The study still retained its value because it has made inroads into an area that has not yet been explored. Future investigations should take care to find better ways to incorporate some of the cultural elements of savings behavior directly into the instrument based on the perspective of their test populations rather than assume value in and use instruments tested and normed with US samples.

Submitted by Lidiane de Oliveira (lididuarte.oliveira@gmail.com) on 2017-05-30T14:17:09Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Lidiane_versão final.pdf: 1192433 bytes, checksum: 67cfa545ba2b857d12373b793715dea0 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by ÁUREA CORRÊA DA FONSECA CORRÊA DA FONSECA (aurea.fonseca@fgv.br) on 2017-05-30T19:33:58Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Lidiane_versão final.pdf: 1192433 bytes, checksum: 67cfa545ba2b857d12373b793715dea0 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-22T17:29:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Lidiane_versão final.pdf: 1192433 bytes, checksum: 67cfa545ba2b857d12373b793715dea0 (MD5) / Two thousand and fifty six Senegalese clients of a Microfinance Institution (MFI) participated in the experiment during four months. They were divided in three groups: a control group that did not receive any messages, and two treatment groups, one in which clients received generic messages that simply said they should save money, and another group in which clients received messages that referred to the savings behavior of individuals who live in their neighborhood. The goal of this study is to assess whether receiving additional information about other participants from the same area where the participants live (neighborhood social capital) affects savings behavior. The results of this study show no significant impact of generic messages on savings behavior. Social capital effectively encourages deposits, which also makes withdrawals more salient since the accounts are fully liquid, but only among female clients. Limited attention, psychological reactance, salience, and gender issues emerge as possible explanations.

Die Arbeit basiert auf fünf Aufsätzen. In diesen wird über vier Experimentserien berichtet, die das individuelle Entscheidungsverhalten von Versuchspersonen in ähnlichen, aber verschieden komplexen Situationen erheben. Es wird ein experimentelles Szenario vorgestellt, mit dessen Hilfe Rückschlüsse auf das Sparverhalten gezogen werden können. Es werden stilisierte Fakten des Verhaltens realer Entscheider identifiziert, die sich in solchen Situationen wesentlich vom rationalen Verhalten des "homo oeconomicus" unterscheiden. Eine der Experimentserien wurde im Internet durchgeführt, wobei zusätzlich generelle Aspekte von Internetexperimenten untersucht werden. / This thesis is based on five studies. These studies report on the individual behavior of experimental subjects in four experiments. The experimental situations are similar, but differ in their complexity. With the introduced experimental setup, one can draw conclusions about savings behavior. Stylized facts about the behavior of real decision makers are identified, which differ in such situations substantially from the rational behavior of the "homo oeconomicus". One of the experiments was conducted via the Internet. In this part also general aspects of Internet experiments are investigated.