Jonathan Zinman
Biographic Data
| ID | 1620554 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jonathan Zinman |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jonathan |
| FAMILY NAME | Zinman |
| SIGNATURE | ZINMAN J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Dartmouth College |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 157 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Five-Year Impacts of Group-Based Financial Education and Savings Promotion for Ugandan Youth
We experimentally evaluate group-based financial education, savings account access, or both for members of Ugandan youth groups. We measure both short- and long-run impacts with one- and five-year endline household surveys. Education, but not account access, increases measured financial knowledge and trust at one year. At five years, knowledge effects essentially disappear, and trust effects weaken. However, savings and income increase for each t…
Good identification, meet good data
Price and control elasticities of demand for savings
Redefine statistical significance
Getting to the Top of Mind: How Reminders Increase Saving
We provide evidence from field experiments with three different banks that reminder messages increase commitment attainment for clients who recently opened commitment savings accounts. Messages that mention both savings goals and financial incentives are particularly effective, whereas other content variations such as gain versus loss framing do not have significantly different effects. Nor do we find evidence that receiving additional late remin…
Microcredit Impacts: Evidence from a Randomized Microcredit Program Placement Experiment by Compartamos Banco
We use a clustered randomized trial, and over 16,000 household surveys, to estimate impacts at the community level from a group lending expansion at 110 percent APR by the largest microlender in Mexico. We find no evidence of transformative impacts on 37 outcomes (although some estimates have large confidence intervals), measured at a mean of 27 months post-expansion, across 6 domains: microentrepreneurship, income, labor supply, expenditures, so…
Six Randomized Evaluations of Microcredit: Introduction and Further Steps
Causal evidence on microcredit impacts informs theory, practice, and debates about its effectiveness as a development tool. The six randomized evaluations in this volume use a variety of sampling, data collection, experimental design, and econometric strategies to identify causal effects of expanded access to microcredit on borrowers and/or communities. These methods are deployed across an impressive range of locations—six countries on four conti…
Follow the money not the cash: Comparing methods for identifying consumption and investment responses to a liquidity shock
Savings by and for the Poor: A Research Review and Agenda
The poor can and do save, but often use formal or informal instruments that have high risk, high cost, and limited functionality. This could lead to undersaving compared to a world without market or behavioral frictions. Undersaving can have important welfare consequences: variable consumption, low resilience to shocks, and foregone profitable investments. We lay out five sets of constraints that may hinder the adoption and effective usage of sav…
Microcredit in Theory and Practice: Using Randomized Credit Scoring for Impact Evaluation
A randomized controlled trial reveals both expected and surprising effects of microcredit.
List randomization for sensitive behavior: An application for measuring use of loan proceeds
Expanding Credit Access: Using Randomized Supply Decisions to Estimate the Impacts
Expanding access to commercial credit is a key ingredient of financial development strategies. There is less consensus on whether expanding access to consumer credit helps borrowers, particularly when loans are extended at high interest rates. Popular skepticism about “unproductive,” “usurious” lending is fueled by research highlighting behavioral biases that may induce overborrowing. We estimate the impacts of expanding access to consumer credit…
Small individual loans and mental health: A randomized controlled trial among South African adults
Our findings suggest that a mechanism used to reduce the economic stress of extremely poor individuals can have mixed effects on their experiences of psychological stress and depressive symptomatology. Our data support the notion that mental health should be included as a measure of success (or failure) when examining potential tools for poverty alleviation. Further longitudinal research is needed in South Africa and other settings to understand …
Social and economic correlates of depressive symptoms and perceived stress in South African adults
OBJECTIVES: Adults in South Africa demonstrate rates of mental illness at or above levels elsewhere in the developing world. Yet there is a research gap regarding the social context surrounding mental health in this region. The objective of this analysis was to characterize the prevalence and correlates of depressive symptoms and perceived stress among a heterogeneous South African population. METHODS: Low-income adults (n = 257) in Capetown, Por…
Redefine statistical significance
Social and economic correlates of depressive symptoms and perceived stress in South African adults
OBJECTIVES: Adults in South Africa demonstrate rates of mental illness at or above levels elsewhere in the developing world. Yet there is a research gap regarding the social context surrounding mental health in this region. The objective of this analysis was to characterize the prevalence and correlates of depressive symptoms and perceived stress among a heterogeneous South African population. METHODS: Low-income adults (n = 257) in Capetown, Por…
List randomization for sensitive behavior: An application for measuring use of loan proceeds
Price and control elasticities of demand for savings
Follow the money not the cash: Comparing methods for identifying consumption and investment responses to a liquidity shock
Good identification, meet good data
Small individual loans and mental health: A randomized controlled trial among South African adults
Our findings suggest that a mechanism used to reduce the economic stress of extremely poor individuals can have mixed effects on their experiences of psychological stress and depressive symptomatology. Our data support the notion that mental health should be included as a measure of success (or failure) when examining potential tools for poverty alleviation. Further longitudinal research is needed in South Africa and other settings to understand …
Social and economic correlates of depressive symptoms and perceived stress in South African adults
OBJECTIVES: Adults in South Africa demonstrate rates of mental illness at or above levels elsewhere in the developing world. Yet there is a research gap regarding the social context surrounding mental health in this region. The objective of this analysis was to characterize the prevalence and correlates of depressive symptoms and perceived stress among a heterogeneous South African population. METHODS: Low-income adults (n = 257) in Capetown, Por…
Expanding Credit Access: Using Randomized Supply Decisions to Estimate the Impacts
Expanding access to commercial credit is a key ingredient of financial development strategies. There is less consensus on whether expanding access to consumer credit helps borrowers, particularly when loans are extended at high interest rates. Popular skepticism about “unproductive,” “usurious” lending is fueled by research highlighting behavioral biases that may induce overborrowing. We estimate the impacts of expanding access to consumer credit…
Microcredit in Theory and Practice: Using Randomized Credit Scoring for Impact Evaluation
A randomized controlled trial reveals both expected and surprising effects of microcredit.
List randomization for sensitive behavior: An application for measuring use of loan proceeds
Savings by and for the Poor: A Research Review and Agenda
The poor can and do save, but often use formal or informal instruments that have high risk, high cost, and limited functionality. This could lead to undersaving compared to a world without market or behavioral frictions. Undersaving can have important welfare consequences: variable consumption, low resilience to shocks, and foregone profitable investments. We lay out five sets of constraints that may hinder the adoption and effective usage of sav…
Microcredit Impacts: Evidence from a Randomized Microcredit Program Placement Experiment by Compartamos Banco
We use a clustered randomized trial, and over 16,000 household surveys, to estimate impacts at the community level from a group lending expansion at 110 percent APR by the largest microlender in Mexico. We find no evidence of transformative impacts on 37 outcomes (although some estimates have large confidence intervals), measured at a mean of 27 months post-expansion, across 6 domains: microentrepreneurship, income, labor supply, expenditures, so…
Six Randomized Evaluations of Microcredit: Introduction and Further Steps
Causal evidence on microcredit impacts informs theory, practice, and debates about its effectiveness as a development tool. The six randomized evaluations in this volume use a variety of sampling, data collection, experimental design, and econometric strategies to identify causal effects of expanded access to microcredit on borrowers and/or communities. These methods are deployed across an impressive range of locations—six countries on four conti…
Follow the money not the cash: Comparing methods for identifying consumption and investment responses to a liquidity shock
Getting to the Top of Mind: How Reminders Increase Saving
We provide evidence from field experiments with three different banks that reminder messages increase commitment attainment for clients who recently opened commitment savings accounts. Messages that mention both savings goals and financial incentives are particularly effective, whereas other content variations such as gain versus loss framing do not have significantly different effects. Nor do we find evidence that receiving additional late remin…
Price and control elasticities of demand for savings
Redefine statistical significance
Good identification, meet good data
Five-Year Impacts of Group-Based Financial Education and Savings Promotion for Ugandan Youth
We experimentally evaluate group-based financial education, savings account access, or both for members of Ugandan youth groups. We measure both short- and long-run impacts with one- and five-year endline household surveys. Education, but not account access, increases measured financial knowledge and trust at one year. At five years, knowledge effects essentially disappear, and trust effects weaken. However, savings and income increase for each t…
Economics (11 works) · Financial Literacy, Pension, Retirement Analysis (8 works) · Microfinance and Financial Inclusion (8 works) · Business (7 works) · Actuarial science (5 works) · Economic growth (5 works) · Computer Science (4 works) · Econometrics (4 works) · Finance (4 works) · Finance (4 works)