Impacts of Financial Literacy Training on Refugee Youth Outcomes

Abstract

As humanitarian assistance from international organizations transitions from in-kind- to cash- aid, and increasingly through digital payments, the importance of digital financial literacy to complement cash transfer programs has grown significantly. This paper evaluates the impact of a financial literacy training program on refugee youth outcomes in Uganda. We adopt an approach that closely emulates a natural experiment by leveraging the staggered geographic rollout of the program to identify its impacts. Using reduced-form econometric analyses, robust to various specifications, we find that participation in the training program is associated with significant positive effects on financial knowledge and financial behavior among young refugees. The findings are important because financial knowledge is essential for saving decisions, responsible borrowing, business operations, and various other life goals among refugees. Our results also suggest that the training program boosted youth’s confidence in terms of integrating with the host population.