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Many of our seminars and public events this year will continue as in person or as hybrid (online and in person) events.

Please check our website listings and social media feeds @STICERD_LSE at X and @LSE-STICERD-CASE at Bluesky for updates.

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Unless otherwise specified, in-person seminars are open to the public. Please ensure you have informed the event contact as early as possible.

Those unable to join the seminars in-person are welcome to participate via zoom if the event is hybrid.

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About this event

Low-income workers face acute liquidity shortfalls between regular pay cycles that often necessitate reliance on expensive informal credit. We conducted a randomized controlled trial of earned wage access, which allows workers to draw already-earned wages between paychecks, in a sample of low-income Indian workers. Take-up was 34 percent, concentrated among the most financially stressed workers. Informal borrowing fell 33 percent, while total borrowing was unchanged. Treated workers were 32 percent less likely to report difficulty making ends meet. Relative to control, turnover fell 21 percent; productivity rose 8 percent overall and over 20 percent among financially stressed workers; and total earnings rose 12 percent. Firm return-on-investment was over 600 percent.