Communication Cost Substitution Channel
RCTClinical Trial
Transmitting spending intentions via traditional voice calls or separate paid messaging incurs financial and time costs for migrants, which can reduce communication frequency regarding financial choices and allocation goals.
Picture this
Instead of placing an expensive international phone call every time you send money home to explain what it is for, you send a free automated text message attached directly to the transfer notification, saving you money on your mobile phone bill.
What the evidence says
Access to automated in-app labeling and messaging (via free SMS, WhatsApp, or Messenger) [1] caused a statistically significant reduction in household phone and communication expenditures (-0.344 log points, p < 0.05) [7, 8].
- Who was studied
- 1,377 paired migrant and recipient household survey responses in the Philippines [3].
- How
- OLS intent-to-treat regression assessing endline target household expenditure changes in communication services [6, 7].
What to do
Embed automated transaction notification messaging into financial apps to reduce personal communication expenditures between migrants and recipients.
From the source
"There is a reduction in phone and communication expenditures, which may be due to the labeling messaging reducing the need for phone or communication expenditures."
A Field Experiment among Filipino Migrant Workers in the UAE