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Good practice Imported

ADOPEM's Rule-of-Thumb Financial Literacy Training for Santo Domingo Microentrepreneurs

Dominican Republic · Santo Domingo · See the Dominican Republic profile · See the Santo Domingo profile

Evidence: Randomised controlled trial Top 74% 57/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

A 2006–2008 RCT with 1,193 Banco ADOPEM clients in Santo Domingo tested simplified 'rule-of-thumb' financial training against standard accounting courses. Rule-of-thumb trainees were 6–12 points more likely to keep records and separate business from personal finances.

6–12 percentage points
Increase in record-keeping likelihood, rule-of-thumb vs. comparison
1,193 (402 standard accounting, 404 rule-of-thumb, 387 comparison)
Trial participants (2006–2008)

Details

Promoter
Banco ADOPEM
Period
2006–2008
Keywords
microfinance, financial literacy, SME bookkeeping

Context

Banco ADOPEM, a Dominican Republic microfinance institution, worked with researchers to randomise 1,193 existing Santo Domingo clients into a standard accounting course, a simplified 'rule-of-thumb' financial-heuristics course, or a no-training comparison group between November 2006 and July 2008.

Results

Clients who received the rule-of-thumb training were 6 to 12 percentage points more likely than the comparison group to keep accounting records and separate business from personal finances, with the advantage concentrated among entrepreneurs who started with the weakest financial skills.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k)
Time to results
Short (< 1 year)
Staffing & skills
ADOPEM training-centre instructors

Conditions for success

  • teaching simplified financial heuristics ('rules of thumb') instead of standard double-entry accounting

Common failure modes

  • benefits were concentrated among entrepreneurs with the weakest initial financial skills; already-organised clients gained little extra from either course

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Data sources

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