

Silvia Prina is a development economist interested in understanding the behavior of poor households for the purpose of uncovering potential strategies to improve their lives. Her first set of papers investigates how financial access, particularly via savings accounts (mobile and not) and digital credit, can affect the saving and investment behavior, networks, preferences, cognitive ability, mental health, and aspirations of the poor. A second set of papers investigates the determinants of investments in human capital and health. Her works feature rigorous empirical methods and the implementation of unique, randomized interventions to answer questions of central importance in development economics. She has been and is working on several field experiments in Mexico and Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the U.S.
Recent work by Silvia Prina
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Slowing down digital loans to speed up repayment: Evidence from Mexico
While digital credit broadens market access and reduces frictions in developing countries, default rates are often high. In Mexico, reducing loan speed—by doubling delivery time—decreased the likelihood of default significantly. Such waiting periods ...
Published 15.04.25
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Is faster always better? Evidence from Mexico’s digital credit market
Access to fast cash through digital credit may put consumers at risk for over-indebtedness and likelihood of default
Published 01.02.21