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Suresh de Mel
Suresh de Mel is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics & Statistics of the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, where he has been serving since 2001.
Over the last 10 years, he has been involved in several research projects focusing on small-scale enterprises in Sri Lanka using randomised field experimentation methods. This includes examining the rate of return to capital in micro-enterprises, the effect of formal registration on the economic performance of informal enterprises, the effect of business training on female-run micro-enterprises, and the growth dynamics of micro-enterprises following labour, capital and human capital interventions. This work has been published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, Journal of Development Economics, American Economic Review, Economic Journal, Science, World Bank Economic Review and Social Science & Medicine.
More recently, he has been involved in two micro-savings research projects looking at the effect of deposit collection service using POS terminals and generating savings via a mobile phone linked bank account system.
He holds a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from American University, Washington D.C., and is a passed finalist of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), UK.
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How doorstep banking increased savings and income in Sri Lanka
Recent findings in development economics indicate that microloans are likely to perform best when accompanied by financial education, insurance, and savings products. This column presents evidence from an experiment in Sri Lanka, which involved offering saving accounts with door-to-door deposit collection services to otherwise unbanked rural households. It suggests that the programme incentivised participants to increase savings by increasing their income.
