Kyle Holloway

Increasing Voluntary Savings Contributions in Colombia and Mexico

I led a portfolio of research projects in collaboration with the Colombian (Colpensiones) and Mexican (CONSAR) public pension systems, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and co-investigators (Dean Karlan, Jonathan Zinman, and Jake Kendall) aimed at increasing voluntary savings among low-income, informal workers. Our team conducted user-centered research to identify behavioral barriers to saving, co-designed targeted messaging strategies to address these barriers, and rigorously tested them in a series of rapidly deployed RCTs (A/B cycles) across ~1m participants. Our analysis and recommendations, shared regularly with senior leadership, led to direct program improvements (shift to goal-oriented messages) that were rolled out to millions of affiliates. The project’s success prompted further collaboration with Colpensiones, including innovating and evaluating the design of pension statements (scaled to 6.9m affiliates) and later the creation of an in-house innovation and experimentation unit, fostering a long-term, evidence-based decision-making culture within the institution.

• Increasing Voluntary Savings Contributions in Colombia
• Increasing Voluntary Savings Contributions in Mexico
• The Impact of Simplifying Pension Statements in Colombia

Tracking Colombians’ Experiences with COVID-19 and Measuring the Impact of Emergency Cash Assistance

At the onset of the global pandemic, I proposed a rapid-access data system to the Colombian National Planning Department to track households’ responses to the crisis and policy interventions. By April 2020, with an advisory board and funding in place, we launched a series of remote, low-cost surveys that produced rapid insights for government leaders as well as rigorously evaluating the effectiveness of two emergency cash-transfer programs (in collaboration with researchers at NYU, UCLA, the IDB, and IPA). The findings, demonstrating cost-effective impacts of the programs on income, food security, educational investment, and financial inclusion without negatively impacting employment, influenced Congress to extend timelines by 2 years and expand the budget by ~$4b, offering protection to ~4m Colombian households during the crisis.

• IPA Colombia RECOVR Survey
• The Impact of Emergency Cash Assistance in a Pandemic: Experimental Evidence from Colombia
• Impactos del programa Ingreso Solidario frente a la crisis del COVID-19 en Colombia

Measuring Global Financial Health

I led the development and implementation of an initiative to create a model, measurement framework, and survey tool for quantitatively assessing household financial health, globally. Between 2018 and 2019, in collaboration with researchers at IPA and Northwestern University, we tested the measurement tool in eight countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ghana, Peru, the Philippines, and Uganda.

• Measuring Financial Health around the Globe: Survey Manual
• Measuring Financial Health around the Globe