WORKING PAPER “I feel in control when I’m “When I’m applying for a loan I “I get nervous that applying for a loan; I don’t feel nervous… I’m thinking about the they [clients] will ask have any doubt that I’ll possibility that it won’t be approved.” a lot of questions.” receive it.” “I worry that I won’t be approved, “We are afraid “It makes me feel good when that I don’t have the right papers, that clients will see the loan officer visits my that they’ll ask for a guarantor (which the insurance as an farm. They recognize that, I don’t have).” obligation; we’ve yes, we’re working hard.” lost loan clients “One feels she has less power because of this.” “I knew I would get the loan; because they know more than I do —Crezcamos loan I have good credit.” [about insurance], they have studies.” officers, reflecting on —Crezcamos borrowers who —Crezcamos borrowers who feel their insecurities early feel empowered during the loan disempowered during the loan or in the study when process insurance sales process offering the product to follow their advice, particularly those with low levels of education or who were nervous about having their loan approved. They understood that there are clients who feel less empowered than others. Specifically, they referred to some clients with low levels of education or clients who were nervous about having their loan approved as more willing to agree to their loan officer’s suggestions. In sum, although clients did not feel direct coercion or obligation to purchase the insurance, some may have felt some indirect pressure. This pressure may be felt particularly strongly by more vulnerable Crezcamos loan officers in Socorro, Santander clients, who are more likely to feel overwhelmed or intimidated by the loan process or by their lack of familiarity with insurance. 5.7. The unbundling intervention did not influence clients Separating the insurance offer from the loan application through the unbundling intervention did not impact take-up. The take-up rate was higher in the bundled offer group (24.5 percent) than in the separate offer group (20.9 percent), but the difference is not statistically significant (see Table 7). We analyzed the data using simple t-tests as well as more robust regression models; all suggest that the difference is not statistically significantly different from zero. We also estimated heterogeneous impacts by loan applicant’s gender, age, education level, loan size, and crop type.26 None of the regression coefficients was statistically significant, and the coefficients themselves vary little from subgroup to subgroup. 26. Although we find a statistically significant difference in take-up between the joint and separate offer group among transitory crop holders, this difference seems to be driven by lower perceived relevance at the later time, rather than from unbundling the offer from the loan application (see Section 5.3). 24