• Philippines: Women Saving

    Featured research:

    Women Saving
    — Saving Women

    A look at how holding a savings account in her name can change a woman’s life.

    Read More
  • South Africa: Price is right

    Featured research:

    Price is Right - Interest Rate Elasticity and Demand

    Challenging the assumption that the poor are insensitive to changes in interest rates.

    Read More
  • Indonesia: Unbanked

    Featured research:

    Indebted or Indifferent - Understanding the unbanked

    Are the unbanked creditworthy? Or just not interested in borrowing?

    Read More
  • South Africa: Consumer Lending

    Featured research:

    In Praise of Consumer Lending

    Shedding some light on the controversy surrounding the use of consumer credit in financial access expansion initiatives.

    Read More

What's New

may & july 1, '08: Evaluation of Social Programs by J-PAL
The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) will hold week-long classes on “Evaluation of Social Programs” in Cambridge-US (May 27-31), Chennai-India (July 28 to August 1) and Paris-France (May 26-30 - in French). J-PAL is a research institute based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Application deadline for the Cambridge and the Paris courses is March 15, 2008. http://www.povertyactionlab.org/course/2008/
MAY 13, '08: Dean Karlan featured on Marketplace
FAI Director Dean Karlan provides commentary for Marketplace on how microlending is a valuable tool, but how it needs creativity to keep growing.
april 25, '08: FAI speaks to the Bank of Mexico
The Bank of Mexico will hold a conference on Evaluation Methods, where Anna York from FAI and Tania Alfonso from Innovations for Poverty Action, Peru, will present on randomized control trial evaluation methodology and types and examples of impact studies. They will specifically discuss FAI/IPA's Business Education study from Peru. Click here for the presentations.
April 19, '08: Jonathan Morduch weighs in on Grameen America
FAI Managing Director Jonathan Morduch talkes to The National on Grameen Bank's arrival in Queens, NY, and the challenges and opportunities it will face.

Background

The Financial Access Initiative (FAI) is a consortium of researchers at NYU, Yale, Harvard and IPA focused on finding answers to how financial sectors can better meet the needs of poor households. 

Financial access holds the promise to help low-income individuals in developing countries manage their economic lives and build wealth. The Initiative aims to provide rigorous research on the impacts of financial access and on innovative was to improve access.

The Initiative was launched with core funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to the NYU Wagner Graduate School. Research by FAI researchers is also supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation, The World Bank, CGAP, and other organizations.

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Research Questions

  • How can the poor generate sufficient returns to pay for loans? How does this differ by region and/or population?
  • Do clients understand the terms of the contract?
  • What are the drivers of demand?
  • How does the demand for savings products and loan products vary by income?
  • How great is the impact of financial services? What mixes of products deliver the greatest impacts?
  • What is the impact of savings products on incomes, stability, and investment?

Research Highlight

Groundbreaking Financial Access Initiative research highlighted in the Economist. Financial Access Initiative researcher, Dean Karlan, and his co-author Jonathan Zinman of Dartmouth, have shed some light on the debate surrounding the use of consumer credit (often referred to as "pay day lending") in financial access expansion initiatives. Read it here.

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