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Featured research:
The Impacts of Saving
Is saving today the key to climbing out of poverty tomorrow?
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Featured research:
How can the poor afford microfinance?
Is microfinance a powerful tool to help the very poor, or does it do more harm than good for the poorest of the poor?
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Featured research:
Impact of credit
Examining the challenges researchers face in measuring the impact of microcredit.
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Featured research:
Psychology and Economics: what it means for microfinance
Revealing how the poor manage their money.
What's New
FAI Directors Jonathan Morduch and Dean Karlan will give plenary presentations at this inaugrual conference dedicated to expanding the delivery and access of financial services to poor people.
FAI Managing Director Jonathan Morduch talks to NPR's Marketplace about domestic microfinance.
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/
FAI Director Dean Karlan provides commentary for Marketplace on how microlending is a valuable tool, but how it needs creativity to keep growing.
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 ways 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
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