AEA round-up: papers to look out for

Chris Blattman did a nice job of highlighting some of the more interesting presentations from AEA. I would add two more:

Jonathan Morduch on "Borrowing to Save: Lessons from Portfolios of the Poor" (read the paper here), and Sendhil Mullainathan's talk on the threat of credit denial as a mechanism for MFIs to increase repayment rates (not public yet).

Morduch looks at why we have such a hard time rebuilding our savings after major withdrawals, and examines product innovations that could help address this problem (even going so far as to outline a situation where a high-interest loan could be desirable).

Mullainathan (and co-author Emily Breva) look at credit denial as a method of enforcing repayment. They conclude that while it could be problematic as an incentice mechanism for rational borrowers, for borrowers with self-control problems, credit can have a commitment value.