A guide to articles, papers and blogs we've been reading (and a few we've been writing) over the past few weeks. Let us know if we've missed anything important via the comments section.
- The rich got richer. Everyone else...didn't. New report on 2009-2011 wealth this week from Pew Research
- Do schooling effects of cash transfer programs vary by poverty levels? It depends via @WorldBank
- Learning from cross-disciplinary impact evaluation: the Family Rewards CCT program in New York City via @WorldBank
- Open Letter from mobilemoney expert to conference organisers telling them to end obsession with MPesa
- Geek Heretic explains why technology can't solve the poverty problem via @TheHumanosphere HT@aidwatch
- "Financial literacy is a bunch of hooey" in the Guardian's Money Blog
- Flaws Are Cited in a Landmark Study on Debt and Growth via @nytimes
- Can a little sugar turn people into better financial decision-makers? working paper from Kuhn, Kuhn &Villeval
- Why don't people buy microinsurance? Trust and liquidity constraints are 2 reasons among many.
- Event: Microfinance's lessons for impact investing panel at Microlumbia's conference May 3 featuring FAI's Timothy Ogden
Editors’ Note: Hi, Laura and Jonathan here. A few of the pieces this week come from people who spent years up close with how poor households actually handle money, and keep coming back with something more tangled than the story usually told, and more persistent. Tim will be back for the next edition. - Laura Freschi and Jonathan Morduch