A long list of things we’ve been reading online over the past month. Let us know if we missed anything important via comments. Happy holiday reading!
- Tim Besley reviews Poor Economics, More Than Good Intentions, & Portfolios of the Poor in Foreign Affairs
- "Latest findings from Randomized Evaluations of Microfinance," a new paper from CGAP, FAI, IPA and J-PAL
- David Roodman explains the Pitt & Khandker debate and “The Logging Business” and “Six Distinctions in Mapping the Landscape of Data and Research” in microfinance j.mp/vkrYWP
- M-CRIL's in-depth analysis of Andhra Pradesh crisis
- NYT's Vikas Bajaj on resignation of SKS microfinance 's Vikram Akula
- “SKS to Add Financial Services to Microfinance as Founder Quits” - Business Week
- "Microsave asks clients: How are you coping in AP without MFIs?" Not so well apparently.
- The Wall Street Journal on “Are India's poorest catching up?”
- Who should regulate India's microfinance sector?
- “Do we still need a microfinance bill?” asks M.S. Sriram at Livemint.com
- “Lords of Poverty Struggle to Survive” and the demise of microfinance from the Business Standard
- Microsave’s new report: Analysis of Financial Institutions Riding M-PESA Railsand a summary from David Roodman: Immobile Money: M-PESA's Early Struggles as Financial Service Platform
- "Why small is not beautiful when it comes to savings?" from the IFMR Trust
- What Americans can Learn from others: "Global Lessons for Better Savings Habits"
- Esther Duflo: "Women Empowerment and Economic Development"
- The Economist weighs in on evaluating the MillenniumVillages
- A Kenyan Economist Offers the First Independent and Rigorous Evaluation of the Millennium Villages Project
- Owen Barder and the open data revolution
- "Nudge thyself--economists have more to learn to claim a realistic model of human behavior" on the Financial Times
- IPA Research Affiliate Eldar Shafir delivers this TED talk examining decision making under conditions of scarcity
- William Easterly in the Guardian: "A firewall should be built between USAid and the defence department"
- Great overview of the development blogging sector in 2011
- “Hey girl, international development Ryan Gosling” is not to be missed. HT @aidwatch
- Chris Blattman on “The publication bias problem (and the redemption of Blattman?)”
- Why development research often gets it wrong: "A little thing called general equilibrium"
- How should economics lecturers respond to the recent Greg Mankiw walk-out?
Editor’s Note: I’m going to assume that you are seeing plenty of AI content (news and papers, not AI slop, though I’m sure you’re getting plenty of that too) from other sources, so I’m trying to think hard about the marginal value that the faiV can provide. As far as I’ve gotten so far: a) make sure that directly AI-related content does not take up more than 2 of the 5 items, and b) try to focus specifically on the cybersecurity issue for financial inclusion. Beyond that, I’m open to feedback on the value you get from the faiV in relation to AI to help guide us in the future. On a different note, I’ll be making a brief cameo appearance at the e-MFP Inclusive Finance Conference to moderate the opening plenary. If you haven’t registered, do so and I hope to see you there! - Tim Ogden