Our last New and Noteworthy of the year includes new research on poverty rates in the US, racial disparities in retirement savings, and commitment savings devices in the Philippines.
- The African Development Bank released a new report on the state of financial inclusion on the continent, highlighting opportunities and challenges for expanding access to financial services for the poor.
- According to a new study from researchers at Columbia University, government safety net programs like food stamps and unemployment insurance helped reduce the percentage of Americans in poverty from 26 percent in 1967 to 16 percent in 2012. However, the economy by itself has failed to improve the lives of the very poor in that time period.
- The National Institute on Retirement Security released a study on the racial disparities in retirement savings - fewer than half of black and Latino workers have retirement plans on the job or benefit from tax breaks and policy incentives designed to increase savings, putting them at greater risk for downward mobility in retirement.
- In the latest installment of its Debt Inc. series, ProPublica explores the effect on payday loan recipients when their lenders decide to sue for money owed.
- On the World Bank blog this week were posts on the results of two new studies – one showing some evidence that increased access to financial services promotes microenterprise activity in Mexico and the other on commitment savings products in the Phillipines.
- In case you didn’t make it to London in October for the Financial Inclusion 2020 Forum, CFI published a magazine with a roundup of key sessions and forum highlights.
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