This edition features everything from posts about where the next microfinance crisis will likely strike to new articles from Jeff Sachs and Bill Easterly and much more.
- Cory Doctorow interviews Financial Times columnist Tim Harford about his new book Adapt
- David Roodman analyses data to pinpoint the next microfinance crisis, for the June edition of Beyond Profits
- Karuna Krishnaswamy examines “Microfinance in India: What caused the mass defaults in Karnataka and what can we learn from it?” for CGAP
- Interesting piece on customized mobile apps to connect the ultra-poor to funding opportunities
- New article from Karlan and Appel: “You Can't Always Get What You Want” for Foreign Policy
- From JPAL: Charging small fees dramatically reduces access to important products for the poor
- FAI’s Barbara Kiviat makes a call for better language: what does microfinance really mean?
- Contrary to Bill Easterly's thesis on economic growth under autocrats, Jeff Sachs looks to “Nigeria's Historic Opportunity" for development under a less autocratic ruler
- Microfinance Focus on microfinance for water and sanitation: lofty dream or wave of the future?
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