Week of January 18, 2016

1. Housing Instability:  Ellen Seidman, senior fellow at the Urban Institute, discusses the role of housing instability for the latest post in SSIR's ongoing blog and webinar series. Seidman points out that even if regulation helps to preserve America's limited stock of affordable housing, household income volatility requires changes to housing finance programs. Stanford Social Innovation Review

2. Digital Divide: The focus of the 2016 World Development Report is the economic impact (or lack thereof) of digital technologies. The report finds developing countries have on aggregate missed out on major economic gains from the rapid proliferation of mobile phones and other digital technologies, despite the promise of growth. The World Bank

3. Financial Inclusion: American Express announced plans to close most of its enterprise growth division, tasked with reaching lower income customers, with the exception of debit cards for the unbanked. Bloomberg Business

4. Cash Transfers: Even if "humanitarian agencies should...be asking, 'why not unconditional cash transfers?'", Why Dev  there is still need for caution when designing cash transfer programs. Vox

5. Savings Groups: The story of a savings group pilot program in the DRC is a good reminder of the challenges faced when converting theory into practice. The Guardian

View fullsize