Week of August 8, 2011

Here are a few of the blogs and articles we have been reading this week:

• Has Muhammad Yunus been a more influential intellectual than Richard Dawkins and Paul Krugman? Tyler Cowen on which intellectuals have influence.
• Barbara Ehrenreich: Poverty is becoming a crime, almost literally. 
• Foreign Policy on culture matters, but it changes faster than you think. 
• David Roodman blogs about: Working Papers ARE Working---And Will Work Better If They Show Their Work. 
• A scientific study from the World Bank’s David Mckenzie and Berk Ozler: The impact of economics blogs.

Week of July 25, 2011

Articles and blogs that we found interesting this week include:

• Interesting piece of behavioral psychology re: The Emotions of Aid [and our choice to ignore massive suffering].
• Ignacio Mas and Promoting Formal Financial Savings –another cautionary note on savings and an interesting companion Tim Ogden’s “Is Savings Over-hyped” recent post on FAI. 
• Unhappy news about one of India's great microfinance innovators, which is on the verge of closure. 
• The Poverty Matters Blog on linguistic shifts from the use of “aid” to “development co-operation” –and what it means. 
• Four obvious but wrong assumptions about technology use in the developing world.
• McKinsey Quarterly new report: Mobile India could lead the world. 
• CGAP presents a roadmap to India's microfinance bill.

Week of July 21, 2011

Articles and blogs we've been reading this week:

• Tom Murphy worries about aid bloggers group think. 
• Hat tip to Chris Blattman for bringing our attention to Harvard's Gary King and his article on the future of social sciences
• As R&D budgets are being slashed, the Atlantic Magazine's Alex Madrigal ponders the question "Can science survive the 'Age of Austerity?'"
• “Taking Stock” of the financial education landscape for the poor, a new report from the MasterCard Foundation and what works and doesn't. 
• The Nation Magazine excerpts "What Makes Life Good?" (from Martha Nussbaum's Creating Capabilities), an insightful piece on creating equitable economic growth. 
• Mother Jones on Elizabeth Warren being passed over for the CFPB Post and more on Richard Cordray, President Obama's nominee for the position.

Week of July 7, 2011

Articles, blogs and commentary that we’ve been reading or listening to in the past week:

• Draft microfinance bill gives RBI total control and puts sector under strict watch 
• Global Poverty Rate Falling according to the UN
• Esther Duflo on the power of data in decision making and, interestingly, aid as venture capitalism
• Interview with Susan Davis at BRAC on her history with microfinance, standing up to dictatorship in Bangladesh, and more 
• An "MBA" for the Bottom of the Pyramid
• Owven Barder on what the "dollar a day" poverty line really means 
• The Talk of Groningen: Milford Bateman and David Roodman go head-to-head

Week of June 20, 2011

• Part 1 of Timothy Ogden’s extended interview with Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo is now up 
• An overview of current state of mobile phone use & services in East Africa 
• Monetary Theory and Mobile Banking - Lessons from Kenya 
• The MLK project on “Is there a business case for microinsurance?” 
• Richard Thaler on smarter public policy in new McKQuarterly
• Reaching the Poor and Very Poor with Appropriate Savings Services
• The problem of WIZZIT vs. the success of M-PESA in serving the BOP 
• New info re: low-income client financial behavior. Very useful for mobile money productdesign
• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau likely to be driven by Warren's tenets
• Jonathan Morduch's recent Science article in its entirety and unedited: “Why Finance Matters,” a commentary on Karlan & Zinman Philippines microfinance study also published in Science (gated)
• Ignacio Mas contrasts 2 e-payment Success Stories: PayPal and M-PESA 
• "The Microfinance Contagion Scenario" by Timothy Ogden and David Roodman’s response and disagreement with the piece

Week of June 2, 2011

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?

Week of May 16, 2011

Here is our short list of must reads for the week.

• FAI’s Jonathan Morduch and Barbara Kiviat preview the launch of a new research project on the financial lives of low-income Americans
• Two trends in global poverty --New report from Brookings 
• A new report from the World Economic Forum on mobile finance
• The NYT and "India’s Anti-Poverty Programs Are Big but Troubled"
• Tina Rosenberg on Microinsurance for the NYT Fixes blog 
• The Wall Street Journal on Financial Inclusion 2.0 & the need to focus microsavings 
• Stuart Rutherford on "Saving Up is Hard to Do"
• David Bornstein on "A Book In Every Home, and Then Some" for the NYT Fixesblog.
• Gift Cards as Tools of Financial Inclusion 
• Karlan and Appel on "Microfinance works, even without a Hollywood ending" 
• Nick Kristof on smarter aid, economists, and Michael Kremer's work on deworming
• Is credit a human right? Yunus says yes. NYU's Gershman and Morduchdisagree in a new paper
• In letter to 8 million Grameen members, Yunus warns of gov attempt to take over  
• Regulatory Architecture of India’s Financial System

Week of May 12, 2011

Links we’ve been reading this week.

• MIX looks into what effect the RBI's new regulation will have on MFIs in the future.
• The Business Standard: SKS sues Andhra Pradesh in Supreme Court, argues 2010 law unconstitutional.
• The Financial Express: Bad news for microfinance: Bangladesh government to amend 1983 ordinance & assert control over Grameen Bank. 
• Microfinance Focus: An exclusive interview with the director of the financial innovator KGFS.  
• From the Independent: "Why the dream of microfinance is turning sour."  
• Microfinance Horizon: "Evaluating the L/T Impact of Antipoverty Interventions in Bangladesh: An Overview" 
• The Economic Times: "MFIs witness talent drain; find it tough to retain senior professionals"

Week of May 9, 2011

This is our weekly round-up of stories and reports that piqued our curiosity. Please add any suggested “must reads” that have been missed via comments.

• Check out the latest in Savings and Microfinance Research
• Savings as Forward Payments: Innovations on Mobile Money Platforms by Ignacio Mas & Colin Mayer
• “Microfinance and its Discontents: Women in Debt in Bangladesh” – An anthropologist refutes the argument that microfinance empowers women and alleviates poverty. 
• CGAP on: Matching Types of Accounts to Types of Needs: Lessons from India - Latest in Savings series. 
• Reaching the Poorest: Findings from the CGAP-Ford Foundation Graduation Program 
• Microfinance Focus: Comparison of the recommendations of the Malegam Committee and Jonathan Lewis moderates a microfinance panel discussion at the Skoll World Forum on Do you have to trade profit for impact?
• Bill Easterly reviews two of microfinance’s most anticipated books: Poor Economics and More than Good Intentions (in the Washington Post)

Last week’s Yunus stories: 

• David Roodman on: Yunus Really Out and The Investigators Speak 
• Grameen Bank's response to the issues raised in the Bangladesh Bank's Review Committee Report
• An interview with chair of investigative committee at New Age.
• Professor Yunus' statement on the outcome of the court case

Week of April 29, 2011

Our weekly round-up of what we've been reading online:

• Savings and the poor: A better mattress from The Economist
• More on average effect of aid vs differential impacts of aid at AIDWATCH
• "Microfinance and Social Investment" a new paper from Jonathan Conning and Jonathan Morduch 
• Washington Post article on the Indian microfinance crisis and its impact on women
• “More Than 1 Billion People Are Hungry in the World” by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo and in Foreign Policy 
• Bdnews24 has the dirt on Grameen from new investigative report. 7 articles herecollected by David Roodman. 
• New blog on village finance
• "Linking Health and Microfinance," the potential for microfinance to promote universal healthcare in India 
• First details of Grameen probe: empire of related companies illegal 
• The new fad of cash transfers: what they accomplish, and what they don't at AIDWATCH
• David Roodman blogs about the truth behind an IRIN news service headline misrepresenting BRAC: Not Exactly "Pushing"