Week of April 4, 2014

• David Evans from the World Bank provides a nice round up of key publications at the 2014 Pacific Conference for Development Economics, including papers on cash transfers and wages in Mexico, commitment savings products in the Philippines, and flexible microcredit design in Bangladesh.
   
• Researchers at the University of Colorado – Boulder analyzed findings from 188 studies  (and over 585,000 combined participants) on the connection between financial literacy and financial decisions.  From this meta-analysis, they found that education programs that are timed to be close to the financial decision have the biggest impact but that most interventions show weak links between education and financial decisions.
   
• You may think of savings groups as typically found in developing countries but this NPR piece highlights the ways they are used among communities in the US to provide access to savings and credit.
   
• A new study from the California Reinvestment Coalition reports on the impact of ATM fees for welfare recipients that use electronic debit cards. Over 96% of recipients use the cards and are often charged fees of $3-4 per transaction. Bank of America earned $3.6 million from welfare transactions in one year.
   
• FAI affiliate Igancio Mas discusses how the very words that describe financial products can change their usage and perception.  For example, many think of “savings” as something you do when you have excess money instead of a useful tool for dealing with emergencies.
   
• NPR’s Marketplace recently reported on workplace lending – when borrowers take out a loan through their employer, with repayments taken directly from paychecks.
   
• The IRS ruled that virtual currencies are property and subject to tax, which some say severely limits the potential of Bitcoin as an alternative currency since it is no longer fungible.
   
• Eva Vivalt of NYU’s Development Research Institute posted a blog on ways to improve impact evaluations that draws on data from over 400 studies in an AidGrade meta-analysis.

Week of March 25, 2014

• The National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) published a new report analyzing claims that big data and predictive algorithms will create alternative credit scores and new options of accessing credit for the unbanked.  NCLC concludes that more customer data does not necessarily equal good customer data or accurate scores and those scores may be violating federal laws.
   
• There were a few big announcements recently in the mobile money world  – Safaricom and Airtel jointly bought out yuMobile, the third-biggest telco in Kenya, T-Mobile announced it will offer financial services in Poland through a partnership with Alior Bank, and MTN partnered with Ecobank to allow customers to transfer money between accounts and withdraw cash from Ecobank ATMs in 12 African countries.
   
• In a recent webinar, Bankable Frontier Associates discussed key findings from four recent CGAP and Better than Cash Alliance case studies that examine the e-payment experience of cash transfer programs in low-income settings in Kenya, Uganda, Haiti and the Philippines. 
   
• When RCTs include treatments at the village or district level, what happens to individual consent?  Jed Friedman discusses the ethics of consent and trials in a post for the World Bank’s Development Impact Blog.
   
• Both The New York Times and WNYC profiled the lives and financial hardships of individuals working low-wage jobs.  While the Times looks at Chattanooga, TNand WNYC at New York, the struggles of households to get by share commonalities with each other and with those of the US Financial Diaries project.
   
• FAI affiliate Daniel Rozas partners with Gabriela Erice on a new paper for the European Microfinance Platform that shows at MFIs and banks in Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Pakistan 50-75% of savings accounts at MFIs and banks in Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Pakistan are empty and balances of accounts with funds are at least double the average reported size.
   
• Tom Murphy covers the recent debate on why remittances have fallen in the US-Mexico corridor and includes excerpts from a recent Felix Salmon article on this topic, Tim Ogden’s blog response to Salmon, and Michael Clemens and Tim’s work on migration as a household investment strategy.

Week of March 14, 2014

• CFSI published its Prepaid Industry Scorecard, which analyzes 18 prepaid cards and assesses their level of quality based on criteria related to transparent communication and marketing, overall value for the customer, and ability to expand financial access.
   
• While mobile phone penetration in Ghana is over 90%, up-take of mobile money services lags behind, particularly in rural areas.  IMTFI investigates why this is the case and also looks at the role of the private sector and government in promoting the use of these services. 
   
• The ILO’s Microinsurance Facility issued its 2013 annual report with the theme “Protecting the Working Poor.”  The report not only summarizes the work of the organization over the last year but also looks at shifts and trends in the microinsurance industry since 2008, focusing on the commercial viability of products and their value to customers.
   
• Elisabeth Rhyne, Managing Director for CFI, turns a critical eye to the current state of the microfinance infrastructure, focusing on key organizations that set standards and provide information globally. 
   
• Kevin Starr and Laura Hattendorf from the Mulago Foundation write a compelling piece for SSIR that reminds readers to temper the hype surrounding GiveDirectly and to not mistake “an important experiment for a proven solution” to poverty.  Also see Chris Blattman’s response to the SSIR piece.
   
• According to the IFC, “The total supply of formal finance to women-owned MSMEs [micro, small and medium enterprise] in 2012 is around Indian rupees 2.31 trillion ($42 billion). This resulted in a finance gap of Indian rupees 6.37 trillion ($116 billion), or 73 percent of total demand.”  The organization’s new report on the state of women-owned MSMEs in India looks at why this gap in demand exists and offers recommendations on improving female entrepreneurs’ access to finance.
   
• We appear to be in another cycle of the “RCT debate”: see recent posts from Lant Pritchett, Chris Blattman, Rachel Strohm, and David Mckenzie. Here are couple of posts from FAI Managing Director Tim Ogden from the last cycle: on External Validity and  Transcendental Significance critiques.