1. Transfers and Subsidies: India's plan to provide subsidies electronically through bank accounts, biometric ID cards, mobile transfers (also know as JAM) can reduce leakage and increase efficiency but what are its limitations? Does it really have the potential to be "the holy grail of efficient and equitable welfare policy?" The New York Times
2. Evidence-Based Policy: The study of deworming pills that launched the RCT movement in development has come into question. But there are a lot of questionsabout the questions.
3. Credit: For rural farmers in India, increasing productivity often means purchasing expensive equipment with a loan, which may be difficult to obtain without collateral or a credit history. Could a financing model based on demand aggregation delivered through a local cooperative/bank partnership help? NextBillion
Week of July 13, 2015
1. Savings: A new report from the US Financial Diaries project provides evidence that lower income households are saving up for frequent, short-term emergencies that prevent the growth of long-term savings. Could 401k style auto-enrollment programs help to manage both long- and short-term savings goals? AARP
2. M-Pesa: Is M-Pesa merely a fintech service or [cue foreboding music] "a stealth political coup by a private operator which profits only from enforcing discipline, control and transparency (via massive data capture) over a wayward system?"... Financial Times
3. ...Regardless of its characterization, new regulations could cause Safaricom to separate its mobile money service from its voice, data, and infrastructure businesses. The changes could weaken Safaricom's market position, but may be a win for competitors like Airtel. Quartz
Week of July 6, 2015
1. Transfers: Cash transfers are a more common form of benefits for the world's poor than you might think. In fact, Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region where food and other in-kind transfers are more prevalent than cash transfer programs. The World Bank
2. Global Poverty: Between 2001 and 2011, the global middle-income population (those living on $10-$20 per day) almost doubled while those living on less than $2 per day halved from 29% to 15%. However, the poor just became slightly less poor as the portion of people living on $2-$10 increased 6 percentage points during this time while high income categories barely changed. Pew Research Center
3. Digital Literacy: A new report finds many women rely heavily on their social circles for instruction and trouble-shooting when it comes to accessing mobile internet, an important finding for mobile money and digital content providers. GSMA
Week of June 22, 2015
1. Mobile Money: What risks do customers perceive when using digital financial services and what are the consequences of those risks? A new brief explores these questions through the lens of lower-income customers in 16 markets around the world. CGAP
2. Financial Literacy: Most financial literacy programs are geared toward steady paycheck earners with long-term savings goals. But how can programs assist households that are struggling with volatile incomes and unpredictable expenses? Mediaplanet
3. Savings: A new survey raises the benchmark for emergency savings from 3 months to 6 months and unsurprisingly find few people meet the target. New research from the US Financial Diaries suggests that we're thinking about and measuring emergency savings the wrong way. Bankrate
Week of June 15, 2015
1. Alternative Credit Scoring: In a new working paper, researchers analyze consumer call data from a Caribbean mobile money provider and are able to predict the likelihood of loan default with accuracy similar to credit scoring models that rely on previous financial history. Brown University - Department of Economics
2. Consumer Lending: After 146 years of financing the 1%, Goldman Sachs announced it will venture into consumer (and potentially small business) lending. The New York Times
3. Mobile Money: The prevalence of over-the-counter (OTC) mobile money services in Pakistan means providers are no longer battling for market share among customers but for loyalty of agents. NextBillion
Week of June 8, 2015
1. Financial Inclusion: A comprehensive synthesis of various financial inclusion indicators reports large strides in achieving the goal of universal access by 2020. But what will be the next set of challenges to developing quality products for harder-to-reach populations? CFI
2. Debt: After filing for personal bankruptcy, San Francisco-based photographer Brittney Powell interviewed and photographed over fifty people for her ongoing series “The Debt Project,” which chronicles the struggles of ordinary Americans with large debt burdens. Slate
3. Poverty Alleviation: Due to the shifting and relative nature of poverty thresholds, does the quest to end extreme poverty still have meaning? Bloomberg
Week of June 1, 2015
1. Income Volatility: Insights into employment opportunities in the "sharing economy" (and research from US Financial Diaries) provide evidence that "life is no longer a matter of having or losing a job, but of stitching together a comfortable and secure quilt from a colourful range of fabrics." The Globe and Mail
2. US Poverty: Will a new "reality" show where families facing financial hardship play a version of the dictator game, judging how "worthy" another family is to receive a share of $101,000, undermine persistent myths and prejudices about low-income households, or is it just an incredibly crass, deplorable, and exploitative gimmick? The Nation
3. Financial Inclusion: IFMR research drives home the point that no matter what "inclusion initiatives" are launched, the behavior of agents will have a huge effect on whether accounts are opened and used in India. IFMR
Week of May 25, 2015
1. Mobile Money: Will a handful of high-profile fraud cases damage mobile money? It depends on how fast operators can adapt 21st century security and authentication systems to protect customers and retain their trust. NextBillion
2. Retirement Savings: For the 53 million public pension participants in Mexico, making a contribution to a retirement account is now as easy as buying a pack of gum or a lottery ticket (well, except for the delayed gratification). CFI
3. Microcredit: Is there a tradeoff in using digital products to serve microcredit clients and maintaining a strong client relationship built on trust or is it possible to have it all? SEEP Network
Week of May 18, 2015
1. Income Volatility: New research based on transaction data confirms findings from the US Financial Diaries (USFD) on income volatility - households' incomes vary from month to month and savings are inadequate to cover the mismatches in income and spending. FAI's Jonathan Morduch notes that in the USFD sample, income volatility is greatest for poorer households but remains high even as households increase their incomes. The Wall Street Journal
2. Entrepreneurship: Middle-class families account for 60 percent of new business ventures. But rising income and wealth inequality may be constraining the middle-class and preventing business expansion, economic growth, and job creation. Center for American Progress
3. Migration and Household Finances: Families working and/or living on both sides of the Mexican-American border must continuously navigate transactions in different currencies, both monetary and social. New research focuses on these exchanges and their functions in various cultural contexts. IMTFI Part 1 and Part 2
Week of May 11, 2015
1. Ultra-Poor: A RCT involving more than 10,000 households in six countries reports improvements in livelihoods for participants in a "graduation model" poverty intervention. While the programs didn't show effects in all contexts, cost-benefit analysis suggests promising returns on investment. Nature and Science
2. Savings: When participants in a study in India received compensation directly to a personal account, they reported higher rates of savings and consumption (regardless of gender) than peers receiving cash. However, when account holders were switched to cash payments, savings and consumption activity reverted to their original patterns. VoxEU
3. Social Networks: A new working paper from Angelucci et al. uses data from the Progresa evaluations to assess the degree to which family and social networks insure each other and provide funding for investment. They find that for every dollar received from Progresa, by a member of the network, food expenditures rise by .60 to .70 cents and investments in children also rise. J-PAL
