1. Retirement Savings: According to a recent survey, one in eight Americans tapped their retirement accounts over the past year to pay for unexpected emergencies, despite financial penalties and implications on long-term savings. Bankrate
2. Student Debt: PricewaterhouseCoopers announced it will assume up to $7,200 in student debt for its U.S. employees. According to one survey, only 3% of companies offer student loan repayment as a benefit. The Wall Street Journal
3. Research Methodology: An RCT conducted in Sierra Leone reports that a field researcher's race conveys subtle cues to research subjects, which could affect study outcomes — without anyone even realizing it. NY Magazine
Read More1. International Labor Mobility: FAI affiliate Michael Clemens discusses one of “the most effective development policies evaluated to date” and why it’s being ignored by major aid agencies. The Huffington Post
2. Small-Dollar Credit: Nick Bourke of The Pew Charitable Trusts suggests tweaks to the CFPB's proposed small dollar credit regulations that will allow banks to compete with payday lenders with better options for borrowers (hopefully). American Banker
3. Poverty Alleviation: "All programs have room to improve. 'Pro-poor' programs actually strive to improve toward greater effectiveness. Transparency and accountability are not just about separating wheat from chaff; they are about improving.” NextBillion
Read More1. Migration and Finance: We wanted to include a story on how refugees are financing their migration *and managing payments* but we couldn't find any. Do you know of one? Tweet it to us - @financialaccess.
2. Cash Transfers: Data from The Cash Atlas, an online platform that tracks cash transfers, suggests transfers are a growing (but still small) component of humanitarian interventions but are mostly conditional and/or mixed with in-kind transfers. Center for Global Development
3. US Financial Diaries: "Six months a year the [USFD] households we tracked had income that was either 20 percent above or below their average. So even the concept of average [income] is meaningless.” Next City
Read More1. Employment and Wages: Despite signs of an improving economy such as lower unemployment rates and increased productivity, take home pay for low-income workers in the U.S. has fallen since 2009. The New York Times
2. Behavioral Economics: Reminders are an oft-cited example of nudges that can improve welfare. Sometimes not following through isn't about forgetting or procrastination, though. An experiment using reminders to pay for child support in Ohio finds negligible effects. MDRC
3. Microfinance: "In the annals of Twitter spats, this is no Nicki Minaj vs. Taylor Swift. But even this muted public shade-throwing is relatively rare among anti-poverty stalwarts of Counts’ and Karlan’s caliber. And since IPA and Grameen Foundation are both NextBillion content partners, I feel the urge to act as referee." (Shockingly, reading some of the comments is worthwhile.) NextBillion
Read More1. Digital Financial Inclusion: The 2015 Financial and Digital Inclusion Project (FDIP) evaluates 21 countries on various dimensions of financial inclusion. Four out of the top five of the top scorers are in sub-Saharan Africa and Kenya ranked number one.
2. Mobile Money: Speaking of Kenya, Uber began accepting cash in Nairobi and its fleet of 30 registered vehicles tripled since the policy change in January. Is cash still king in the country known for unprecedented mobile money success?
3. Product Design: Evelyn Stark brings us Part 2 of her examination of customer-centric product development, focusing on organizational strategy and demand-side factors of improving take up.
Read More1. "War on Poverty": The bail process for petty crimes is leading to increasingly high incarceration rates for the poor. Many are not able to access funds to cover even a comparatively low bail of a few hundred dollars. In fact, 69% of the households below the poverty line in the US Financial Diaries project would not have emergency savings balances high enough to post a $500 bail.
2. Mobile Banking: India's central bank "pre-approved" 11 applications for banks that would take deposits and handle cash transfers. While this could positively impact financial inclusion efforts, the real winners are the Indian telecomms who are set to launch digital services like mobile savings and remittances.
3. Product Design: One Moroccan bank's attempt to offer savings accounts to the poor is a illustrative example of the importance of product design to the success of banking the unbanked...
Read More1. Cash: The artisanal movement may have reached its peak. Hipsters everywhere can now pay for their hand-sharpened pencils and small-batch mayonnaise with homemade, locally crafted currencies.
2. Household Finance: Despite recent economic growth and falling unemployment, many American workers are still struggling to save for emergencies or make ends meet. Financial capability programs, offered through employers, may help participants alleviate some of their financial struggles through knowledge and access to products and services.
3. G2P Infrastructure: The Indian Supreme Court ruled that biometric identification cannot be mandatory to receive government subsidies. Bad news for banks and financial inclusion advocates, good news for officials siphoning funds from "ghost" beneficiary accounts (see Muralidharan, Niehaus, and Sukhtankar's massive RCT).
Read More1. Financial Management: Communities in which social contracts are strong commonly use "social money" (non-cash modes of saving, storing, and transferring wealth) in daily transactions instead of cash. IMTFI
2. Consumer Protection: Isabelle Barrès, Director of the Smart Campaign, discusses the progress in developing and implementing consumer protection policies globally. NextBillion
3. Business Development: The world's most popular attempt at policy ranking might not actually tell us much about the reality. The Wall Street Journal
Read More1. Mobile Money: Vodafone and MTN announced plans to allow money transfers between East and Central African customers of either provider, marking a big step toward interoperability on the continent. The Wall Street Journal
2. Financial Management: FAI affiliate Ignacio Mas analyzes common behaviors and decision-making practices that underpin the financial management strategies of poor households. Upsides
3. Digital Payments: A new blog series explores mobile merchant payments in developing markets, with a focus on the factors it will take to build out the extensive networks necessary to provide value for both merchants and customers. CGAP
Read More1. 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
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