Microfinance & Enterprise

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Health
Commitment Savings Accounts and Quitting Smoking in the Philippines
Can financial incentives work to help people quit smoking? The CARES (Committed Action to Reduce and End Smoking) Program, creates a commitment contract that provides financial incentives for smokers who wish to quit smoking. Smokers offered the product were more likely to be smoke-free 6 and 12 months afterwards!
Status: Complete
Impact of Malaria Education on the Health of Microfinance Clients in Benin
Evaluating the impact of microlending combined with health education, and health products with Freedom From Hunger and PADME in Benin.
Status: Ongoing
Health Education for Microcredit Clients in Peru
Evaluating the impact of a mother and child nutrition health training on the health of microcredit clients and their children, as well as on the sustainability of the partner MFI.
Status: Complete
Demand for Hospital Insurance in the Philippines
Examining the take-up of a health insurance product offered to microfinance clients in order to study price sensitivity and assess the extent of adverse selection.
Status: Complete
Credit with Health Insurance: Evidence from the Philippines
Understanding health and risk-taking impacts of access to health insurance in order to estimate the optimal distribution channel for these micro-insurance products.
Status: Ongoing
Saving for Health Expenditures in Kenya
Testing the demand for and impact of commitment savings devices earmarked for health.
Status: Ongoing
Savings Accounts for rural micro entrepreneurs in Kenya
Testing the impact of formal savings accounts on savings, productive investment and expenditures among small-scale entrepreneurs in rural Western Kenya.
Status: Complete
Providing Health Insurance Through Microfinance Networks in Rural India
Status: Complete
Microfinance & Enterprise
Commitment Savings Accounts and Quitting Smoking in the Philippines
Can financial incentives work to help people quit smoking? The CARES (Committed Action to Reduce and End Smoking) Program, creates a commitment contract that provides financial incentives for smokers who wish to quit smoking. Smokers offered the product were more likely to be smoke-free 6 and 12 months afterwards!
Status: Complete
Impact of Rural Microcredit in Morocco
Evaluating the impact of microcredit on poverty reduction in rural Morocco.
Status: Complete
Evaluating Village Savings and Loan Associations in Malawi
Can Village Savings and Loan Associations improve access to credit and savings, and have a positive impact on income, consumption, food security, health, education, and female empowerment?
Status: Ongoing
Borrower responses to fingerprinting for loan enforcement in Malawi
Does fingerprinting microfinance borrowers improve repayment rates?
Status: Complete
Microcredit for Women in Mexico
Evaluating the social and economic impact of microcredit on individual borrowers and their communities.
Status: Ongoing
The Impact of Microcredit in the Philippines
Investigating the impact of credit on micro-entrepreneurs and understanding optimal client selection through the use of credit scores and variation in interest rate offers.
Status: Complete
The Psychology of Debt: An Experiment in the Philippines
Understanding why some micro entrepreneurs frequently use high interest rate debt for working capital without a corresponding increase in the scale of business operations.
Status: Ongoing
Examining the Effects of Crop Price Insurance for Farmers in Ghana
Does insurance that protects farmers from low crop prices change the way that they invest?
Status: Complete
Text Message Loan Repayment Reminders for Micro-Borrowers in the Philippines
Evaluating the effectiveness of text message loan repayment reminders and message timing, framing, and personalization for micro-borrowers in the Philippines.
Status: Complete
Text Message Reminders for Savings in the Philippines
Measuring the price sensitivity for a savings product and the impact of information framing and regular reminders on households’ propensity to deposit money in a savings account.
Status: Ongoing
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Peru
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Honduras
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
Commitment Savings Accounts for Remittance Receivers in Mexico
Assessing the impact of a labeled savings account on the formal savings of funds for future, emergency needs.
Status: Complete
Determinants of Microcredit Delinquency in the Philippines
Studying the characteristics of microfinance clients who are more likely to default with the aim of helping microfinance institutions make better selection decisions.
Status: Complete
Impact of Malaria Education on the Health of Microfinance Clients in Benin
Evaluating the impact of microlending combined with health education, and health products with Freedom From Hunger and PADME in Benin.
Status: Ongoing
Using a Referrals Program to Test for Asymmetric Information and Borrowers’ Ability to Influence Repayment Behavior of Fellow Borrowers in South Africa
Examining whether borrowers have private information on the borrowing “types” of friends and family members, and whether borrowers are able to influence the repayment behavior of fellow borrowers, by attaching a referrals program to a personal loan product.
Status: Complete
Interest Rates and Consumer Credit in South Africa
Identifying evidence for moral hazard and adverse selection in microcredit.
Status: Complete
Returns to Capital and MSE Management Consulting in Ghana
Determining the impact of providing management consulting to micro and small enterprises in Accra.
Status: Complete
Providing Business Mentoring to Micro-, Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Mexico
Measuring the impact of mentoring SMEs on business and employment outcomes.
Status: Complete
Savings Account Labeling and Financial Literacy Training for Susu Customers in Ghana
Understanding the impact of and interaction between a new savings product and financial literacy training for Susu customers
Status: Complete
Interest Rate Sensitivity among Village Banking Clients in Mexico
Measuring the price elasticity of demand among microfinance clients.
Status: Complete
Cosignatory Requirement as a Barrier for Women Accessing Credit in Peru
Examining whether the cosignatory requirement is indeed acting as a barrier for women accessing credit.
Status: Ongoing
Trust and Microfinance in Poor Communities in Peru
Investigating what determines trust in social networks in poor communities and evaluating a novel microfinance model that aims to reach a broader array of clients through the incorporation of individual lending practices into an existing group lending model.
Status: Ongoing
Evaluating Village Savings and Loan Associations in Ghana
Understanding the types of people that participate in Village Savings & Loan Programs (VSLAs) and the programs' impact on households and communities.
Status: Ongoing
Text Message Reminders and Incentives to Save in Bolivia
Evaluating the impact of sending text message reminders to programmed savings clients on frequency and total amount of deposits received, as well as understanding what types of messages motivate clients to comply with their stated desires to save.
Status: Complete
Health Education for Microcredit Clients in Peru
Evaluating the impact of a mother and child nutrition health training on the health of microcredit clients and their children, as well as on the sustainability of the partner MFI.
Status: Complete
Commitment Savings Products in the Philippines
Evaluating the use of innovative savings products offered in the Philippines
Status: Complete
Peeling Back the Layers of Group Liability in Bolivia
Researchers ask if group liability models with smaller groups and less variance among member loans will attract more clients.
Status: Ongoing
Group versus Individual Liability for Microfinance borrowers in the Philippines
Microfinance based on group lending with individual liability presents no greater risk to lending institutions, and attracts more clients in the Philippines.
Status: Complete
Evaluating the Saving for Change Program in Mali
Evaluating the overall impact of the saving for change program in Mali and determining the most economical and effective way of spreading the program.
Status: Ongoing
Deposit Collectors in the Philippines
Evaluating the impact of door-to-door deposit collection service on clients’ saving and borrowing behaviors.
Status: Complete
Marketing Effects in a Consumer Credit Market in South Africa
Pricing the effect of psychological “features” on the take-up of a loan product in a mass-mailing marketing campaign.
Status: Complete
Demand for Hospital Insurance in the Philippines
Examining the take-up of a health insurance product offered to microfinance clients in order to study price sensitivity and assess the extent of adverse selection.
Status: Complete
Debt Traps for Micro-Entrepreneurs in Chennai, India
Understanding why some microentrepreneurs frequently use high interest rate debt for working capital without a corresponding increase in the scale of business operations.
Status: Ongoing
Small Consumer Loans for the Working Poor in South Africa
Examining the impact – on the lender’s bottom line and borrowers’ household welfare – of expanding the supply of consumer credit to the working poor in South Africa.
Status: Complete
Impact of Rural Credit in Peru
Understanding the impact of credit and access to credit on the lives of the rural poor in Cuzco.
Status: Ongoing
Financial Literacy, Short-run Impatience, and the Determinants of Saving and Financial Management in Chile
Examining the effects of financial literacy and short-run impatience on investment and consumption decisions for Chilean households.
Status: Ongoing
Credit with Health Insurance: Evidence from the Philippines
Understanding health and risk-taking impacts of access to health insurance in order to estimate the optimal distribution channel for these micro-insurance products.
Status: Ongoing
Psychological Responses to Microfinance Loan Recovery Strategies in Peru
Measuring the persuasive power of group or individual pressure and optimistic or pessimistic spins to encourage loan repayment in Peru.
Status: Complete
Business Education for Microcredit Clients in Peru
Much microcredit is targeted at entrepreneurs, but not everyone has business skills or knowledge. Could business training help improve the borrowers' results? Women who received training increased their knowledge, improved their business practices, and had greater revenue. The lender benefited too: those clients had better repayment and were more likely to borrow again.
Status: Complete
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Ghana
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Ethiopia
Can an intensive package of support lift the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training?
Status: Ongoing
Northern Uganda Social Action Fund – Youth Opportunities Program
The impact of unconditional cash transfers on employment, incomes, social cohesion and social stability
Status: Ongoing
Evaluating the Efficacy of School Based Financial Education Programs
Status: Ongoing
Ex-combatant Reintegration in Liberia
A mixed-methods evaluation that examines the impact of an intensive and comprehensive reintegration training program geared particularly at reaching those ex-combatants who were not successfully reintegrated in other national programs. The evaluation will utilize a randomized control design, which will be integrated with an ethnographic and psychosocial study of youth transformation.
Status: Complete
Motivating Take Up of Formal Savings
Status: Ongoing
Savings, Subsidies and Sustainable Food Security in Mozambique
Status: Ongoing
Smoothing the Cost of Education: Primary School Saving in Uganda
Evaluating the impact of a savings program for primary school students and determining whether it can serve as a means to decrease student dropout rates.
Status: Ongoing
Culture & Incentives: A Cross Country Field Experiment
Status: Ongoing
Roots and Remedies: Persistent poverty and violence amongst urban street youth in Liberia
Monrovia street youth exhibit extreme levels of impatience, self control problems, and violence. How can we create sustained behavioral change, from impulsive spending to saving and investment? Are increases in income and employment associated with lower aggression and violence?
Status: Ongoing
Small and Medium Enterprise Financing and Mentoring Services in Emerging Markets in the Dominican Republic
Recent work in the area of development finance has focused on poverty reduction through microfinance institutions (MFIs). These institutions are thought to enable entrepreneurship by providing small personal loans to borrowers who otherwise would have difficulty accessing capital markets, but new entrepreneurs are also faced with complex financial decisions for which they may be unprepared. Studies have shown that there is a strong association between higher financial literacy and better business decisions and outcomes, but there is little evidence on the best ways to quickly convey complex financial practices to business owners. Should courses place more weigh on conveying every aspect of complex materials, or teaching basic concepts in greater depth?
Status: Complete
Informal Finance - Mapping Global Savings and Lending Practices
To understand the potential gains from formal banking, we must first understand the risks and returns that the poor face from financial-service options in the informal sector. Yet, while informal financial products dominate the financial lives of the poor, we have scant data and analysis on either informal savings or informal debt. This project aims to fill that gap by collecting detailed information on a range of informal financial vehicles from countries across various regions of the world.
Status: Ongoing
Starting a Lifetime of Saving: Teaching the Practice of Saving to Ugandan Youth
Can a basic financial education program for youth change financial awareness, attitudes, knowledge, and behavior?
Status: Ongoing
Returns to Consulting for Women Entrepreneurs
Status: Ongoing
Estimating the Impact on the Lender's Bottom Line and Borrowers' Household Welfare of Expanding the Supply of Consumer Credit to the Working Poor in South Africa
Demand for cash loans is price sensitive, particularly for higher than average interest rates in South Africa.
Status: Complete
Group vs. Individual Micro-Lending in Peru
Reexamining the institutional impacts of offering group liability vs. individual liability loans within a group lending program.
Status: Ongoing
Expanding Access to Formal Savings Accounts in Malawi, Uganda, Chile, and the Philippines
Status: Ongoing
Informative vs. Persuasive Advertising of Savings Products
Status: Ongoing
Access to Savings in Nepal
While savings research shows the promise of access to savings for specific demographics, i.e. entrepreneurs & members of ROSCAS, as well as through commitment devices, there is little evidence on impact of a simple savings account on the general population.
Status: Ongoing
Improving Loan Repayment through Positive Incentives in Uganda
Status: Complete
The Role of Mobile Banking in Expanding Trade Credit and Business Development in Kenya
Status: Ongoing
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Yemen
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Pakistan
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in India
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
Identifying Gazelles among Micro and Small Enterprises in Ghana
Status: Ongoing
Limited insurance within the household in Kenya
Status: Complete
Finding Missing Markets: An Agricultural Brokerage Intervention in Kenya
Examining the impact of marketing assistance and trade credit among farmers' groups.
Status: Complete
Saving for Health Expenditures in Kenya
Testing the demand for and impact of commitment savings devices earmarked for health.
Status: Ongoing
Using Internal Risk Models to determine changes in Committee Behaviors(MIR)
Status: Ongoing
Before and After Comparison of Innovative Mobile Applications for Micro Retailers in Colombia
Status: Ongoing
Supply Chain Financing for Dairy Farmers
Status: Complete
Experimenting for Entrepreneurship
Status: Ongoing
Unconditional Cash Transfers in Kenya
Status: Ongoing
Reducing Barriers to Saving in Malawi
Can reducing barriers to savings in rural areas increase agricultural outputs and consumption?
Status: Complete
Human Capital, Financial Capital and the Economic Empowerment of Female Adolescents in Tanzania
Status: Ongoing
Access to Work: Facilitating Migration in the Philippines
Status: Ongoing
Alarm Boxes: Combining Commitment and Reminders
Testing the impact of combining reminders (in the form of an alarm) and commitment devices (a lockbox) on increasing savings.
Status: Ongoing
Remembering to Save: Timing of SMS Reminders in Ecuador
Can text message reminders help poor Ecuadorians remember to save? Evaluating whether sending text message reminders that vary in terms of timing, frequency, and duration to programmed savings clients positively affect frequency of deposit transactions and total amount of deposits received.
Status: Complete
Responses to Degree of Control over Remittances in El Salvador
Status: Complete
Ethiopia: More Sweatshops for Africa? An Experimental Study of Firms, Factory Labor, and Poverty Alleviation
Status: Ongoing
Using Encouragement to Overcome Psychological Barriers to Saving in Peru
Assessing the effects of various bank marketing and communication tools with clients to foster savings.
Status: Complete
Returns to Capital among Microenterprises in Ghana
Measuring the return to capital among male and female microenterprise owners in urban Ghana.
Status: Ongoing
Savings Accounts for rural micro entrepreneurs in Kenya
Testing the impact of formal savings accounts on savings, productive investment and expenditures among small-scale entrepreneurs in rural Western Kenya.
Status: Complete
Evaluating Village Savings and Loan Associations in Uganda
Can Village Savings and Loan Associations improve access to credit and savings, and have a positive impact on income, consumption, food security, health, education, and female empowerment?
Status: Ongoing
Financial Education Delivered through Radio and Videos among Low-Income Households in Cuzco, Peru
Investigating the impact of a technology-based financial literacy program on savings, repayment and retention rates among Peruvian microcredit clients
Status: Complete
Psychology of Savings: Commitment Savings Programs in the Philippines
Status: Ongoing
Urban Property Rights in Mongolia
Status: Ongoing
Increasing Savings and Reducing Reliance on Credit Card Debt for Low-Income Individuals in Washington DC
Status: Ongoing
Financial Education and Commitment Savings Contracts to Reduce Credit Card Reliance and Mobilize Savings among Low-Income U.S. Households
Status: Ongoing
Using Behavioral Economics to Help Households Reduce Debt
Status: Ongoing
Introducing Financial Services to Newly Monetized Native Amazonians
Status: Ongoing
Providing Health Insurance Through Microfinance Networks in Rural India
Status: Complete
Business training for women in Ahmedebad, India
Status: Ongoing
Information and social interaction in savings decisions
Status: Complete
The miracle of microfinance? Evidence from a randomized evaluation
Microcredit has spread rapidly since its beginnings in the late 1970s, but whether and how much it helps the poor is the subject of intense debate. Does the introduction of microcredit in the slums of Hyderabad, India have the power to transform lives?
Status: Complete
Home Economics: Strategic Savings in Kenya
Status: Complete
Enhancing the Development Impact of Remittances: Direct Payment and Savings Facilities for Filipino Workers in Qatar
Status: Ongoing
Brain Drain in Ghana
What are the determinants and effects of "brain drain", the emigration of highly skilled workers?
Status: Ongoing
Agricultural Microfinance in Mali
What constraints prevent farmers from taking on potentially profitable investments?
Status: Ongoing
Training Women to Grow Microenterprises
Evaluating the impact of small business training and capital grants on microenterprise owners and potential entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka.
Status: Ongoing
Enterprises for ultra-poor women after war: the WINGS program in Northern Uganda
Twenty years of war and widespread displacement have left virtually the entire population of northern Uganda impoverished. Does providing business skills training help women become self sufficient? Does economic activity empower women, and improve their status and political participation?
Status: Ongoing
Training and Technical Assistance for New Entrepreneurs in Morocco
Status: Ongoing
Making the Jump to Employer: What does it take?
Evaluating the impact of small business training, saving programs, and wage subsidies on getting microenterprise owners to hire employees.
Status: Ongoing
Does Microfinance Promote Generosity? Evidence from India.
Does Microfinance Promote Generosity?
Status: Ongoing
Financial Literacy and Privatized Social Security in Mexico
Status: Ongoing
The Return to Capital for Small Retailers in Kenya
Measuring returns to capital for small rural retailers and examining the sources of deviations from efficiency and of heterogeneity in firms and their returns.
Status: Complete
Reimagining Financial Access
Commitment Savings Accounts and Quitting Smoking in the Philippines
Can financial incentives work to help people quit smoking? The CARES (Committed Action to Reduce and End Smoking) Program, creates a commitment contract that provides financial incentives for smokers who wish to quit smoking. Smokers offered the product were more likely to be smoke-free 6 and 12 months afterwards!
Status: Complete
Evaluating Village Savings and Loan Associations in Malawi
Can Village Savings and Loan Associations improve access to credit and savings, and have a positive impact on income, consumption, food security, health, education, and female empowerment?
Status: Ongoing
The Psychology of Debt: An Experiment in the Philippines
Understanding why some micro entrepreneurs frequently use high interest rate debt for working capital without a corresponding increase in the scale of business operations.
Status: Ongoing
Text Message Loan Repayment Reminders for Micro-Borrowers in the Philippines
Evaluating the effectiveness of text message loan repayment reminders and message timing, framing, and personalization for micro-borrowers in the Philippines.
Status: Complete
Text Message Reminders for Savings in the Philippines
Measuring the price sensitivity for a savings product and the impact of information framing and regular reminders on households’ propensity to deposit money in a savings account.
Status: Ongoing
Determinants of Microcredit Delinquency in the Philippines
Studying the characteristics of microfinance clients who are more likely to default with the aim of helping microfinance institutions make better selection decisions.
Status: Complete
Providing Business Mentoring to Micro-, Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Mexico
Measuring the impact of mentoring SMEs on business and employment outcomes.
Status: Complete
Evaluating Village Savings and Loan Associations in Ghana
Understanding the types of people that participate in Village Savings & Loan Programs (VSLAs) and the programs' impact on households and communities.
Status: Ongoing
Text Message Reminders and Incentives to Save in Bolivia
Evaluating the impact of sending text message reminders to programmed savings clients on frequency and total amount of deposits received, as well as understanding what types of messages motivate clients to comply with their stated desires to save.
Status: Complete
Commitment Savings Products in the Philippines
Evaluating the use of innovative savings products offered in the Philippines
Status: Complete
Debt Traps for Micro-Entrepreneurs in Chennai, India
Understanding why some microentrepreneurs frequently use high interest rate debt for working capital without a corresponding increase in the scale of business operations.
Status: Ongoing
Financial Literacy, Short-run Impatience, and the Determinants of Saving and Financial Management in Chile
Examining the effects of financial literacy and short-run impatience on investment and consumption decisions for Chilean households.
Status: Ongoing
Starting a Lifetime of Saving: Teaching the Practice of Saving to Ugandan Youth
Can a basic financial education program for youth change financial awareness, attitudes, knowledge, and behavior?
Status: Ongoing
Saving for Health Expenditures in Kenya
Testing the demand for and impact of commitment savings devices earmarked for health.
Status: Ongoing
Reducing Barriers to Saving in Malawi
Can reducing barriers to savings in rural areas increase agricultural outputs and consumption?
Status: Complete
Remembering to Save: Timing of SMS Reminders in Ecuador
Can text message reminders help poor Ecuadorians remember to save? Evaluating whether sending text message reminders that vary in terms of timing, frequency, and duration to programmed savings clients positively affect frequency of deposit transactions and total amount of deposits received.
Status: Complete
Using Encouragement to Overcome Psychological Barriers to Saving in Peru
Assessing the effects of various bank marketing and communication tools with clients to foster savings.
Status: Complete
Evaluating Village Savings and Loan Associations in Uganda
Can Village Savings and Loan Associations improve access to credit and savings, and have a positive impact on income, consumption, food security, health, education, and female empowerment?
Status: Ongoing
Does Microfinance Promote Generosity? Evidence from India.
Does Microfinance Promote Generosity?
Status: Ongoing
Savings Encouragement
Commitment Savings Accounts and Quitting Smoking in the Philippines
Can financial incentives work to help people quit smoking? The CARES (Committed Action to Reduce and End Smoking) Program, creates a commitment contract that provides financial incentives for smokers who wish to quit smoking. Smokers offered the product were more likely to be smoke-free 6 and 12 months afterwards!
Status: Complete
Evaluating Village Savings and Loan Associations in Malawi
Can Village Savings and Loan Associations improve access to credit and savings, and have a positive impact on income, consumption, food security, health, education, and female empowerment?
Status: Ongoing
The Psychology of Debt: An Experiment in the Philippines
Understanding why some micro entrepreneurs frequently use high interest rate debt for working capital without a corresponding increase in the scale of business operations.
Status: Ongoing
Text Message Loan Repayment Reminders for Micro-Borrowers in the Philippines
Evaluating the effectiveness of text message loan repayment reminders and message timing, framing, and personalization for micro-borrowers in the Philippines.
Status: Complete
Text Message Reminders for Savings in the Philippines
Measuring the price sensitivity for a savings product and the impact of information framing and regular reminders on households’ propensity to deposit money in a savings account.
Status: Ongoing
Commitment Savings Accounts for Remittance Receivers in Mexico
Assessing the impact of a labeled savings account on the formal savings of funds for future, emergency needs.
Status: Complete
Savings Account Labeling and Financial Literacy Training for Susu Customers in Ghana
Understanding the impact of and interaction between a new savings product and financial literacy training for Susu customers
Status: Complete
Evaluating Village Savings and Loan Associations in Ghana
Understanding the types of people that participate in Village Savings & Loan Programs (VSLAs) and the programs' impact on households and communities.
Status: Ongoing
Text Message Reminders and Incentives to Save in Bolivia
Evaluating the impact of sending text message reminders to programmed savings clients on frequency and total amount of deposits received, as well as understanding what types of messages motivate clients to comply with their stated desires to save.
Status: Complete
Commitment Savings Products in the Philippines
Evaluating the use of innovative savings products offered in the Philippines
Status: Complete
Evaluating the Saving for Change Program in Mali
Evaluating the overall impact of the saving for change program in Mali and determining the most economical and effective way of spreading the program.
Status: Ongoing
Deposit Collectors in the Philippines
Evaluating the impact of door-to-door deposit collection service on clients’ saving and borrowing behaviors.
Status: Complete
Financial Literacy, Short-run Impatience, and the Determinants of Saving and Financial Management in Chile
Examining the effects of financial literacy and short-run impatience on investment and consumption decisions for Chilean households.
Status: Ongoing
Evaluating the Efficacy of School Based Financial Education Programs
Status: Ongoing
Motivating Take Up of Formal Savings
Status: Ongoing
Savings, Subsidies and Sustainable Food Security in Mozambique
Status: Ongoing
Smoothing the Cost of Education: Primary School Saving in Uganda
Evaluating the impact of a savings program for primary school students and determining whether it can serve as a means to decrease student dropout rates.
Status: Ongoing
Roots and Remedies: Persistent poverty and violence amongst urban street youth in Liberia
Monrovia street youth exhibit extreme levels of impatience, self control problems, and violence. How can we create sustained behavioral change, from impulsive spending to saving and investment? Are increases in income and employment associated with lower aggression and violence?
Status: Ongoing
Informal Finance - Mapping Global Savings and Lending Practices
To understand the potential gains from formal banking, we must first understand the risks and returns that the poor face from financial-service options in the informal sector. Yet, while informal financial products dominate the financial lives of the poor, we have scant data and analysis on either informal savings or informal debt. This project aims to fill that gap by collecting detailed information on a range of informal financial vehicles from countries across various regions of the world.
Status: Ongoing
Starting a Lifetime of Saving: Teaching the Practice of Saving to Ugandan Youth
Can a basic financial education program for youth change financial awareness, attitudes, knowledge, and behavior?
Status: Ongoing
Expanding Access to Formal Savings Accounts in Malawi, Uganda, Chile, and the Philippines
Status: Ongoing
Informative vs. Persuasive Advertising of Savings Products
Status: Ongoing
Access to Savings in Nepal
While savings research shows the promise of access to savings for specific demographics, i.e. entrepreneurs & members of ROSCAS, as well as through commitment devices, there is little evidence on impact of a simple savings account on the general population.
Status: Ongoing
Limited insurance within the household in Kenya
Status: Complete
Saving for Health Expenditures in Kenya
Testing the demand for and impact of commitment savings devices earmarked for health.
Status: Ongoing
Reducing Barriers to Saving in Malawi
Can reducing barriers to savings in rural areas increase agricultural outputs and consumption?
Status: Complete
Alarm Boxes: Combining Commitment and Reminders
Testing the impact of combining reminders (in the form of an alarm) and commitment devices (a lockbox) on increasing savings.
Status: Ongoing
Remembering to Save: Timing of SMS Reminders in Ecuador
Can text message reminders help poor Ecuadorians remember to save? Evaluating whether sending text message reminders that vary in terms of timing, frequency, and duration to programmed savings clients positively affect frequency of deposit transactions and total amount of deposits received.
Status: Complete
Using Encouragement to Overcome Psychological Barriers to Saving in Peru
Assessing the effects of various bank marketing and communication tools with clients to foster savings.
Status: Complete
Savings Accounts for rural micro entrepreneurs in Kenya
Testing the impact of formal savings accounts on savings, productive investment and expenditures among small-scale entrepreneurs in rural Western Kenya.
Status: Complete
Evaluating Village Savings and Loan Associations in Uganda
Can Village Savings and Loan Associations improve access to credit and savings, and have a positive impact on income, consumption, food security, health, education, and female empowerment?
Status: Ongoing
Psychology of Savings: Commitment Savings Programs in the Philippines
Status: Ongoing
Increasing Savings and Reducing Reliance on Credit Card Debt for Low-Income Individuals in Washington DC
Status: Ongoing
Financial Education and Commitment Savings Contracts to Reduce Credit Card Reliance and Mobilize Savings among Low-Income U.S. Households
Status: Ongoing
Using Behavioral Economics to Help Households Reduce Debt
Status: Ongoing
Home Economics: Strategic Savings in Kenya
Status: Complete
Making the Jump to Employer: What does it take?
Evaluating the impact of small business training, saving programs, and wage subsidies on getting microenterprise owners to hire employees.
Status: Ongoing
Commitment Devices
Commitment Savings Accounts and Quitting Smoking in the Philippines
Can financial incentives work to help people quit smoking? The CARES (Committed Action to Reduce and End Smoking) Program, creates a commitment contract that provides financial incentives for smokers who wish to quit smoking. Smokers offered the product were more likely to be smoke-free 6 and 12 months afterwards!
Status: Complete
Text Message Reminders for Savings in the Philippines
Measuring the price sensitivity for a savings product and the impact of information framing and regular reminders on households’ propensity to deposit money in a savings account.
Status: Ongoing
Commitment Savings Accounts for Remittance Receivers in Mexico
Assessing the impact of a labeled savings account on the formal savings of funds for future, emergency needs.
Status: Complete
Commitment Savings Products in the Philippines
Evaluating the use of innovative savings products offered in the Philippines
Status: Complete
Deposit Collectors in the Philippines
Evaluating the impact of door-to-door deposit collection service on clients’ saving and borrowing behaviors.
Status: Complete
Informative vs. Persuasive Advertising of Savings Products
Status: Ongoing
Alarm Boxes: Combining Commitment and Reminders
Testing the impact of combining reminders (in the form of an alarm) and commitment devices (a lockbox) on increasing savings.
Status: Ongoing
Using Encouragement to Overcome Psychological Barriers to Saving in Peru
Assessing the effects of various bank marketing and communication tools with clients to foster savings.
Status: Complete
Increasing Savings and Reducing Reliance on Credit Card Debt for Low-Income Individuals in Washington DC
Status: Ongoing
Financial Education and Commitment Savings Contracts to Reduce Credit Card Reliance and Mobilize Savings among Low-Income U.S. Households
Status: Ongoing
Using Behavioral Economics to Help Households Reduce Debt
Status: Ongoing
Behavioral Economics
Commitment Savings Accounts and Quitting Smoking in the Philippines
Can financial incentives work to help people quit smoking? The CARES (Committed Action to Reduce and End Smoking) Program, creates a commitment contract that provides financial incentives for smokers who wish to quit smoking. Smokers offered the product were more likely to be smoke-free 6 and 12 months afterwards!
Status: Complete
The Psychology of Debt: An Experiment in the Philippines
Understanding why some micro entrepreneurs frequently use high interest rate debt for working capital without a corresponding increase in the scale of business operations.
Status: Ongoing
Text Message Loan Repayment Reminders for Micro-Borrowers in the Philippines
Evaluating the effectiveness of text message loan repayment reminders and message timing, framing, and personalization for micro-borrowers in the Philippines.
Status: Complete
Text Message Reminders for Savings in the Philippines
Measuring the price sensitivity for a savings product and the impact of information framing and regular reminders on households’ propensity to deposit money in a savings account.
Status: Ongoing
Determinants of Microcredit Delinquency in the Philippines
Studying the characteristics of microfinance clients who are more likely to default with the aim of helping microfinance institutions make better selection decisions.
Status: Complete
Savings Account Labeling and Financial Literacy Training for Susu Customers in Ghana
Understanding the impact of and interaction between a new savings product and financial literacy training for Susu customers
Status: Complete
Trust and Microfinance in Poor Communities in Peru
Investigating what determines trust in social networks in poor communities and evaluating a novel microfinance model that aims to reach a broader array of clients through the incorporation of individual lending practices into an existing group lending model.
Status: Ongoing
Text Message Reminders and Incentives to Save in Bolivia
Evaluating the impact of sending text message reminders to programmed savings clients on frequency and total amount of deposits received, as well as understanding what types of messages motivate clients to comply with their stated desires to save.
Status: Complete
Commitment Savings Products in the Philippines
Evaluating the use of innovative savings products offered in the Philippines
Status: Complete
Deposit Collectors in the Philippines
Evaluating the impact of door-to-door deposit collection service on clients’ saving and borrowing behaviors.
Status: Complete
Marketing Effects in a Consumer Credit Market in South Africa
Pricing the effect of psychological “features” on the take-up of a loan product in a mass-mailing marketing campaign.
Status: Complete
Debt Traps for Micro-Entrepreneurs in Chennai, India
Understanding why some microentrepreneurs frequently use high interest rate debt for working capital without a corresponding increase in the scale of business operations.
Status: Ongoing
Financial Literacy, Short-run Impatience, and the Determinants of Saving and Financial Management in Chile
Examining the effects of financial literacy and short-run impatience on investment and consumption decisions for Chilean households.
Status: Ongoing
Credit with Health Insurance: Evidence from the Philippines
Understanding health and risk-taking impacts of access to health insurance in order to estimate the optimal distribution channel for these micro-insurance products.
Status: Ongoing
Psychological Responses to Microfinance Loan Recovery Strategies in Peru
Measuring the persuasive power of group or individual pressure and optimistic or pessimistic spins to encourage loan repayment in Peru.
Status: Complete
Motivating Take Up of Formal Savings
Status: Ongoing
Culture & Incentives: A Cross Country Field Experiment
Status: Ongoing
Before and After Comparison of Innovative Mobile Applications for Micro Retailers in Colombia
Status: Ongoing
Alarm Boxes: Combining Commitment and Reminders
Testing the impact of combining reminders (in the form of an alarm) and commitment devices (a lockbox) on increasing savings.
Status: Ongoing
Remembering to Save: Timing of SMS Reminders in Ecuador
Can text message reminders help poor Ecuadorians remember to save? Evaluating whether sending text message reminders that vary in terms of timing, frequency, and duration to programmed savings clients positively affect frequency of deposit transactions and total amount of deposits received.
Status: Complete
Using Encouragement to Overcome Psychological Barriers to Saving in Peru
Assessing the effects of various bank marketing and communication tools with clients to foster savings.
Status: Complete
Increasing Savings and Reducing Reliance on Credit Card Debt for Low-Income Individuals in Washington DC
Status: Ongoing
Financial Education and Commitment Savings Contracts to Reduce Credit Card Reliance and Mobilize Savings among Low-Income U.S. Households
Status: Ongoing
Using Behavioral Economics to Help Households Reduce Debt
Status: Ongoing
Philippines
Commitment Savings Accounts and Quitting Smoking in the Philippines
Can financial incentives work to help people quit smoking? The CARES (Committed Action to Reduce and End Smoking) Program, creates a commitment contract that provides financial incentives for smokers who wish to quit smoking. Smokers offered the product were more likely to be smoke-free 6 and 12 months afterwards!
Status: Complete
The Impact of Microcredit in the Philippines
Investigating the impact of credit on micro-entrepreneurs and understanding optimal client selection through the use of credit scores and variation in interest rate offers.
Status: Complete
The Psychology of Debt: An Experiment in the Philippines
Understanding why some micro entrepreneurs frequently use high interest rate debt for working capital without a corresponding increase in the scale of business operations.
Status: Ongoing
Text Message Loan Repayment Reminders for Micro-Borrowers in the Philippines
Evaluating the effectiveness of text message loan repayment reminders and message timing, framing, and personalization for micro-borrowers in the Philippines.
Status: Complete
Text Message Reminders for Savings in the Philippines
Measuring the price sensitivity for a savings product and the impact of information framing and regular reminders on households’ propensity to deposit money in a savings account.
Status: Ongoing
Determinants of Microcredit Delinquency in the Philippines
Studying the characteristics of microfinance clients who are more likely to default with the aim of helping microfinance institutions make better selection decisions.
Status: Complete
Commitment Savings Products in the Philippines
Evaluating the use of innovative savings products offered in the Philippines
Status: Complete
Group versus Individual Liability for Microfinance borrowers in the Philippines
Microfinance based on group lending with individual liability presents no greater risk to lending institutions, and attracts more clients in the Philippines.
Status: Complete
Deposit Collectors in the Philippines
Evaluating the impact of door-to-door deposit collection service on clients’ saving and borrowing behaviors.
Status: Complete
Demand for Hospital Insurance in the Philippines
Examining the take-up of a health insurance product offered to microfinance clients in order to study price sensitivity and assess the extent of adverse selection.
Status: Complete
Credit with Health Insurance: Evidence from the Philippines
Understanding health and risk-taking impacts of access to health insurance in order to estimate the optimal distribution channel for these micro-insurance products.
Status: Ongoing
Informative vs. Persuasive Advertising of Savings Products
Status: Ongoing
Access to Work: Facilitating Migration in the Philippines
Status: Ongoing
Psychology of Savings: Commitment Savings Programs in the Philippines
Status: Ongoing
Can financial incentives help people change their health behaviors?
Commitment Savings Accounts and Quitting Smoking in the Philippines
Can financial incentives work to help people quit smoking? The CARES (Committed Action to Reduce and End Smoking) Program, creates a commitment contract that provides financial incentives for smokers who wish to quit smoking. Smokers offered the product were more likely to be smoke-free 6 and 12 months afterwards!
Status: Complete
Are negative financial incentives an effective aid to quit smoking?
Commitment Savings Accounts and Quitting Smoking in the Philippines
Can financial incentives work to help people quit smoking? The CARES (Committed Action to Reduce and End Smoking) Program, creates a commitment contract that provides financial incentives for smokers who wish to quit smoking. Smokers offered the product were more likely to be smoke-free 6 and 12 months afterwards!
Status: Complete
Measuring Impact
Impact of Rural Microcredit in Morocco
Evaluating the impact of microcredit on poverty reduction in rural Morocco.
Status: Complete
Evaluating Village Savings and Loan Associations in Malawi
Can Village Savings and Loan Associations improve access to credit and savings, and have a positive impact on income, consumption, food security, health, education, and female empowerment?
Status: Ongoing
Microcredit for Women in Mexico
Evaluating the social and economic impact of microcredit on individual borrowers and their communities.
Status: Ongoing
The Impact of Microcredit in the Philippines
Investigating the impact of credit on micro-entrepreneurs and understanding optimal client selection through the use of credit scores and variation in interest rate offers.
Status: Complete
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Peru
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
Impact of Malaria Education on the Health of Microfinance Clients in Benin
Evaluating the impact of microlending combined with health education, and health products with Freedom From Hunger and PADME in Benin.
Status: Ongoing
Evaluating Village Savings and Loan Associations in Ghana
Understanding the types of people that participate in Village Savings & Loan Programs (VSLAs) and the programs' impact on households and communities.
Status: Ongoing
Evaluating the Saving for Change Program in Mali
Evaluating the overall impact of the saving for change program in Mali and determining the most economical and effective way of spreading the program.
Status: Ongoing
Small Consumer Loans for the Working Poor in South Africa
Examining the impact – on the lender’s bottom line and borrowers’ household welfare – of expanding the supply of consumer credit to the working poor in South Africa.
Status: Complete
Impact of Rural Credit in Peru
Understanding the impact of credit and access to credit on the lives of the rural poor in Cuzco.
Status: Ongoing
Credit with Health Insurance: Evidence from the Philippines
Understanding health and risk-taking impacts of access to health insurance in order to estimate the optimal distribution channel for these micro-insurance products.
Status: Ongoing
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Ethiopia
Can an intensive package of support lift the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training?
Status: Ongoing
Northern Uganda Social Action Fund – Youth Opportunities Program
The impact of unconditional cash transfers on employment, incomes, social cohesion and social stability
Status: Ongoing
Evaluating the Efficacy of School Based Financial Education Programs
Status: Ongoing
Ex-combatant Reintegration in Liberia
A mixed-methods evaluation that examines the impact of an intensive and comprehensive reintegration training program geared particularly at reaching those ex-combatants who were not successfully reintegrated in other national programs. The evaluation will utilize a randomized control design, which will be integrated with an ethnographic and psychosocial study of youth transformation.
Status: Complete
Savings, Subsidies and Sustainable Food Security in Mozambique
Status: Ongoing
Culture & Incentives: A Cross Country Field Experiment
Status: Ongoing
Starting a Lifetime of Saving: Teaching the Practice of Saving to Ugandan Youth
Can a basic financial education program for youth change financial awareness, attitudes, knowledge, and behavior?
Status: Ongoing
Returns to Consulting for Women Entrepreneurs
Status: Ongoing
Estimating the Impact on the Lender's Bottom Line and Borrowers' Household Welfare of Expanding the Supply of Consumer Credit to the Working Poor in South Africa
Demand for cash loans is price sensitive, particularly for higher than average interest rates in South Africa.
Status: Complete
Expanding Access to Formal Savings Accounts in Malawi, Uganda, Chile, and the Philippines
Status: Ongoing
Informative vs. Persuasive Advertising of Savings Products
Status: Ongoing
Access to Savings in Nepal
While savings research shows the promise of access to savings for specific demographics, i.e. entrepreneurs & members of ROSCAS, as well as through commitment devices, there is little evidence on impact of a simple savings account on the general population.
Status: Ongoing
The Role of Mobile Banking in Expanding Trade Credit and Business Development in Kenya
Status: Ongoing
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Yemen
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Pakistan
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in India
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
Identifying Gazelles among Micro and Small Enterprises in Ghana
Status: Ongoing
Limited insurance within the household in Kenya
Status: Complete
Saving for Health Expenditures in Kenya
Testing the demand for and impact of commitment savings devices earmarked for health.
Status: Ongoing
Using Internal Risk Models to determine changes in Committee Behaviors(MIR)
Status: Ongoing
Supply Chain Financing for Dairy Farmers
Status: Complete
Experimenting for Entrepreneurship
Status: Ongoing
Unconditional Cash Transfers in Kenya
Status: Ongoing
Reducing Barriers to Saving in Malawi
Can reducing barriers to savings in rural areas increase agricultural outputs and consumption?
Status: Complete
Alarm Boxes: Combining Commitment and Reminders
Testing the impact of combining reminders (in the form of an alarm) and commitment devices (a lockbox) on increasing savings.
Status: Ongoing
Remembering to Save: Timing of SMS Reminders in Ecuador
Can text message reminders help poor Ecuadorians remember to save? Evaluating whether sending text message reminders that vary in terms of timing, frequency, and duration to programmed savings clients positively affect frequency of deposit transactions and total amount of deposits received.
Status: Complete
Ethiopia: More Sweatshops for Africa? An Experimental Study of Firms, Factory Labor, and Poverty Alleviation
Status: Ongoing
Savings Accounts for rural micro entrepreneurs in Kenya
Testing the impact of formal savings accounts on savings, productive investment and expenditures among small-scale entrepreneurs in rural Western Kenya.
Status: Complete
Evaluating Village Savings and Loan Associations in Uganda
Can Village Savings and Loan Associations improve access to credit and savings, and have a positive impact on income, consumption, food security, health, education, and female empowerment?
Status: Ongoing
The miracle of microfinance? Evidence from a randomized evaluation
Microcredit has spread rapidly since its beginnings in the late 1970s, but whether and how much it helps the poor is the subject of intense debate. Does the introduction of microcredit in the slums of Hyderabad, India have the power to transform lives?
Status: Complete
Enterprises for ultra-poor women after war: the WINGS program in Northern Uganda
Twenty years of war and widespread displacement have left virtually the entire population of northern Uganda impoverished. Does providing business skills training help women become self sufficient? Does economic activity empower women, and improve their status and political participation?
Status: Ongoing
Does Microfinance Promote Generosity? Evidence from India.
Does Microfinance Promote Generosity?
Status: Ongoing
Credit Access
Impact of Rural Microcredit in Morocco
Evaluating the impact of microcredit on poverty reduction in rural Morocco.
Status: Complete
Evaluating Village Savings and Loan Associations in Malawi
Can Village Savings and Loan Associations improve access to credit and savings, and have a positive impact on income, consumption, food security, health, education, and female empowerment?
Status: Ongoing
Borrower responses to fingerprinting for loan enforcement in Malawi
Does fingerprinting microfinance borrowers improve repayment rates?
Status: Complete
Microcredit for Women in Mexico
Evaluating the social and economic impact of microcredit on individual borrowers and their communities.
Status: Ongoing
The Impact of Microcredit in the Philippines
Investigating the impact of credit on micro-entrepreneurs and understanding optimal client selection through the use of credit scores and variation in interest rate offers.
Status: Complete
The Psychology of Debt: An Experiment in the Philippines
Understanding why some micro entrepreneurs frequently use high interest rate debt for working capital without a corresponding increase in the scale of business operations.
Status: Ongoing
Examining the Effects of Crop Price Insurance for Farmers in Ghana
Does insurance that protects farmers from low crop prices change the way that they invest?
Status: Complete
Determinants of Microcredit Delinquency in the Philippines
Studying the characteristics of microfinance clients who are more likely to default with the aim of helping microfinance institutions make better selection decisions.
Status: Complete
Using a Referrals Program to Test for Asymmetric Information and Borrowers’ Ability to Influence Repayment Behavior of Fellow Borrowers in South Africa
Examining whether borrowers have private information on the borrowing “types” of friends and family members, and whether borrowers are able to influence the repayment behavior of fellow borrowers, by attaching a referrals program to a personal loan product.
Status: Complete
Interest Rates and Consumer Credit in South Africa
Identifying evidence for moral hazard and adverse selection in microcredit.
Status: Complete
Interest Rate Sensitivity among Village Banking Clients in Mexico
Measuring the price elasticity of demand among microfinance clients.
Status: Complete
Cosignatory Requirement as a Barrier for Women Accessing Credit in Peru
Examining whether the cosignatory requirement is indeed acting as a barrier for women accessing credit.
Status: Ongoing
Trust and Microfinance in Poor Communities in Peru
Investigating what determines trust in social networks in poor communities and evaluating a novel microfinance model that aims to reach a broader array of clients through the incorporation of individual lending practices into an existing group lending model.
Status: Ongoing
Evaluating Village Savings and Loan Associations in Ghana
Understanding the types of people that participate in Village Savings & Loan Programs (VSLAs) and the programs' impact on households and communities.
Status: Ongoing
Peeling Back the Layers of Group Liability in Bolivia
Researchers ask if group liability models with smaller groups and less variance among member loans will attract more clients.
Status: Ongoing
Group versus Individual Liability for Microfinance borrowers in the Philippines
Microfinance based on group lending with individual liability presents no greater risk to lending institutions, and attracts more clients in the Philippines.
Status: Complete
Evaluating the Saving for Change Program in Mali
Evaluating the overall impact of the saving for change program in Mali and determining the most economical and effective way of spreading the program.
Status: Ongoing
Marketing Effects in a Consumer Credit Market in South Africa
Pricing the effect of psychological “features” on the take-up of a loan product in a mass-mailing marketing campaign.
Status: Complete
Debt Traps for Micro-Entrepreneurs in Chennai, India
Understanding why some microentrepreneurs frequently use high interest rate debt for working capital without a corresponding increase in the scale of business operations.
Status: Ongoing
Small Consumer Loans for the Working Poor in South Africa
Examining the impact – on the lender’s bottom line and borrowers’ household welfare – of expanding the supply of consumer credit to the working poor in South Africa.
Status: Complete
Impact of Rural Credit in Peru
Understanding the impact of credit and access to credit on the lives of the rural poor in Cuzco.
Status: Ongoing
Psychological Responses to Microfinance Loan Recovery Strategies in Peru
Measuring the persuasive power of group or individual pressure and optimistic or pessimistic spins to encourage loan repayment in Peru.
Status: Complete
Informal Finance - Mapping Global Savings and Lending Practices
To understand the potential gains from formal banking, we must first understand the risks and returns that the poor face from financial-service options in the informal sector. Yet, while informal financial products dominate the financial lives of the poor, we have scant data and analysis on either informal savings or informal debt. This project aims to fill that gap by collecting detailed information on a range of informal financial vehicles from countries across various regions of the world.
Status: Ongoing
Estimating the Impact on the Lender's Bottom Line and Borrowers' Household Welfare of Expanding the Supply of Consumer Credit to the Working Poor in South Africa
Demand for cash loans is price sensitive, particularly for higher than average interest rates in South Africa.
Status: Complete
Group vs. Individual Micro-Lending in Peru
Reexamining the institutional impacts of offering group liability vs. individual liability loans within a group lending program.
Status: Ongoing
The Role of Mobile Banking in Expanding Trade Credit and Business Development in Kenya
Status: Ongoing
Finding Missing Markets: An Agricultural Brokerage Intervention in Kenya
Examining the impact of marketing assistance and trade credit among farmers' groups.
Status: Complete
Using Internal Risk Models to determine changes in Committee Behaviors(MIR)
Status: Ongoing
Supply Chain Financing for Dairy Farmers
Status: Complete
Evaluating Village Savings and Loan Associations in Uganda
Can Village Savings and Loan Associations improve access to credit and savings, and have a positive impact on income, consumption, food security, health, education, and female empowerment?
Status: Ongoing
Urban Property Rights in Mongolia
Status: Ongoing
The miracle of microfinance? Evidence from a randomized evaluation
Microcredit has spread rapidly since its beginnings in the late 1970s, but whether and how much it helps the poor is the subject of intense debate. Does the introduction of microcredit in the slums of Hyderabad, India have the power to transform lives?
Status: Complete
Agricultural Microfinance in Mali
What constraints prevent farmers from taking on potentially profitable investments?
Status: Ongoing
Does Microfinance Promote Generosity? Evidence from India.
Does Microfinance Promote Generosity?
Status: Ongoing
The Return to Capital for Small Retailers in Kenya
Measuring returns to capital for small rural retailers and examining the sources of deviations from efficiency and of heterogeneity in firms and their returns.
Status: Complete
Morocco
Impact of Rural Microcredit in Morocco
Evaluating the impact of microcredit on poverty reduction in rural Morocco.
Status: Complete
Training and Technical Assistance for New Entrepreneurs in Morocco
Status: Ongoing
What is the impact of microcredit on individuals and their communities?
Impact of Rural Microcredit in Morocco
Evaluating the impact of microcredit on poverty reduction in rural Morocco.
Status: Complete
Microcredit for Women in Mexico
Evaluating the social and economic impact of microcredit on individual borrowers and their communities.
Status: Ongoing
Impact of Rural Credit in Peru
Understanding the impact of credit and access to credit on the lives of the rural poor in Cuzco.
Status: Ongoing
What are the rates of returns of investments undertaken with microfinance loans?
Impact of Rural Microcredit in Morocco
Evaluating the impact of microcredit on poverty reduction in rural Morocco.
Status: Complete
Does access to microcredit have a significant impact on household expenditures and activities?
Impact of Rural Microcredit in Morocco
Evaluating the impact of microcredit on poverty reduction in rural Morocco.
Status: Complete
Financial Access
Evaluating Village Savings and Loan Associations in Malawi
Can Village Savings and Loan Associations improve access to credit and savings, and have a positive impact on income, consumption, food security, health, education, and female empowerment?
Status: Ongoing
Evaluating Village Savings and Loan Associations in Ghana
Understanding the types of people that participate in Village Savings & Loan Programs (VSLAs) and the programs' impact on households and communities.
Status: Ongoing
Evaluating the Saving for Change Program in Mali
Evaluating the overall impact of the saving for change program in Mali and determining the most economical and effective way of spreading the program.
Status: Ongoing
Informal Finance - Mapping Global Savings and Lending Practices
To understand the potential gains from formal banking, we must first understand the risks and returns that the poor face from financial-service options in the informal sector. Yet, while informal financial products dominate the financial lives of the poor, we have scant data and analysis on either informal savings or informal debt. This project aims to fill that gap by collecting detailed information on a range of informal financial vehicles from countries across various regions of the world.
Status: Ongoing
Returns to Consulting for Women Entrepreneurs
Status: Ongoing
Expanding Access to Formal Savings Accounts in Malawi, Uganda, Chile, and the Philippines
Status: Ongoing
Using Internal Risk Models to determine changes in Committee Behaviors(MIR)
Status: Ongoing
Experimenting for Entrepreneurship
Status: Ongoing
Evaluating Village Savings and Loan Associations in Uganda
Can Village Savings and Loan Associations improve access to credit and savings, and have a positive impact on income, consumption, food security, health, education, and female empowerment?
Status: Ongoing
Introducing Financial Services to Newly Monetized Native Amazonians
Status: Ongoing
Malawi
Evaluating Village Savings and Loan Associations in Malawi
Can Village Savings and Loan Associations improve access to credit and savings, and have a positive impact on income, consumption, food security, health, education, and female empowerment?
Status: Ongoing
Borrower responses to fingerprinting for loan enforcement in Malawi
Does fingerprinting microfinance borrowers improve repayment rates?
Status: Complete
Reducing Barriers to Saving in Malawi
Can reducing barriers to savings in rural areas increase agricultural outputs and consumption?
Status: Complete
What is the socioeconomic impact of Village Savings and Loan Associations?
Evaluating Village Savings and Loan Associations in Malawi
Can Village Savings and Loan Associations improve access to credit and savings, and have a positive impact on income, consumption, food security, health, education, and female empowerment?
Status: Ongoing
What is the outreach of Village Savings and Loan Associations?
Evaluating Village Savings and Loan Associations in Malawi
Can Village Savings and Loan Associations improve access to credit and savings, and have a positive impact on income, consumption, food security, health, education, and female empowerment?
Status: Ongoing
What are the characteristics of those who choose to participate in Village Savings and Loan Associations?
Evaluating Village Savings and Loan Associations in Malawi
Can Village Savings and Loan Associations improve access to credit and savings, and have a positive impact on income, consumption, food security, health, education, and female empowerment?
Status: Ongoing
How do Village Savings and Loan Associations spread within and across villages and how can this promise be optimized to reach the maximum number of people while maintaining group quality?
Evaluating Village Savings and Loan Associations in Malawi
Can Village Savings and Loan Associations improve access to credit and savings, and have a positive impact on income, consumption, food security, health, education, and female empowerment?
Status: Ongoing
Is fingerprinting technology cost effective for MFIs?
Borrower responses to fingerprinting for loan enforcement in Malawi
Does fingerprinting microfinance borrowers improve repayment rates?
Status: Complete
Can a new technology increase enforcement of loan repayment?
Borrower responses to fingerprinting for loan enforcement in Malawi
Does fingerprinting microfinance borrowers improve repayment rates?
Status: Complete
Mexico
Microcredit for Women in Mexico
Evaluating the social and economic impact of microcredit on individual borrowers and their communities.
Status: Ongoing
Commitment Savings Accounts for Remittance Receivers in Mexico
Assessing the impact of a labeled savings account on the formal savings of funds for future, emergency needs.
Status: Complete
Providing Business Mentoring to Micro-, Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Mexico
Measuring the impact of mentoring SMEs on business and employment outcomes.
Status: Complete
Interest Rate Sensitivity among Village Banking Clients in Mexico
Measuring the price elasticity of demand among microfinance clients.
Status: Complete
Financial Literacy and Privatized Social Security in Mexico
Status: Ongoing
What are the social impacts of microcredit, including health status and household decision-making?
Microcredit for Women in Mexico
Evaluating the social and economic impact of microcredit on individual borrowers and their communities.
Status: Ongoing
What are the economic impacts of microcredit, including growth of business and income levels?
Microcredit for Women in Mexico
Evaluating the social and economic impact of microcredit on individual borrowers and their communities.
Status: Ongoing
Mechanisms Matter
The Impact of Microcredit in the Philippines
Investigating the impact of credit on micro-entrepreneurs and understanding optimal client selection through the use of credit scores and variation in interest rate offers.
Status: Complete
Examining the Effects of Crop Price Insurance for Farmers in Ghana
Does insurance that protects farmers from low crop prices change the way that they invest?
Status: Complete
Commitment Savings Accounts for Remittance Receivers in Mexico
Assessing the impact of a labeled savings account on the formal savings of funds for future, emergency needs.
Status: Complete
Impact of Malaria Education on the Health of Microfinance Clients in Benin
Evaluating the impact of microlending combined with health education, and health products with Freedom From Hunger and PADME in Benin.
Status: Ongoing
Using a Referrals Program to Test for Asymmetric Information and Borrowers’ Ability to Influence Repayment Behavior of Fellow Borrowers in South Africa
Examining whether borrowers have private information on the borrowing “types” of friends and family members, and whether borrowers are able to influence the repayment behavior of fellow borrowers, by attaching a referrals program to a personal loan product.
Status: Complete
Interest Rates and Consumer Credit in South Africa
Identifying evidence for moral hazard and adverse selection in microcredit.
Status: Complete
Returns to Capital and MSE Management Consulting in Ghana
Determining the impact of providing management consulting to micro and small enterprises in Accra.
Status: Complete
Savings Account Labeling and Financial Literacy Training for Susu Customers in Ghana
Understanding the impact of and interaction between a new savings product and financial literacy training for Susu customers
Status: Complete
Interest Rate Sensitivity among Village Banking Clients in Mexico
Measuring the price elasticity of demand among microfinance clients.
Status: Complete
Cosignatory Requirement as a Barrier for Women Accessing Credit in Peru
Examining whether the cosignatory requirement is indeed acting as a barrier for women accessing credit.
Status: Ongoing
Trust and Microfinance in Poor Communities in Peru
Investigating what determines trust in social networks in poor communities and evaluating a novel microfinance model that aims to reach a broader array of clients through the incorporation of individual lending practices into an existing group lending model.
Status: Ongoing
Health Education for Microcredit Clients in Peru
Evaluating the impact of a mother and child nutrition health training on the health of microcredit clients and their children, as well as on the sustainability of the partner MFI.
Status: Complete
Peeling Back the Layers of Group Liability in Bolivia
Researchers ask if group liability models with smaller groups and less variance among member loans will attract more clients.
Status: Ongoing
Group versus Individual Liability for Microfinance borrowers in the Philippines
Microfinance based on group lending with individual liability presents no greater risk to lending institutions, and attracts more clients in the Philippines.
Status: Complete
Deposit Collectors in the Philippines
Evaluating the impact of door-to-door deposit collection service on clients’ saving and borrowing behaviors.
Status: Complete
Marketing Effects in a Consumer Credit Market in South Africa
Pricing the effect of psychological “features” on the take-up of a loan product in a mass-mailing marketing campaign.
Status: Complete
Demand for Hospital Insurance in the Philippines
Examining the take-up of a health insurance product offered to microfinance clients in order to study price sensitivity and assess the extent of adverse selection.
Status: Complete
Impact of Rural Credit in Peru
Understanding the impact of credit and access to credit on the lives of the rural poor in Cuzco.
Status: Ongoing
Credit with Health Insurance: Evidence from the Philippines
Understanding health and risk-taking impacts of access to health insurance in order to estimate the optimal distribution channel for these micro-insurance products.
Status: Ongoing
Psychological Responses to Microfinance Loan Recovery Strategies in Peru
Measuring the persuasive power of group or individual pressure and optimistic or pessimistic spins to encourage loan repayment in Peru.
Status: Complete
Business Education for Microcredit Clients in Peru
Much microcredit is targeted at entrepreneurs, but not everyone has business skills or knowledge. Could business training help improve the borrowers' results? Women who received training increased their knowledge, improved their business practices, and had greater revenue. The lender benefited too: those clients had better repayment and were more likely to borrow again.
Status: Complete
Smoothing the Cost of Education: Primary School Saving in Uganda
Evaluating the impact of a savings program for primary school students and determining whether it can serve as a means to decrease student dropout rates.
Status: Ongoing
Finding Missing Markets: An Agricultural Brokerage Intervention in Kenya
Examining the impact of marketing assistance and trade credit among farmers' groups.
Status: Complete
Before and After Comparison of Innovative Mobile Applications for Micro Retailers in Colombia
Status: Ongoing
Savings Accounts for rural micro entrepreneurs in Kenya
Testing the impact of formal savings accounts on savings, productive investment and expenditures among small-scale entrepreneurs in rural Western Kenya.
Status: Complete
Financial Literacy and Privatized Social Security in Mexico
Status: Ongoing
Interest Rates
The Impact of Microcredit in the Philippines
Investigating the impact of credit on micro-entrepreneurs and understanding optimal client selection through the use of credit scores and variation in interest rate offers.
Status: Complete
Interest Rates and Consumer Credit in South Africa
Identifying evidence for moral hazard and adverse selection in microcredit.
Status: Complete
Interest Rate Sensitivity among Village Banking Clients in Mexico
Measuring the price elasticity of demand among microfinance clients.
Status: Complete
How does approval for a microloan impact micro-entrepreneurs’ households and businesses?
The Impact of Microcredit in the Philippines
Investigating the impact of credit on micro-entrepreneurs and understanding optimal client selection through the use of credit scores and variation in interest rate offers.
Status: Complete
How do changes in interest rates impact the demand for microloans?
The Impact of Microcredit in the Philippines
Investigating the impact of credit on micro-entrepreneurs and understanding optimal client selection through the use of credit scores and variation in interest rate offers.
Status: Complete
Interest Rate Sensitivity among Village Banking Clients in Mexico
Measuring the price elasticity of demand among microfinance clients.
Status: Complete
Impact of Rural Credit in Peru
Understanding the impact of credit and access to credit on the lives of the rural poor in Cuzco.
Status: Ongoing
How can credit scoring and interest rates be used to optimize MFI profitability through client selection?
The Impact of Microcredit in the Philippines
Investigating the impact of credit on micro-entrepreneurs and understanding optimal client selection through the use of credit scores and variation in interest rate offers.
Status: Complete
Financial Literacy
The Psychology of Debt: An Experiment in the Philippines
Understanding why some micro entrepreneurs frequently use high interest rate debt for working capital without a corresponding increase in the scale of business operations.
Status: Ongoing
Savings Account Labeling and Financial Literacy Training for Susu Customers in Ghana
Understanding the impact of and interaction between a new savings product and financial literacy training for Susu customers
Status: Complete
Debt Traps for Micro-Entrepreneurs in Chennai, India
Understanding why some microentrepreneurs frequently use high interest rate debt for working capital without a corresponding increase in the scale of business operations.
Status: Ongoing
Financial Literacy, Short-run Impatience, and the Determinants of Saving and Financial Management in Chile
Examining the effects of financial literacy and short-run impatience on investment and consumption decisions for Chilean households.
Status: Ongoing
Evaluating the Efficacy of School Based Financial Education Programs
Status: Ongoing
Starting a Lifetime of Saving: Teaching the Practice of Saving to Ugandan Youth
Can a basic financial education program for youth change financial awareness, attitudes, knowledge, and behavior?
Status: Ongoing
Informative vs. Persuasive Advertising of Savings Products
Status: Ongoing
Before and After Comparison of Innovative Mobile Applications for Micro Retailers in Colombia
Status: Ongoing
Financial Education Delivered through Radio and Videos among Low-Income Households in Cuzco, Peru
Investigating the impact of a technology-based financial literacy program on savings, repayment and retention rates among Peruvian microcredit clients
Status: Complete
Increasing Savings and Reducing Reliance on Credit Card Debt for Low-Income Individuals in Washington DC
Status: Ongoing
Financial Education and Commitment Savings Contracts to Reduce Credit Card Reliance and Mobilize Savings among Low-Income U.S. Households
Status: Ongoing
Using Behavioral Economics to Help Households Reduce Debt
Status: Ongoing
Financial Literacy and Privatized Social Security in Mexico
Status: Ongoing
What is the impact of debt-pay off on saving behaviors?
The Psychology of Debt: An Experiment in the Philippines
Understanding why some micro entrepreneurs frequently use high interest rate debt for working capital without a corresponding increase in the scale of business operations.
Status: Ongoing
Does the combination of financial training and debt pay-off reduce indebtedness more than one of these interventions alone?
The Psychology of Debt: An Experiment in the Philippines
Understanding why some micro entrepreneurs frequently use high interest rate debt for working capital without a corresponding increase in the scale of business operations.
Status: Ongoing
Debt Traps for Micro-Entrepreneurs in Chennai, India
Understanding why some microentrepreneurs frequently use high interest rate debt for working capital without a corresponding increase in the scale of business operations.
Status: Ongoing
Does financial training alone help vendors change behavior and reduce high-interest debt?
The Psychology of Debt: An Experiment in the Philippines
Understanding why some micro entrepreneurs frequently use high interest rate debt for working capital without a corresponding increase in the scale of business operations.
Status: Ongoing
Debt Traps for Micro-Entrepreneurs in Chennai, India
Understanding why some microentrepreneurs frequently use high interest rate debt for working capital without a corresponding increase in the scale of business operations.
Status: Ongoing
Does debt pay-off alone help vendors stay out of debt?
The Psychology of Debt: An Experiment in the Philippines
Understanding why some micro entrepreneurs frequently use high interest rate debt for working capital without a corresponding increase in the scale of business operations.
Status: Ongoing
Debt Traps for Micro-Entrepreneurs in Chennai, India
Understanding why some microentrepreneurs frequently use high interest rate debt for working capital without a corresponding increase in the scale of business operations.
Status: Ongoing
Agriculture
Examining the Effects of Crop Price Insurance for Farmers in Ghana
Does insurance that protects farmers from low crop prices change the way that they invest?
Status: Complete
Ex-combatant Reintegration in Liberia
A mixed-methods evaluation that examines the impact of an intensive and comprehensive reintegration training program geared particularly at reaching those ex-combatants who were not successfully reintegrated in other national programs. The evaluation will utilize a randomized control design, which will be integrated with an ethnographic and psychosocial study of youth transformation.
Status: Complete
Savings, Subsidies and Sustainable Food Security in Mozambique
Status: Ongoing
Finding Missing Markets: An Agricultural Brokerage Intervention in Kenya
Examining the impact of marketing assistance and trade credit among farmers' groups.
Status: Complete
Reducing Barriers to Saving in Malawi
Can reducing barriers to savings in rural areas increase agricultural outputs and consumption?
Status: Complete
Agricultural Microfinance in Mali
What constraints prevent farmers from taking on potentially profitable investments?
Status: Ongoing
Insurance
Examining the Effects of Crop Price Insurance for Farmers in Ghana
Does insurance that protects farmers from low crop prices change the way that they invest?
Status: Complete
Demand for Hospital Insurance in the Philippines
Examining the take-up of a health insurance product offered to microfinance clients in order to study price sensitivity and assess the extent of adverse selection.
Status: Complete
Credit with Health Insurance: Evidence from the Philippines
Understanding health and risk-taking impacts of access to health insurance in order to estimate the optimal distribution channel for these micro-insurance products.
Status: Ongoing
Ghana
Examining the Effects of Crop Price Insurance for Farmers in Ghana
Does insurance that protects farmers from low crop prices change the way that they invest?
Status: Complete
Returns to Capital and MSE Management Consulting in Ghana
Determining the impact of providing management consulting to micro and small enterprises in Accra.
Status: Complete
Savings Account Labeling and Financial Literacy Training for Susu Customers in Ghana
Understanding the impact of and interaction between a new savings product and financial literacy training for Susu customers
Status: Complete
Evaluating Village Savings and Loan Associations in Ghana
Understanding the types of people that participate in Village Savings & Loan Programs (VSLAs) and the programs' impact on households and communities.
Status: Ongoing
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Ghana
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
Evaluating the Efficacy of School Based Financial Education Programs
Status: Ongoing
Motivating Take Up of Formal Savings
Status: Ongoing
Culture & Incentives: A Cross Country Field Experiment
Status: Ongoing
Identifying Gazelles among Micro and Small Enterprises in Ghana
Status: Ongoing
Returns to Capital among Microenterprises in Ghana
Measuring the return to capital among male and female microenterprise owners in urban Ghana.
Status: Ongoing
Brain Drain in Ghana
What are the determinants and effects of "brain drain", the emigration of highly skilled workers?
Status: Ongoing
What is the impact of crop price insurance on farmers’ investment decisions?
Examining the Effects of Crop Price Insurance for Farmers in Ghana
Does insurance that protects farmers from low crop prices change the way that they invest?
Status: Complete
Marketing
Text Message Loan Repayment Reminders for Micro-Borrowers in the Philippines
Evaluating the effectiveness of text message loan repayment reminders and message timing, framing, and personalization for micro-borrowers in the Philippines.
Status: Complete
Text Message Reminders for Savings in the Philippines
Measuring the price sensitivity for a savings product and the impact of information framing and regular reminders on households’ propensity to deposit money in a savings account.
Status: Ongoing
Text Message Reminders and Incentives to Save in Bolivia
Evaluating the impact of sending text message reminders to programmed savings clients on frequency and total amount of deposits received, as well as understanding what types of messages motivate clients to comply with their stated desires to save.
Status: Complete
Marketing Effects in a Consumer Credit Market in South Africa
Pricing the effect of psychological “features” on the take-up of a loan product in a mass-mailing marketing campaign.
Status: Complete
Credit with Health Insurance: Evidence from the Philippines
Understanding health and risk-taking impacts of access to health insurance in order to estimate the optimal distribution channel for these micro-insurance products.
Status: Ongoing
Finding Missing Markets: An Agricultural Brokerage Intervention in Kenya
Examining the impact of marketing assistance and trade credit among farmers' groups.
Status: Complete
Information and Communication Technology
Text Message Loan Repayment Reminders for Micro-Borrowers in the Philippines
Evaluating the effectiveness of text message loan repayment reminders and message timing, framing, and personalization for micro-borrowers in the Philippines.
Status: Complete
The Role of Mobile Banking in Expanding Trade Credit and Business Development in Kenya
Status: Ongoing
Before and After Comparison of Innovative Mobile Applications for Micro Retailers in Colombia
Status: Ongoing
Unconditional Cash Transfers in Kenya
Status: Ongoing
Financial Education Delivered through Radio and Videos among Low-Income Households in Cuzco, Peru
Investigating the impact of a technology-based financial literacy program on savings, repayment and retention rates among Peruvian microcredit clients
Status: Complete
What is the impact of automated test message loan repayment reminders on client repayment and default rates and on the banks’ bottom line?
Text Message Loan Repayment Reminders for Micro-Borrowers in the Philippines
Evaluating the effectiveness of text message loan repayment reminders and message timing, framing, and personalization for micro-borrowers in the Philippines.
Status: Complete
Is an automated text message reminder system cost effective for the banks?
Text Message Loan Repayment Reminders for Micro-Borrowers in the Philippines
Evaluating the effectiveness of text message loan repayment reminders and message timing, framing, and personalization for micro-borrowers in the Philippines.
Status: Complete
Product Design
Text Message Reminders for Savings in the Philippines
Measuring the price sensitivity for a savings product and the impact of information framing and regular reminders on households’ propensity to deposit money in a savings account.
Status: Ongoing
Using a Referrals Program to Test for Asymmetric Information and Borrowers’ Ability to Influence Repayment Behavior of Fellow Borrowers in South Africa
Examining whether borrowers have private information on the borrowing “types” of friends and family members, and whether borrowers are able to influence the repayment behavior of fellow borrowers, by attaching a referrals program to a personal loan product.
Status: Complete
Savings Account Labeling and Financial Literacy Training for Susu Customers in Ghana
Understanding the impact of and interaction between a new savings product and financial literacy training for Susu customers
Status: Complete
Cosignatory Requirement as a Barrier for Women Accessing Credit in Peru
Examining whether the cosignatory requirement is indeed acting as a barrier for women accessing credit.
Status: Ongoing
Trust and Microfinance in Poor Communities in Peru
Investigating what determines trust in social networks in poor communities and evaluating a novel microfinance model that aims to reach a broader array of clients through the incorporation of individual lending practices into an existing group lending model.
Status: Ongoing
Peeling Back the Layers of Group Liability in Bolivia
Researchers ask if group liability models with smaller groups and less variance among member loans will attract more clients.
Status: Ongoing
Group versus Individual Liability for Microfinance borrowers in the Philippines
Microfinance based on group lending with individual liability presents no greater risk to lending institutions, and attracts more clients in the Philippines.
Status: Complete
Starting a Lifetime of Saving: Teaching the Practice of Saving to Ugandan Youth
Can a basic financial education program for youth change financial awareness, attitudes, knowledge, and behavior?
Status: Ongoing
Group vs. Individual Micro-Lending in Peru
Reexamining the institutional impacts of offering group liability vs. individual liability loans within a group lending program.
Status: Ongoing
Expanding Access to Formal Savings Accounts in Malawi, Uganda, Chile, and the Philippines
Status: Ongoing
Before and After Comparison of Innovative Mobile Applications for Micro Retailers in Colombia
Status: Ongoing
Supply Chain Financing for Dairy Farmers
Status: Complete
Responses to Degree of Control over Remittances in El Salvador
Status: Complete
Using Encouragement to Overcome Psychological Barriers to Saving in Peru
Assessing the effects of various bank marketing and communication tools with clients to foster savings.
Status: Complete
Increasing Savings and Reducing Reliance on Credit Card Debt for Low-Income Individuals in Washington DC
Status: Ongoing
Financial Education and Commitment Savings Contracts to Reduce Credit Card Reliance and Mobilize Savings among Low-Income U.S. Households
Status: Ongoing
Using Behavioral Economics to Help Households Reduce Debt
Status: Ongoing
Which savings account features are most effective in helping clients complete their savings commitments?
Text Message Reminders for Savings in the Philippines
Measuring the price sensitivity for a savings product and the impact of information framing and regular reminders on households’ propensity to deposit money in a savings account.
Status: Ongoing
Using Encouragement to Overcome Psychological Barriers to Saving in Peru
Assessing the effects of various bank marketing and communication tools with clients to foster savings.
Status: Complete
Ultra Poor
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Peru
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Honduras
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Ghana
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Ethiopia
Can an intensive package of support lift the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training?
Status: Ongoing
Ex-combatant Reintegration in Liberia
A mixed-methods evaluation that examines the impact of an intensive and comprehensive reintegration training program geared particularly at reaching those ex-combatants who were not successfully reintegrated in other national programs. The evaluation will utilize a randomized control design, which will be integrated with an ethnographic and psychosocial study of youth transformation.
Status: Complete
Roots and Remedies: Persistent poverty and violence amongst urban street youth in Liberia
Monrovia street youth exhibit extreme levels of impatience, self control problems, and violence. How can we create sustained behavioral change, from impulsive spending to saving and investment? Are increases in income and employment associated with lower aggression and violence?
Status: Ongoing
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Yemen
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Pakistan
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in India
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
Enterprises for ultra-poor women after war: the WINGS program in Northern Uganda
Twenty years of war and widespread displacement have left virtually the entire population of northern Uganda impoverished. Does providing business skills training help women become self sufficient? Does economic activity empower women, and improve their status and political participation?
Status: Ongoing
Transfers & Subsidies
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Peru
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Honduras
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Ghana
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Ethiopia
Can an intensive package of support lift the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training?
Status: Ongoing
Northern Uganda Social Action Fund – Youth Opportunities Program
The impact of unconditional cash transfers on employment, incomes, social cohesion and social stability
Status: Ongoing
Ex-combatant Reintegration in Liberia
A mixed-methods evaluation that examines the impact of an intensive and comprehensive reintegration training program geared particularly at reaching those ex-combatants who were not successfully reintegrated in other national programs. The evaluation will utilize a randomized control design, which will be integrated with an ethnographic and psychosocial study of youth transformation.
Status: Complete
Roots and Remedies: Persistent poverty and violence amongst urban street youth in Liberia
Monrovia street youth exhibit extreme levels of impatience, self control problems, and violence. How can we create sustained behavioral change, from impulsive spending to saving and investment? Are increases in income and employment associated with lower aggression and violence?
Status: Ongoing
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Yemen
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Pakistan
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in India
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
Experimenting for Entrepreneurship
Status: Ongoing
Unconditional Cash Transfers in Kenya
Status: Ongoing
Returns to Capital among Microenterprises in Ghana
Measuring the return to capital among male and female microenterprise owners in urban Ghana.
Status: Ongoing
Training Women to Grow Microenterprises
Evaluating the impact of small business training and capital grants on microenterprise owners and potential entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka.
Status: Ongoing
Enterprises for ultra-poor women after war: the WINGS program in Northern Uganda
Twenty years of war and widespread displacement have left virtually the entire population of northern Uganda impoverished. Does providing business skills training help women become self sufficient? Does economic activity empower women, and improve their status and political participation?
Status: Ongoing
Making the Jump to Employer: What does it take?
Evaluating the impact of small business training, saving programs, and wage subsidies on getting microenterprise owners to hire employees.
Status: Ongoing
Training
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Peru
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Honduras
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
Impact of Malaria Education on the Health of Microfinance Clients in Benin
Evaluating the impact of microlending combined with health education, and health products with Freedom From Hunger and PADME in Benin.
Status: Ongoing
Returns to Capital and MSE Management Consulting in Ghana
Determining the impact of providing management consulting to micro and small enterprises in Accra.
Status: Complete
Providing Business Mentoring to Micro-, Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Mexico
Measuring the impact of mentoring SMEs on business and employment outcomes.
Status: Complete
Health Education for Microcredit Clients in Peru
Evaluating the impact of a mother and child nutrition health training on the health of microcredit clients and their children, as well as on the sustainability of the partner MFI.
Status: Complete
Business Education for Microcredit Clients in Peru
Much microcredit is targeted at entrepreneurs, but not everyone has business skills or knowledge. Could business training help improve the borrowers' results? Women who received training increased their knowledge, improved their business practices, and had greater revenue. The lender benefited too: those clients had better repayment and were more likely to borrow again.
Status: Complete
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Ghana
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Ethiopia
Can an intensive package of support lift the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training?
Status: Ongoing
Northern Uganda Social Action Fund – Youth Opportunities Program
The impact of unconditional cash transfers on employment, incomes, social cohesion and social stability
Status: Ongoing
Ex-combatant Reintegration in Liberia
A mixed-methods evaluation that examines the impact of an intensive and comprehensive reintegration training program geared particularly at reaching those ex-combatants who were not successfully reintegrated in other national programs. The evaluation will utilize a randomized control design, which will be integrated with an ethnographic and psychosocial study of youth transformation.
Status: Complete
Roots and Remedies: Persistent poverty and violence amongst urban street youth in Liberia
Monrovia street youth exhibit extreme levels of impatience, self control problems, and violence. How can we create sustained behavioral change, from impulsive spending to saving and investment? Are increases in income and employment associated with lower aggression and violence?
Status: Ongoing
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Yemen
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Pakistan
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in India
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
Identifying Gazelles among Micro and Small Enterprises in Ghana
Status: Ongoing
Using Internal Risk Models to determine changes in Committee Behaviors(MIR)
Status: Ongoing
Experimenting for Entrepreneurship
Status: Ongoing
Training Women to Grow Microenterprises
Evaluating the impact of small business training and capital grants on microenterprise owners and potential entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka.
Status: Ongoing
Enterprises for ultra-poor women after war: the WINGS program in Northern Uganda
Twenty years of war and widespread displacement have left virtually the entire population of northern Uganda impoverished. Does providing business skills training help women become self sufficient? Does economic activity empower women, and improve their status and political participation?
Status: Ongoing
Making the Jump to Employer: What does it take?
Evaluating the impact of small business training, saving programs, and wage subsidies on getting microenterprise owners to hire employees.
Status: Ongoing
Peru
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Peru
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
Cosignatory Requirement as a Barrier for Women Accessing Credit in Peru
Examining whether the cosignatory requirement is indeed acting as a barrier for women accessing credit.
Status: Ongoing
Trust and Microfinance in Poor Communities in Peru
Investigating what determines trust in social networks in poor communities and evaluating a novel microfinance model that aims to reach a broader array of clients through the incorporation of individual lending practices into an existing group lending model.
Status: Ongoing
Health Education for Microcredit Clients in Peru
Evaluating the impact of a mother and child nutrition health training on the health of microcredit clients and their children, as well as on the sustainability of the partner MFI.
Status: Complete
Psychological Responses to Microfinance Loan Recovery Strategies in Peru
Measuring the persuasive power of group or individual pressure and optimistic or pessimistic spins to encourage loan repayment in Peru.
Status: Complete
Business Education for Microcredit Clients in Peru
Much microcredit is targeted at entrepreneurs, but not everyone has business skills or knowledge. Could business training help improve the borrowers' results? Women who received training increased their knowledge, improved their business practices, and had greater revenue. The lender benefited too: those clients had better repayment and were more likely to borrow again.
Status: Complete
Using Encouragement to Overcome Psychological Barriers to Saving in Peru
Assessing the effects of various bank marketing and communication tools with clients to foster savings.
Status: Complete
Financial Education Delivered through Radio and Videos among Low-Income Households in Cuzco, Peru
Investigating the impact of a technology-based financial literacy program on savings, repayment and retention rates among Peruvian microcredit clients
Status: Complete
What is the impact of grant funding and enterprise development on social and economic outcomes including: income, assets, school attendance of children, health and food security?
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Peru
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Honduras
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Ghana
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Ethiopia
Can an intensive package of support lift the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training?
Status: Ongoing
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Yemen
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Pakistan
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in India
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
Honduras
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Honduras
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
What is the effect of savings matching on savings?
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Honduras
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
Does labeling an account lead to an overall increase in savings?
Commitment Savings Accounts for Remittance Receivers in Mexico
Assessing the impact of a labeled savings account on the formal savings of funds for future, emergency needs.
Status: Complete
Do the self-commitment and reminder features of the savings product increase formal savings among remittance receivers?
Commitment Savings Accounts for Remittance Receivers in Mexico
Assessing the impact of a labeled savings account on the formal savings of funds for future, emergency needs.
Status: Complete
Do “trustworthy” microcredit clients have a lower default rate than those who are untrustworthy?
Determinants of Microcredit Delinquency in the Philippines
Studying the characteristics of microfinance clients who are more likely to default with the aim of helping microfinance institutions make better selection decisions.
Status: Complete
Do microclients with “planning capability” have a lower default rate than those without planning capability?
Determinants of Microcredit Delinquency in the Philippines
Studying the characteristics of microfinance clients who are more likely to default with the aim of helping microfinance institutions make better selection decisions.
Status: Complete
Benin
Impact of Malaria Education on the Health of Microfinance Clients in Benin
Evaluating the impact of microlending combined with health education, and health products with Freedom From Hunger and PADME in Benin.
Status: Ongoing
What is the impact of providing health education on microfinance and health indicators?
Impact of Malaria Education on the Health of Microfinance Clients in Benin
Evaluating the impact of microlending combined with health education, and health products with Freedom From Hunger and PADME in Benin.
Status: Ongoing
What is the combined impact of providing health care products (mosquito nets, etc.) and health education?
Impact of Malaria Education on the Health of Microfinance Clients in Benin
Evaluating the impact of microlending combined with health education, and health products with Freedom From Hunger and PADME in Benin.
Status: Ongoing
South Africa
Using a Referrals Program to Test for Asymmetric Information and Borrowers’ Ability to Influence Repayment Behavior of Fellow Borrowers in South Africa
Examining whether borrowers have private information on the borrowing “types” of friends and family members, and whether borrowers are able to influence the repayment behavior of fellow borrowers, by attaching a referrals program to a personal loan product.
Status: Complete
Interest Rates and Consumer Credit in South Africa
Identifying evidence for moral hazard and adverse selection in microcredit.
Status: Complete
Marketing Effects in a Consumer Credit Market in South Africa
Pricing the effect of psychological “features” on the take-up of a loan product in a mass-mailing marketing campaign.
Status: Complete
Small Consumer Loans for the Working Poor in South Africa
Examining the impact – on the lender’s bottom line and borrowers’ household welfare – of expanding the supply of consumer credit to the working poor in South Africa.
Status: Complete
Estimating the Impact on the Lender's Bottom Line and Borrowers' Household Welfare of Expanding the Supply of Consumer Credit to the Working Poor in South Africa
Demand for cash loans is price sensitive, particularly for higher than average interest rates in South Africa.
Status: Complete
How can lenders design an optimal, client referral program?
Using a Referrals Program to Test for Asymmetric Information and Borrowers’ Ability to Influence Repayment Behavior of Fellow Borrowers in South Africa
Examining whether borrowers have private information on the borrowing “types” of friends and family members, and whether borrowers are able to influence the repayment behavior of fellow borrowers, by attaching a referrals program to a personal loan product.
Status: Complete
Do individual-liability borrowers have asymmetric information on the borrowing “type” of fellow borrowers, and can these borrowers influence the repayment behavior of their fellow borrowers?
Using a Referrals Program to Test for Asymmetric Information and Borrowers’ Ability to Influence Repayment Behavior of Fellow Borrowers in South Africa
Examining whether borrowers have private information on the borrowing “types” of friends and family members, and whether borrowers are able to influence the repayment behavior of fellow borrowers, by attaching a referrals program to a personal loan product.
Status: Complete
Is there evidence of moral hazard and adverse selection in consumer credit markets?
Interest Rates and Consumer Credit in South Africa
Identifying evidence for moral hazard and adverse selection in microcredit.
Status: Complete
Can consulting and business support services help micro and small enterprises (MSEs) grow?
Returns to Capital and MSE Management Consulting in Ghana
Determining the impact of providing management consulting to micro and small enterprises in Accra.
Status: Complete
How does SME mentoring affect the principal decision-maker of the firm in areas such as entrepreneurial spirit and assignment of job responsibilities?
Providing Business Mentoring to Micro-, Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Mexico
Measuring the impact of mentoring SMEs on business and employment outcomes.
Status: Complete
Can mentoring programs help micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) become more profitable?
Providing Business Mentoring to Micro-, Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Mexico
Measuring the impact of mentoring SMEs on business and employment outcomes.
Status: Complete
How does labeling a savings account impact the consumption of goods and services relating to this label?
Savings Account Labeling and Financial Literacy Training for Susu Customers in Ghana
Understanding the impact of and interaction between a new savings product and financial literacy training for Susu customers
Status: Complete
Does providing labels for savings accounts entice both new customers to open accounts and existing customers to make more frequent or larger deposits?
Savings Account Labeling and Financial Literacy Training for Susu Customers in Ghana
Understanding the impact of and interaction between a new savings product and financial literacy training for Susu customers
Status: Complete
Does financial literacy training encourage customers to take advantage of the labeled savings account product or make different consumption decisions?
Savings Account Labeling and Financial Literacy Training for Susu Customers in Ghana
Understanding the impact of and interaction between a new savings product and financial literacy training for Susu customers
Status: Complete
What interest rate level maximizes profitability, and therefore sustainability, for MFIs?
Interest Rate Sensitivity among Village Banking Clients in Mexico
Measuring the price elasticity of demand among microfinance clients.
Status: Complete
How do changes in the interest rate affect the type of clients that MFIs attract?
Interest Rate Sensitivity among Village Banking Clients in Mexico
Measuring the price elasticity of demand among microfinance clients.
Status: Complete
Do lower rates improve loan repayment rates?
Interest Rate Sensitivity among Village Banking Clients in Mexico
Measuring the price elasticity of demand among microfinance clients.
Status: Complete
What is the impact of the removal of the cosignatory requirement on household dynamics and bargaining?
Cosignatory Requirement as a Barrier for Women Accessing Credit in Peru
Examining whether the cosignatory requirement is indeed acting as a barrier for women accessing credit.
Status: Ongoing
Is a cosignatory requirement a barrier to accessing credit for women?
Cosignatory Requirement as a Barrier for Women Accessing Credit in Peru
Examining whether the cosignatory requirement is indeed acting as a barrier for women accessing credit.
Status: Ongoing
What types of relationships ensure the best repayment rates on loans?
Trust and Microfinance in Poor Communities in Peru
Investigating what determines trust in social networks in poor communities and evaluating a novel microfinance model that aims to reach a broader array of clients through the incorporation of individual lending practices into an existing group lending model.
Status: Ongoing
What are the mechanisms through which social links influence repayment behavior?
Trust and Microfinance in Poor Communities in Peru
Investigating what determines trust in social networks in poor communities and evaluating a novel microfinance model that aims to reach a broader array of clients through the incorporation of individual lending practices into an existing group lending model.
Status: Ongoing
How much do community members value their relationships to other community members?
Trust and Microfinance in Poor Communities in Peru
Investigating what determines trust in social networks in poor communities and evaluating a novel microfinance model that aims to reach a broader array of clients through the incorporation of individual lending practices into an existing group lending model.
Status: Ongoing
How can microfinance institutions increase access to credit among underserved populations while still maintaining low costs?
Trust and Microfinance in Poor Communities in Peru
Investigating what determines trust in social networks in poor communities and evaluating a novel microfinance model that aims to reach a broader array of clients through the incorporation of individual lending practices into an existing group lending model.
Status: Ongoing
How do the social connections of an individual, family, or social group relate to participation in village microfinance?
Evaluating Village Savings and Loan Associations in Ghana
Understanding the types of people that participate in Village Savings & Loan Programs (VSLAs) and the programs' impact on households and communities.
Status: Ongoing
Do the Village Savings and Loan Associations in Ghana reach the poorest of the poor?
Evaluating Village Savings and Loan Associations in Ghana
Understanding the types of people that participate in Village Savings & Loan Programs (VSLAs) and the programs' impact on households and communities.
Status: Ongoing
Bolivia
Text Message Reminders and Incentives to Save in Bolivia
Evaluating the impact of sending text message reminders to programmed savings clients on frequency and total amount of deposits received, as well as understanding what types of messages motivate clients to comply with their stated desires to save.
Status: Complete
Peeling Back the Layers of Group Liability in Bolivia
Researchers ask if group liability models with smaller groups and less variance among member loans will attract more clients.
Status: Ongoing
Alarm Boxes: Combining Commitment and Reminders
Testing the impact of combining reminders (in the form of an alarm) and commitment devices (a lockbox) on increasing savings.
Status: Ongoing
Introducing Financial Services to Newly Monetized Native Amazonians
Status: Ongoing
What types of messages are most effective at motivating people to follow through on their stated desires to save?
Text Message Reminders and Incentives to Save in Bolivia
Evaluating the impact of sending text message reminders to programmed savings clients on frequency and total amount of deposits received, as well as understanding what types of messages motivate clients to comply with their stated desires to save.
Status: Complete
Are text message reminders an effective way to increase savings deposits and to help people reach their stated savings goals?
Text Message Reminders and Incentives to Save in Bolivia
Evaluating the impact of sending text message reminders to programmed savings clients on frequency and total amount of deposits received, as well as understanding what types of messages motivate clients to comply with their stated desires to save.
Status: Complete
Do health education programs improve health outcomes of microfinance clients?
Health Education for Microcredit Clients in Peru
Evaluating the impact of a mother and child nutrition health training on the health of microcredit clients and their children, as well as on the sustainability of the partner MFI.
Status: Complete
Does the SEED commitment savings product increase savings among people who expressed a desire to save but had a difficult time doing so due to lack of self-control?
Commitment Savings Products in the Philippines
Evaluating the use of innovative savings products offered in the Philippines
Status: Complete
Does opening a SEED commitment savings account increase the clients’ total financial savings?
Commitment Savings Products in the Philippines
Evaluating the use of innovative savings products offered in the Philippines
Status: Complete
Do clients who choose to open a SEED commitment savings account share certain characteristics?
Commitment Savings Products in the Philippines
Evaluating the use of innovative savings products offered in the Philippines
Status: Complete
Is group liability for microcredit better than individual liability when it comes to repayment rates, client retention, loan size, and client outreach?
Peeling Back the Layers of Group Liability in Bolivia
Researchers ask if group liability models with smaller groups and less variance among member loans will attract more clients.
Status: Ongoing
Can the requirements of group liability for microcredit be relaxed to the point which optimizes its impact?
Peeling Back the Layers of Group Liability in Bolivia
Researchers ask if group liability models with smaller groups and less variance among member loans will attract more clients.
Status: Ongoing
Do group liability loans work better (or worse) than individual liability loans due to monitoring and/or enforcement or peer selection issues?
Group versus Individual Liability for Microfinance borrowers in the Philippines
Microfinance based on group lending with individual liability presents no greater risk to lending institutions, and attracts more clients in the Philippines.
Status: Complete
Group vs. Individual Micro-Lending in Peru
Reexamining the institutional impacts of offering group liability vs. individual liability loans within a group lending program.
Status: Ongoing
Are group liability loans better than individual liability loans when it comes to repayment rates, client retention, loan size, and client outreach?
Group versus Individual Liability for Microfinance borrowers in the Philippines
Microfinance based on group lending with individual liability presents no greater risk to lending institutions, and attracts more clients in the Philippines.
Status: Complete
Group vs. Individual Micro-Lending in Peru
Reexamining the institutional impacts of offering group liability vs. individual liability loans within a group lending program.
Status: Ongoing
Empowering Women & Girls
Evaluating the Saving for Change Program in Mali
Evaluating the overall impact of the saving for change program in Mali and determining the most economical and effective way of spreading the program.
Status: Ongoing
Human Capital, Financial Capital and the Economic Empowerment of Female Adolescents in Tanzania
Status: Ongoing
Returns to Capital among Microenterprises in Ghana
Measuring the return to capital among male and female microenterprise owners in urban Ghana.
Status: Ongoing
Training Women to Grow Microenterprises
Evaluating the impact of small business training and capital grants on microenterprise owners and potential entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka.
Status: Ongoing
Mali
Evaluating the Saving for Change Program in Mali
Evaluating the overall impact of the saving for change program in Mali and determining the most economical and effective way of spreading the program.
Status: Ongoing
Agricultural Microfinance in Mali
What constraints prevent farmers from taking on potentially profitable investments?
Status: Ongoing
What is the impact of different implementation strategies on the Saving for Change program?
Evaluating the Saving for Change Program in Mali
Evaluating the overall impact of the saving for change program in Mali and determining the most economical and effective way of spreading the program.
Status: Ongoing
What is the best way of replicating the Saving for Change program?
Evaluating the Saving for Change Program in Mali
Evaluating the overall impact of the saving for change program in Mali and determining the most economical and effective way of spreading the program.
Status: Ongoing
Are cross-village replicated groups as efficient as within-village replicated groups in the Saving for Change program?
Evaluating the Saving for Change Program in Mali
Evaluating the overall impact of the saving for change program in Mali and determining the most economical and effective way of spreading the program.
Status: Ongoing
What is the impact of providing deposit collection service on savings levels?
Deposit Collectors in the Philippines
Evaluating the impact of door-to-door deposit collection service on clients’ saving and borrowing behaviors.
Status: Complete
What is the impact of providing deposit collection service on clients’ borrowing patterns?
Deposit Collectors in the Philippines
Evaluating the impact of door-to-door deposit collection service on clients’ saving and borrowing behaviors.
Status: Complete
To what extent can psychological features of a promotional campaign affect take-up of a loan product?
Marketing Effects in a Consumer Credit Market in South Africa
Pricing the effect of psychological “features” on the take-up of a loan product in a mass-mailing marketing campaign.
Status: Complete
How price sensitive are the microfinance clients to hospitalization insurance?
Demand for Hospital Insurance in the Philippines
Examining the take-up of a health insurance product offered to microfinance clients in order to study price sensitivity and assess the extent of adverse selection.
Status: Complete
How important is adverse selection in the insurance market in developing countries?
Demand for Hospital Insurance in the Philippines
Examining the take-up of a health insurance product offered to microfinance clients in order to study price sensitivity and assess the extent of adverse selection.
Status: Complete
Credit with Health Insurance: Evidence from the Philippines
Understanding health and risk-taking impacts of access to health insurance in order to estimate the optimal distribution channel for these micro-insurance products.
Status: Ongoing
India
Debt Traps for Micro-Entrepreneurs in Chennai, India
Understanding why some microentrepreneurs frequently use high interest rate debt for working capital without a corresponding increase in the scale of business operations.
Status: Ongoing
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in India
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
Providing Health Insurance Through Microfinance Networks in Rural India
Status: Complete
The miracle of microfinance? Evidence from a randomized evaluation
Microcredit has spread rapidly since its beginnings in the late 1970s, but whether and how much it helps the poor is the subject of intense debate. Does the introduction of microcredit in the slums of Hyderabad, India have the power to transform lives?
Status: Complete
Does Microfinance Promote Generosity? Evidence from India.
Does Microfinance Promote Generosity?
Status: Ongoing
What is the impact of debt pay-off on saving behaviors?
Debt Traps for Micro-Entrepreneurs in Chennai, India
Understanding why some microentrepreneurs frequently use high interest rate debt for working capital without a corresponding increase in the scale of business operations.
Status: Ongoing
Is expanding access to consumer credit profitable for our partner lender?
Small Consumer Loans for the Working Poor in South Africa
Examining the impact – on the lender’s bottom line and borrowers’ household welfare – of expanding the supply of consumer credit to the working poor in South Africa.
Status: Complete
Do these marginally-creditworthy borrowers suffer from binding liquidity constraints such that receiving a loan from our partner lender increases household welfare?
Small Consumer Loans for the Working Poor in South Africa
Examining the impact – on the lender’s bottom line and borrowers’ household welfare – of expanding the supply of consumer credit to the working poor in South Africa.
Status: Complete
How does the presence of competition affect loan take-up at different interest rates?
Impact of Rural Credit in Peru
Understanding the impact of credit and access to credit on the lives of the rural poor in Cuzco.
Status: Ongoing
How do changes in the interest rate affect the type of clients that microfinance institutions (MFIs) attract?
Impact of Rural Credit in Peru
Understanding the impact of credit and access to credit on the lives of the rural poor in Cuzco.
Status: Ongoing
Chile
Financial Literacy, Short-run Impatience, and the Determinants of Saving and Financial Management in Chile
Examining the effects of financial literacy and short-run impatience on investment and consumption decisions for Chilean households.
Status: Ongoing
Does the form in which gains and losses from a pension plan are presented affect decisions?
Financial Literacy, Short-run Impatience, and the Determinants of Saving and Financial Management in Chile
Examining the effects of financial literacy and short-run impatience on investment and consumption decisions for Chilean households.
Status: Ongoing
Does the ability to forego immediate gratification predict future pension decisions, investments in health, spending on impulse on purchases, or debt burden?
Financial Literacy, Short-run Impatience, and the Determinants of Saving and Financial Management in Chile
Examining the effects of financial literacy and short-run impatience on investment and consumption decisions for Chilean households.
Status: Ongoing
Does financial literacy impact the ability to make optimal financial managment decisions?
Financial Literacy, Short-run Impatience, and the Determinants of Saving and Financial Management in Chile
Examining the effects of financial literacy and short-run impatience on investment and consumption decisions for Chilean households.
Status: Ongoing
Does formal insurance crowd out informal insurance arrangements?
Credit with Health Insurance: Evidence from the Philippines
Understanding health and risk-taking impacts of access to health insurance in order to estimate the optimal distribution channel for these micro-insurance products.
Status: Ongoing
Does access to health insurance increase risk-taking behavior?
Credit with Health Insurance: Evidence from the Philippines
Understanding health and risk-taking impacts of access to health insurance in order to estimate the optimal distribution channel for these micro-insurance products.
Status: Ongoing
Does access to health insurance improve the health status of its beneficiaries?
Credit with Health Insurance: Evidence from the Philippines
Understanding health and risk-taking impacts of access to health insurance in order to estimate the optimal distribution channel for these micro-insurance products.
Status: Ongoing
What mechanisms work best to encourage repayment of micro loans?
Psychological Responses to Microfinance Loan Recovery Strategies in Peru
Measuring the persuasive power of group or individual pressure and optimistic or pessimistic spins to encourage loan repayment in Peru.
Status: Complete
Is it cost-effective for the lending organization to add business training sessions to microcredit lending group meetings?
Business Education for Microcredit Clients in Peru
Much microcredit is targeted at entrepreneurs, but not everyone has business skills or knowledge. Could business training help improve the borrowers' results? Women who received training increased their knowledge, improved their business practices, and had greater revenue. The lender benefited too: those clients had better repayment and were more likely to borrow again.
Status: Complete
How does business training impact the business and household outcomes of microcredit clients?
Business Education for Microcredit Clients in Peru
Much microcredit is targeted at entrepreneurs, but not everyone has business skills or knowledge. Could business training help improve the borrowers' results? Women who received training increased their knowledge, improved their business practices, and had greater revenue. The lender benefited too: those clients had better repayment and were more likely to borrow again.
Status: Complete
Ethiopia
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Ethiopia
Can an intensive package of support lift the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training?
Status: Ongoing
Ethiopia: More Sweatshops for Africa? An Experimental Study of Firms, Factory Labor, and Poverty Alleviation
Status: Ongoing
Education
Northern Uganda Social Action Fund – Youth Opportunities Program
The impact of unconditional cash transfers on employment, incomes, social cohesion and social stability
Status: Ongoing
Evaluating the Efficacy of School Based Financial Education Programs
Status: Ongoing
Smoothing the Cost of Education: Primary School Saving in Uganda
Evaluating the impact of a savings program for primary school students and determining whether it can serve as a means to decrease student dropout rates.
Status: Ongoing
Starting a Lifetime of Saving: Teaching the Practice of Saving to Ugandan Youth
Can a basic financial education program for youth change financial awareness, attitudes, knowledge, and behavior?
Status: Ongoing
Brain Drain in Ghana
What are the determinants and effects of "brain drain", the emigration of highly skilled workers?
Status: Ongoing
Training and Technical Assistance for New Entrepreneurs in Morocco
Status: Ongoing
Post-conflict Recovery
Northern Uganda Social Action Fund – Youth Opportunities Program
The impact of unconditional cash transfers on employment, incomes, social cohesion and social stability
Status: Ongoing
Ex-combatant Reintegration in Liberia
A mixed-methods evaluation that examines the impact of an intensive and comprehensive reintegration training program geared particularly at reaching those ex-combatants who were not successfully reintegrated in other national programs. The evaluation will utilize a randomized control design, which will be integrated with an ethnographic and psychosocial study of youth transformation.
Status: Complete
Roots and Remedies: Persistent poverty and violence amongst urban street youth in Liberia
Monrovia street youth exhibit extreme levels of impatience, self control problems, and violence. How can we create sustained behavioral change, from impulsive spending to saving and investment? Are increases in income and employment associated with lower aggression and violence?
Status: Ongoing
Enterprises for ultra-poor women after war: the WINGS program in Northern Uganda
Twenty years of war and widespread displacement have left virtually the entire population of northern Uganda impoverished. Does providing business skills training help women become self sufficient? Does economic activity empower women, and improve their status and political participation?
Status: Ongoing
Community Participation
Northern Uganda Social Action Fund – Youth Opportunities Program
The impact of unconditional cash transfers on employment, incomes, social cohesion and social stability
Status: Ongoing
Uganda
Northern Uganda Social Action Fund – Youth Opportunities Program
The impact of unconditional cash transfers on employment, incomes, social cohesion and social stability
Status: Ongoing
Smoothing the Cost of Education: Primary School Saving in Uganda
Evaluating the impact of a savings program for primary school students and determining whether it can serve as a means to decrease student dropout rates.
Status: Ongoing
Starting a Lifetime of Saving: Teaching the Practice of Saving to Ugandan Youth
Can a basic financial education program for youth change financial awareness, attitudes, knowledge, and behavior?
Status: Ongoing
Returns to Consulting for Women Entrepreneurs
Status: Ongoing
Improving Loan Repayment through Positive Incentives in Uganda
Status: Complete
Evaluating Village Savings and Loan Associations in Uganda
Can Village Savings and Loan Associations improve access to credit and savings, and have a positive impact on income, consumption, food security, health, education, and female empowerment?
Status: Ongoing
Enterprises for ultra-poor women after war: the WINGS program in Northern Uganda
Twenty years of war and widespread displacement have left virtually the entire population of northern Uganda impoverished. Does providing business skills training help women become self sufficient? Does economic activity empower women, and improve their status and political participation?
Status: Ongoing
Governance & Community Participation
Ex-combatant Reintegration in Liberia
A mixed-methods evaluation that examines the impact of an intensive and comprehensive reintegration training program geared particularly at reaching those ex-combatants who were not successfully reintegrated in other national programs. The evaluation will utilize a randomized control design, which will be integrated with an ethnographic and psychosocial study of youth transformation.
Status: Complete
Roots and Remedies: Persistent poverty and violence amongst urban street youth in Liberia
Monrovia street youth exhibit extreme levels of impatience, self control problems, and violence. How can we create sustained behavioral change, from impulsive spending to saving and investment? Are increases in income and employment associated with lower aggression and violence?
Status: Ongoing
Urban Property Rights in Mongolia
Status: Ongoing
Does Microfinance Promote Generosity? Evidence from India.
Does Microfinance Promote Generosity?
Status: Ongoing
Liberia
Ex-combatant Reintegration in Liberia
A mixed-methods evaluation that examines the impact of an intensive and comprehensive reintegration training program geared particularly at reaching those ex-combatants who were not successfully reintegrated in other national programs. The evaluation will utilize a randomized control design, which will be integrated with an ethnographic and psychosocial study of youth transformation.
Status: Complete
Roots and Remedies: Persistent poverty and violence amongst urban street youth in Liberia
Monrovia street youth exhibit extreme levels of impatience, self control problems, and violence. How can we create sustained behavioral change, from impulsive spending to saving and investment? Are increases in income and employment associated with lower aggression and violence?
Status: Ongoing
“In the rural setting
Ex-combatant Reintegration in Liberia
A mixed-methods evaluation that examines the impact of an intensive and comprehensive reintegration training program geared particularly at reaching those ex-combatants who were not successfully reintegrated in other national programs. The evaluation will utilize a randomized control design, which will be integrated with an ethnographic and psychosocial study of youth transformation.
Status: Complete
“How can policy makers break high-risk youth out of illicit networks and steer them towards legal
Ex-combatant Reintegration in Liberia
A mixed-methods evaluation that examines the impact of an intensive and comprehensive reintegration training program geared particularly at reaching those ex-combatants who were not successfully reintegrated in other national programs. The evaluation will utilize a randomized control design, which will be integrated with an ethnographic and psychosocial study of youth transformation.
Status: Complete
What kinds of agricultural support can help them expand their activities?
Ex-combatant Reintegration in Liberia
A mixed-methods evaluation that examines the impact of an intensive and comprehensive reintegration training program geared particularly at reaching those ex-combatants who were not successfully reintegrated in other national programs. The evaluation will utilize a randomized control design, which will be integrated with an ethnographic and psychosocial study of youth transformation.
Status: Complete
lucrative
Ex-combatant Reintegration in Liberia
A mixed-methods evaluation that examines the impact of an intensive and comprehensive reintegration training program geared particularly at reaching those ex-combatants who were not successfully reintegrated in other national programs. The evaluation will utilize a randomized control design, which will be integrated with an ethnographic and psychosocial study of youth transformation.
Status: Complete
How to reduce these youth’s involvement in violence and the risk of their re-mobilization into insurrection in the future?
Ex-combatant Reintegration in Liberia
A mixed-methods evaluation that examines the impact of an intensive and comprehensive reintegration training program geared particularly at reaching those ex-combatants who were not successfully reintegrated in other national programs. The evaluation will utilize a randomized control design, which will be integrated with an ethnographic and psychosocial study of youth transformation.
Status: Complete
can high-risk youth be transformed into stable and successful smallholder farmers through agricultural training?”
Ex-combatant Reintegration in Liberia
A mixed-methods evaluation that examines the impact of an intensive and comprehensive reintegration training program geared particularly at reaching those ex-combatants who were not successfully reintegrated in other national programs. The evaluation will utilize a randomized control design, which will be integrated with an ethnographic and psychosocial study of youth transformation.
Status: Complete
and sustainable employment?”
Ex-combatant Reintegration in Liberia
A mixed-methods evaluation that examines the impact of an intensive and comprehensive reintegration training program geared particularly at reaching those ex-combatants who were not successfully reintegrated in other national programs. The evaluation will utilize a randomized control design, which will be integrated with an ethnographic and psychosocial study of youth transformation.
Status: Complete
Technology Adoption
Savings, Subsidies and Sustainable Food Security in Mozambique
Status: Ongoing
Using Internal Risk Models to determine changes in Committee Behaviors(MIR)
Status: Ongoing
Before and After Comparison of Innovative Mobile Applications for Micro Retailers in Colombia
Status: Ongoing
Reducing Barriers to Saving in Malawi
Can reducing barriers to savings in rural areas increase agricultural outputs and consumption?
Status: Complete
Alarm Boxes: Combining Commitment and Reminders
Testing the impact of combining reminders (in the form of an alarm) and commitment devices (a lockbox) on increasing savings.
Status: Ongoing
Mozambique
Savings, Subsidies and Sustainable Food Security in Mozambique
Status: Ongoing
Student Attendance
Smoothing the Cost of Education: Primary School Saving in Uganda
Evaluating the impact of a savings program for primary school students and determining whether it can serve as a means to decrease student dropout rates.
Status: Ongoing
Is a student savings program an effective and efficient way to decrease student dropout rates?
Smoothing the Cost of Education: Primary School Saving in Uganda
Evaluating the impact of a savings program for primary school students and determining whether it can serve as a means to decrease student dropout rates.
Status: Ongoing
How do the commitment device, pure saving, and matching grant components of a micro-savings program compare in lowering primary school dropout rates?
Smoothing the Cost of Education: Primary School Saving in Uganda
Evaluating the impact of a savings program for primary school students and determining whether it can serve as a means to decrease student dropout rates.
Status: Ongoing
Does smoothing the payment of school fees make primary school more affordable?
Smoothing the Cost of Education: Primary School Saving in Uganda
Evaluating the impact of a savings program for primary school students and determining whether it can serve as a means to decrease student dropout rates.
Status: Ongoing
Dominican Republic
Small and Medium Enterprise Financing and Mentoring Services in Emerging Markets in the Dominican Republic
Recent work in the area of development finance has focused on poverty reduction through microfinance institutions (MFIs). These institutions are thought to enable entrepreneurship by providing small personal loans to borrowers who otherwise would have difficulty accessing capital markets, but new entrepreneurs are also faced with complex financial decisions for which they may be unprepared. Studies have shown that there is a strong association between higher financial literacy and better business decisions and outcomes, but there is little evidence on the best ways to quickly convey complex financial practices to business owners. Should courses place more weigh on conveying every aspect of complex materials, or teaching basic concepts in greater depth?
Status: Complete
Global
Informal Finance - Mapping Global Savings and Lending Practices
To understand the potential gains from formal banking, we must first understand the risks and returns that the poor face from financial-service options in the informal sector. Yet, while informal financial products dominate the financial lives of the poor, we have scant data and analysis on either informal savings or informal debt. This project aims to fill that gap by collecting detailed information on a range of informal financial vehicles from countries across various regions of the world.
Status: Ongoing
What are the relative impacts of financial literacy training and promotion of savings accounts on financial behavior in Uganda?
Starting a Lifetime of Saving: Teaching the Practice of Saving to Ugandan Youth
Can a basic financial education program for youth change financial awareness, attitudes, knowledge, and behavior?
Status: Ongoing
Can a basic financial education program for youth change financial awareness, attitudes, knowledge and behavior?
Starting a Lifetime of Saving: Teaching the Practice of Saving to Ugandan Youth
Can a basic financial education program for youth change financial awareness, attitudes, knowledge, and behavior?
Status: Ongoing
Capacity Building
Returns to Consulting for Women Entrepreneurs
Status: Ongoing
Experimenting for Entrepreneurship
Status: Ongoing
What is the relative impact of skill transfer via standardized courses teaching specific skills compared to more personalized mentoring or consulting services?
Returns to Consulting for Women Entrepreneurs
Status: Ongoing
Nepal
Access to Savings in Nepal
While savings research shows the promise of access to savings for specific demographics, i.e. entrepreneurs & members of ROSCAS, as well as through commitment devices, there is little evidence on impact of a simple savings account on the general population.
Status: Ongoing
Kenya
The Role of Mobile Banking in Expanding Trade Credit and Business Development in Kenya
Status: Ongoing
Limited insurance within the household in Kenya
Status: Complete
Finding Missing Markets: An Agricultural Brokerage Intervention in Kenya
Examining the impact of marketing assistance and trade credit among farmers' groups.
Status: Complete
Saving for Health Expenditures in Kenya
Testing the demand for and impact of commitment savings devices earmarked for health.
Status: Ongoing
Unconditional Cash Transfers in Kenya
Status: Ongoing
Savings Accounts for rural micro entrepreneurs in Kenya
Testing the impact of formal savings accounts on savings, productive investment and expenditures among small-scale entrepreneurs in rural Western Kenya.
Status: Complete
The Return to Capital for Small Retailers in Kenya
Measuring returns to capital for small rural retailers and examining the sources of deviations from efficiency and of heterogeneity in firms and their returns.
Status: Complete
Yemen
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Yemen
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
Pakistan
Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Pakistan
Evaluating the viability of graduating the ultra poor out of extreme poverty through enterprise development, financial education, savings services and training.
Status: Ongoing
What role does agricultural credit play in increasing horticultural produce for export?
Finding Missing Markets: An Agricultural Brokerage Intervention in Kenya
Examining the impact of marketing assistance and trade credit among farmers' groups.
Status: Complete
How does information on marketing and distribution increase returns to farmers?
Finding Missing Markets: An Agricultural Brokerage Intervention in Kenya
Examining the impact of marketing assistance and trade credit among farmers' groups.
Status: Complete
Can the provision of specialized saving devices earmarked for health improve the welfare of households?
Saving for Health Expenditures in Kenya
Testing the demand for and impact of commitment savings devices earmarked for health.
Status: Ongoing
Colombia
Using Internal Risk Models to determine changes in Committee Behaviors(MIR)
Status: Ongoing
Before and After Comparison of Innovative Mobile Applications for Micro Retailers in Colombia
Status: Ongoing
Supply Chain Financing for Dairy Farmers
Status: Complete
Experimenting for Entrepreneurship
Status: Ongoing
How does introducing a credit risk model influence a credit committee’s perceptions and decision-making when reviewing a loan application?
Using Internal Risk Models to determine changes in Committee Behaviors(MIR)
Status: Ongoing
Can a credit risk model incorporating qualitative indicators be an accurate predictor of loan performance?
Using Internal Risk Models to determine changes in Committee Behaviors(MIR)
Status: Ongoing
Can a mobile application improve business outcomes?
Before and After Comparison of Innovative Mobile Applications for Micro Retailers in Colombia
Status: Ongoing
Can innovative loan products improve business outcomes and access to finance for small dairy farmers?
Supply Chain Financing for Dairy Farmers
Status: Complete
Can a business plan competition complemented by training and seed money help create sustainable small businesses?
Experimenting for Entrepreneurship
Status: Ongoing
What are the impacts of unconditional cash transfers for poor households?
Unconditional Cash Transfers in Kenya
Status: Ongoing
How do these impacts vary depending on the gender of the recipient and the timing of transfers (all at once or disbursed over time)?
Unconditional Cash Transfers in Kenya
Status: Ongoing
What are the barriers to saving in rural areas of developing countries?
Reducing Barriers to Saving in Malawi
Can reducing barriers to savings in rural areas increase agricultural outputs and consumption?
Status: Complete
In particular, what is the relative importance of access to banking services, transaction costs, self-control problems, and sharing norms in explaining low savings levels?
Reducing Barriers to Saving in Malawi
Can reducing barriers to savings in rural areas increase agricultural outputs and consumption?
Status: Complete
Tanzania
Human Capital, Financial Capital and the Economic Empowerment of Female Adolescents in Tanzania
Status: Ongoing
Is combining lockboxes with reminders an even more effective way to increasing savings rates and satisfaction with savings?
Alarm Boxes: Combining Commitment and Reminders
Testing the impact of combining reminders (in the form of an alarm) and commitment devices (a lockbox) on increasing savings.
Status: Ongoing
Can people be encouraged to save if their saving needs are more visualized?
Alarm Boxes: Combining Commitment and Reminders
Testing the impact of combining reminders (in the form of an alarm) and commitment devices (a lockbox) on increasing savings.
Status: Ongoing
Are lockboxes an effective way to increasing savings rates and satisfaction with savings?
Alarm Boxes: Combining Commitment and Reminders
Testing the impact of combining reminders (in the form of an alarm) and commitment devices (a lockbox) on increasing savings.
Status: Ongoing
Ecuador
Remembering to Save: Timing of SMS Reminders in Ecuador
Can text message reminders help poor Ecuadorians remember to save? Evaluating whether sending text message reminders that vary in terms of timing, frequency, and duration to programmed savings clients positively affect frequency of deposit transactions and total amount of deposits received.
Status: Complete
How does varying the frequency and timing of SMS reminders affect savings behavior?
Remembering to Save: Timing of SMS Reminders in Ecuador
Can text message reminders help poor Ecuadorians remember to save? Evaluating whether sending text message reminders that vary in terms of timing, frequency, and duration to programmed savings clients positively affect frequency of deposit transactions and total amount of deposits received.
Status: Complete
Can SMS reminders encourage savings?
Remembering to Save: Timing of SMS Reminders in Ecuador
Can text message reminders help poor Ecuadorians remember to save? Evaluating whether sending text message reminders that vary in terms of timing, frequency, and duration to programmed savings clients positively affect frequency of deposit transactions and total amount of deposits received.
Status: Complete
El Salvador
Responses to Degree of Control over Remittances in El Salvador
Status: Complete
How can remittance products give migrants more control?
Responses to Degree of Control over Remittances in El Salvador
Status: Complete
How do these gains compare to aid programs for small enterprises and agriculture?
Ethiopia: More Sweatshops for Africa? An Experimental Study of Firms, Factory Labor, and Poverty Alleviation
Status: Ongoing
What are the impacts of industrial jobs on worker welfare?
Ethiopia: More Sweatshops for Africa? An Experimental Study of Firms, Factory Labor, and Poverty Alleviation
Status: Ongoing
What are the returns to capital for microenterprises?
Returns to Capital among Microenterprises in Ghana
Measuring the return to capital among male and female microenterprise owners in urban Ghana.
Status: Ongoing
Does cultural context affect differences in returns to capital for male versus female-owned microenterprises?
Returns to Capital among Microenterprises in Ghana
Measuring the return to capital among male and female microenterprise owners in urban Ghana.
Status: Ongoing
Do male and female-owned microenterprises receive differing returns to capital?
Returns to Capital among Microenterprises in Ghana
Measuring the return to capital among male and female microenterprise owners in urban Ghana.
Status: Ongoing
What is the impact of formal savings accounts on savings, productive investment and health expenditures among small-scale entrepreneurs?
Savings Accounts for rural micro entrepreneurs in Kenya
Testing the impact of formal savings accounts on savings, productive investment and expenditures among small-scale entrepreneurs in rural Western Kenya.
Status: Complete
Do savings constraints prevent microentreprenuers from expanding the size of their businesses?
Savings Accounts for rural micro entrepreneurs in Kenya
Testing the impact of formal savings accounts on savings, productive investment and expenditures among small-scale entrepreneurs in rural Western Kenya.
Status: Complete
What are the effects of financial literacy training on microfinance clients and their community?
Financial Education Delivered through Radio and Videos among Low-Income Households in Cuzco, Peru
Investigating the impact of a technology-based financial literacy program on savings, repayment and retention rates among Peruvian microcredit clients
Status: Complete
Does the use of radio and video increase the effectiveness of financial literacy programs?
Financial Education Delivered through Radio and Videos among Low-Income Households in Cuzco, Peru
Investigating the impact of a technology-based financial literacy program on savings, repayment and retention rates among Peruvian microcredit clients
Status: Complete
Mongolia
Urban Property Rights in Mongolia
Status: Ongoing
United States
Increasing Savings and Reducing Reliance on Credit Card Debt for Low-Income Individuals in Washington DC
Status: Ongoing
Financial Education and Commitment Savings Contracts to Reduce Credit Card Reliance and Mobilize Savings among Low-Income U.S. Households
Status: Ongoing
Using Behavioral Economics to Help Households Reduce Debt
Status: Ongoing
Information and social interaction in savings decisions
Status: Complete
Does providing a psychological barrier to impulsivity induce greater savings?
Introducing Financial Services to Newly Monetized Native Amazonians
Status: Ongoing
Does access to microcredit have a significant impact on household expenditures and welfare?
The miracle of microfinance? Evidence from a randomized evaluation
Microcredit has spread rapidly since its beginnings in the late 1970s, but whether and how much it helps the poor is the subject of intense debate. Does the introduction of microcredit in the slums of Hyderabad, India have the power to transform lives?
Status: Complete
Qatar
Enhancing the Development Impact of Remittances: Direct Payment and Savings Facilities for Filipino Workers in Qatar
Status: Ongoing
Investment and Regulation
Brain Drain in Ghana
What are the determinants and effects of "brain drain", the emigration of highly skilled workers?
Status: Ongoing
Financial Literacy and Privatized Social Security in Mexico
Status: Ongoing
The Return to Capital for Small Retailers in Kenya
Measuring returns to capital for small rural retailers and examining the sources of deviations from efficiency and of heterogeneity in firms and their returns.
Status: Complete
Education Quality
Brain Drain in Ghana
What are the determinants and effects of "brain drain", the emigration of highly skilled workers?
Status: Ongoing
What motivates skilled workers to emigrate from their home country?
Brain Drain in Ghana
What are the determinants and effects of "brain drain", the emigration of highly skilled workers?
Status: Ongoing
What are the effects of the skilled worker emigration known as 'Brain Drain' on poor countries?
Brain Drain in Ghana
What are the determinants and effects of "brain drain", the emigration of highly skilled workers?
Status: Ongoing
Why don't farmers make potentially profitable investments?
Agricultural Microfinance in Mali
What constraints prevent farmers from taking on potentially profitable investments?
Status: Ongoing
What is the impact of access to credit on farmers' decisions and well being?
Agricultural Microfinance in Mali
What constraints prevent farmers from taking on potentially profitable investments?
Status: Ongoing
Sri Lanka
Training Women to Grow Microenterprises
Evaluating the impact of small business training and capital grants on microenterprise owners and potential entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka.
Status: Ongoing
Making the Jump to Employer: What does it take?
Evaluating the impact of small business training, saving programs, and wage subsidies on getting microenterprise owners to hire employees.
Status: Ongoing
Can training and capital transfers influence women's choice of sector for microenterprise entry?
Training Women to Grow Microenterprises
Evaluating the impact of small business training and capital grants on microenterprise owners and potential entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka.
Status: Ongoing
Commercialization & Subsidy
Enterprises for ultra-poor women after war: the WINGS program in Northern Uganda
Twenty years of war and widespread displacement have left virtually the entire population of northern Uganda impoverished. Does providing business skills training help women become self sufficient? Does economic activity empower women, and improve their status and political participation?
Status: Ongoing
“What are the indirect effects of earned income on child health and education?”
Enterprises for ultra-poor women after war: the WINGS program in Northern Uganda
Twenty years of war and widespread displacement have left virtually the entire population of northern Uganda impoverished. Does providing business skills training help women become self sufficient? Does economic activity empower women, and improve their status and political participation?
Status: Ongoing
“What are the determinants of entrepreneurship among the most vulnerable?”
Enterprises for ultra-poor women after war: the WINGS program in Northern Uganda
Twenty years of war and widespread displacement have left virtually the entire population of northern Uganda impoverished. Does providing business skills training help women become self sufficient? Does economic activity empower women, and improve their status and political participation?
Status: Ongoing
“Can small grants programs help the most vulnerable women develop sustainable livelihoods?”
Enterprises for ultra-poor women after war: the WINGS program in Northern Uganda
Twenty years of war and widespread displacement have left virtually the entire population of northern Uganda impoverished. Does providing business skills training help women become self sufficient? Does economic activity empower women, and improve their status and political participation?
Status: Ongoing
What role do risk attitudes, impulsiveness, altruism, trust, and public-mindedness play in group and poverty dynamics?
Enterprises for ultra-poor women after war: the WINGS program in Northern Uganda
Twenty years of war and widespread displacement have left virtually the entire population of northern Uganda impoverished. Does providing business skills training help women become self sufficient? Does economic activity empower women, and improve their status and political participation?
Status: Ongoing
What is the link between economic activity and women's empowerment, status, and political participation?
Enterprises for ultra-poor women after war: the WINGS program in Northern Uganda
Twenty years of war and widespread displacement have left virtually the entire population of northern Uganda impoverished. Does providing business skills training help women become self sufficient? Does economic activity empower women, and improve their status and political participation?
Status: Ongoing
What are the contributions of business skills, capital, and social networks to microenterprise success?
Enterprises for ultra-poor women after war: the WINGS program in Northern Uganda
Twenty years of war and widespread displacement have left virtually the entire population of northern Uganda impoverished. Does providing business skills training help women become self sufficient? Does economic activity empower women, and improve their status and political participation?
Status: Ongoing
Whydon't more microenterprise owners hire paid employees?
Making the Jump to Employer: What does it take?
Evaluating the impact of small business training, saving programs, and wage subsidies on getting microenterprise owners to hire employees.
Status: Ongoing
Can interventions increase the likelihood that microenterprise owners hire paid employees?
Making the Jump to Employer: What does it take?
Evaluating the impact of small business training, saving programs, and wage subsidies on getting microenterprise owners to hire employees.
Status: Ongoing
What factors influence individuals' pension investment choices?
Financial Literacy and Privatized Social Security in Mexico
Status: Ongoing
How does the market for pension investment funds respond to investor decisions?
Financial Literacy and Privatized Social Security in Mexico
Status: Ongoing
What is the rate of return for small rural retail businesses, and how do the estimated rates of return vary across firms?
The Return to Capital for Small Retailers in Kenya
Measuring returns to capital for small rural retailers and examining the sources of deviations from efficiency and of heterogeneity in firms and their returns.
Status: Complete
What is the marginal return to an incremental increase in inventory for small retail firms?
The Return to Capital for Small Retailers in Kenya
Measuring returns to capital for small rural retailers and examining the sources of deviations from efficiency and of heterogeneity in firms and their returns.
Status: Complete
How do estimated rates of return vary with experience, various personality characteristics, or measures of cognitive ability?
The Return to Capital for Small Retailers in Kenya
Measuring returns to capital for small rural retailers and examining the sources of deviations from efficiency and of heterogeneity in firms and their returns.
Status: Complete
For firms for which the marginal return is high, do these significant unexploited profit opportunities reflect substantial credit constraints at the firm level, or are they reflective of behavioral or other biases?
The Return to Capital for Small Retailers in Kenya
Measuring returns to capital for small rural retailers and examining the sources of deviations from efficiency and of heterogeneity in firms and their returns.
Status: Complete
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