Until recently, the drive towards financial inclusion was commonly framed in terms of access. Yet as the explosion of digital financial services and simplified account opening procedures have begun to make financial services accessible to the poor, it has become apparent that access is only part of the equation. Despite these innovations, account ownership and usage has remained stubbornly low in much of Sub-Saharan Africa.
Pascaline Dupas, Sarah Green, Anthony Keats, Jonathan Robinson
March 02, 2015
Lasse Brune, Xavier Giné, Jessica Goldberg, Dean Karlan, Robert Osei, Isaac Osei-akoto, Simone Schaner, Bram Thuysbaert, Christopher Udry, Dean Yang
December 23, 2014
Media Coverage
December 18, 2014
IPA Founder and President, Dean Karlan, has an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, in which he discusses his and student Elijah Goldberg's analysis of 55,000 charitable organizations tax returns. Despite prominence of high profile fraudulent charities in many minds ("availability bias" in scientific terms), they find high overhead expenses very rare, and discusses why donors should skip checking organizations' overheads in favor of more meaningful outcomes.
Nava Ashraf, Lori Beaman, Ariel BenYishay, Pascaline Dupas, Paul Fatch, Xavier Giné, Alaka Holla, Dean Karlan, Jeanne Lafortune, Jeremy Magruder, Margaret McConnell, Mushfiq Mobarak, Sendhil Mullainathan, Jonathan Robinson, Renos Vakis, Wesley Yin, Jonathan Zinman
December 10, 2014
Development policy should be redesigned to reflect new insights about human behavior, according to a new World Bank report. The report calls on the development community to shift its agenda based on new insights in behavioral economics, and supports this proposal with findings from numerous IPA evaluations, including our work on commitment devices, reminders, and peer networks.
Media Coverage
October 01, 2014
Gawker's Hamilton Nolan writes "Poor people do not just blow any money they get." He reviews IPA's evaluation of GiveDirectly (here, and more description here), finding that poor Kenyans used unconditional cash transfers effectively, rather than on temptation goods like alchohol.
Media Coverage
September 22, 2014
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September 17, 2014
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August 27, 2014
On the blog, we add some thoughts about the op-ed. This post was cross-posted on Next Billion, and featured in the Center for Global Development's "What We're Reading" newsletter.
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August 25, 2014
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently announced an ambitious plan to expand financial inclusion by making bank accounts available to every Indian family.
Media Coverage
August 20, 2014
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently announced an ambitious plan to expand financial inclusion by making bank accounts available to every Indian family.
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August 06, 2014
Researcher Johannes Haushofer has an article in the July/August issue of Foreign Affairs about the latest research on the psychology of poverty. More information about the GiveDirectly study mentioned in the article can be found here.
Media Coverage
June 17, 2014
Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes writes about GiveDirectly for Four Seasons Magazine. In the article, Hughes praises the role of evidence for giving, specifically citing GiveDirectly's and IPA's evaluation of it. More coverage of IPA's evaluation of GiveDirectly is here.
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April 07, 2014
Foreign Affairs highlights how financial inclusion efforts have benefited from rigorous studies, including IPA's. The article reviews IPA study findings on bolstering savings through text messages, increasing financial discipline through commitment accounts, and stimulating investment through automatic deposits.
Media Coverage
February 10, 2014
Forbes discusses the GiveDirectly unconditional cash transfer model and highlights Innovations for Poverty Action's evaluation findings on improved income and lowered hunger rates. Read the full story here and the project summary here.
Media Coverage
January 23, 2014
The UK's Independent discusses GiveDirectly's unconditional cash transfers, highlighting Innovations for Poverty Action's evaluation findings on increased asset holdings as well as lowered stress and hunger rates for recipients. Read the full story here and the project summary here.
