Media Coverage
January 19, 2017
Quartz includes IPA findings on Kenyans' proximity to the electric grid to explain Kenya's pace of electrification.
Media Coverage
January 13, 2017
The Wall Street Journal speaks with IPA affiliate and board member Taveneet Suri about her work with us studying the effects of M-PESA mobile money on Kenyan women's livelihoods.
Media Coverage
January 03, 2017
M-Pesa, the world’s largest mobile money network, could be the key to poverty eradication in the developing world based on its success in Kenya where almost 200,000 households headed by women are living above the poverty line as a result of the innovation.
Media Coverage
January 01, 2017
IPA Executive Director Annie Duflo and Senior Policy Communications Associate Jeff Mosenkis write about our work in The Washington Post. Arguing against prevailing views that the world is getting worse, they show that many measures of poverty have been improving, and cite four recent areas where we've learned what works. Read the full piece from the link below.
Media Coverage
December 22, 2016
The Washington Post cites IPA's work in Kenya in a piece on how mobile money is reducing poverty, speaking to IPA board member Tavneet Suri.
Media Coverage
December 13, 2016
Demonetisation and the subsequent push for the cashless economy have triggered a debate that was long overdue in the country. Leaving aside the political colours of the arguments, even those by some renowned economists, what is heartening is the fact that India is debating the impact of demonetisation and mobile-based transactions on the poor.
Media Coverage
December 10, 2016
Almost 200,000 Kenyan households, many headed by poor, rural women, have lifted themselves out of poverty using mobile money services, experts said on Thursday, calling for the technology to be introduced in other developing countries.
The impact was most dramatic among single mothers who used M-Pesa, a text message-based mobile payment system, after switching from farming to business and retail sales, the journal Science found.
Media Coverage
December 10, 2016
In a study published Friday in the journal Science, economists at MIT and Georgetown have found that a service allowing users to send and receive money on their mobile phones has significantly reduced poverty in Kenya.
Media Coverage
December 10, 2016
Drive a few miles from the centre of Accra, the capital of Ghana, into the neat rows of houses that surround it and the paved roads disappear almost as quickly as the phone lines. Yet this has not dented the ambitions of Kwami Williams, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who is building a business processing moringa trees and exporting the resulting tea and cosmetic oils.
Media Coverage
December 09, 2016
There are many ways that gender inequality holds us back. But overall, the math is simple: Half the world’s population is financially stunted. As long as we keep suppressing the economic potential of women, we will never achieve the growth and prosperity we want.
Media Coverage
December 09, 2016
Mobile money, a service that allows monetary value to be stored on a mobile phone and sent to other users via text messages, has been adopted by the vast majority of Kenyan households. We estimate that access to the Kenyan mobile money system M-PESA increased per capita consumption levels and lifted 194,000 households, or 2% of Kenyan households, out of poverty.
Media Coverage
December 09, 2016
National Public Radio's All Things Considered reports on the new study in Science on the effects of mobile money access for poor women in Kenya. Read or listen to the full story featuring IPA affiliates Tavneet Suri and Isaac Mbiti below.
Media Coverage
December 08, 2016
IPA Researcher and board member Tavneet Suri of MIT speaks with Vox about her new findings, published in Science. The research, conducted with with Billy Jack and IPA, looked at the how poverty was reduced in Kenya as M-PESA expanded and made mobile money more widely available in the country. Read more at the link below.
Media Coverage
December 08, 2016
A new study today shows that the expansion of mobile money helped bring hundreds of thousands of Kenyans out poverty, especially those in female-headed households. The study, published in Science, examined how M-PESA, Kenya's text message-based payments system, spread across the country over six years.
Press Release
December 08, 2016
The new study found that poor rural women in Kenya with access to a mobile phone-based service allowing them to send and receive payments at low cost shifted their occupations from agriculture to business and saved more. The combined effects reduced poverty for hundreds of thousands of households.
