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  • Microfinance: The Next Bubble?
    Newsweek - June 2009

    Newsweek correspondent Mac Margolis examines a new microfinance study by FAI Managing Director Jonathan Morduch and Center for Global Development Research Fellow David Roodman.  The authors of The Impact of Microcredit on the Poor in Bangladesh: Revisiting the Evidence take a closer look at the quality and conclusions of influential research on microfinance.

    Read the Newsweek review here

    Read the working paper here

  • Lending Talent, and Money, on a Micro Scale
    New York Times - June 2009

    FAI Director Dean Karlan's recent study on the impact of business and entrepreneurship training on microfinance clients is featured in the New York Times.  The study finds that training leads to better business practices and increased revenues and profits among clients, and increased repayment and client retention rates for the microfinance institution. The New York Times article can be found here.

    The paper, "Teaching Entrepreneurship: Impact of Business Training on Microfinance Clients and Institutions," can be found here.

  • Let’s Get Real About Social Businesses
    Devex - June 2009

    FAI Managing Director Jonathan Morduch discusses the opportunities and challenges of the "social business" model with social enterprise Devex.

    The idea of "social business" is interesting, but the debate - now led by the likes of Bill Gates, microfinance trailblazer Muhammad Yunus and others - is still in its infancy, says Jonathan Morduch, New York University economics professor and microfinance expert. To prevent it from becoming a fad, an honest discussion must better articulate business models and address potential trade-offs, he argues.

    See the interview here:

  • Portfolios of the Poor in The New Yorker
    The New Yorker - June 2009

    The New Yorker discusses Portfolios of the Poor. 

    Read the full review here.

Background

The Financial Access Initiative (FAI) is a consortium of researchers at NYU, Yale, Harvard and IPA focused on finding answers to how financial sectors can better meet the needs of poor households. 

Financial access holds the promise to help low-income individuals in developing countries manage their economic lives and build wealth. The Initiative aims to provide rigorous research on the impacts of financial access and on innovative ways to improve access.

The Initiative was launched with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and American International Group, Inc. to the NYU Wagner Graduate School. Research by FAI researchers is also supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation, The World Bank, CGAP, and other organizations.

Blog

June 30, 2009
Commentary
Replication

As a rule, replicating studies is boring and insufficiently rewarded. At least boring and insufficiently rewarded relative to striking out into new terrain. Not surprisingly, it doesn't happen much. On the other hand, it's fundamentally important for building knowledge.

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June 25, 2009
Commentary
Of instrumental variables and sample definition

Welcome back to the world of econometrics debates! I hope you enjoyed the first installment. Round 2 pits Heckman and Urzúa against Imbens, and is about instrumental variables and estimates the local average treatment effect (LATE).

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