August 31, 2010
August 26, 2010
August 25, 2010
August 18, 2010
July 23, 2009
What to protect?
FAI Director Sendhil Mullainathan appeared as a witness in the recent U.S. Senate Banking Committee meeting “Creating a Consumer Financial Protection Agency: A Cornerstone of America’s New Economic Foundation”. You can watch the hearing here (Mullainathan’s testimony starts at 151.45 mins).
Themes:
Consumer Protection
July 21, 2009
Microfinance for Bankers and Investors
Beth Rhyne has been a leading thinker and writer on microfinance for two decades. One of my favorite microfinance books is her story of the evolution of financial markets in Bolivia, Mainstreaming Microfinance: How Lending to the Poor Began, Grew and Came of Age in Bolivia.
Themes:
Commercialization & Subsidy
July 16, 2009
The data question
In early June, I joined several hundred researchers at the First European Research Conference on Microfinance hosted by CERMi. The three-day conference included presentations on a wide array of subjects including social responsibility, institutional governance and performance, and rural and informal microfinance.
Themes:
Commercialization & Subsidy, Research Methodology
July 14, 2009
The Price of Zero
Chris Anderson’s new book, Free: The Future of a Radical Price, was just reviewed twice in the New York Times (here and here) and got a Gladwellian treatment in the New Yorker.
Themes:
Behavioral Economics
July 13, 2009
Global Survey on Insurance Education
If you are engaged in insurance education programs, please take 10 minutes to complete this Global Survey on Insurance Education.
Themes:
Financial Literacy, Insurance
July 6, 2009
Non-profit on the Side
Before joining IPA in 2006, I spent a year abroad in Botswana where I volunteered with several non-profit AIDS organizations. These were all small-scale NGOs serving core needs – palliative care, psychosocial support and rehabilitation services for people living with AIDS, supplemental orphan care, and testing and counseling services. Most of these organizations were operating on shoe-string budgets, relied on volunteer or poorly compensated staff, and were constantly having to shut down operations for lack of funds.