Last night FAI had the pleasure of co-hosting a lively and informative panel discussion on the impact of cash transfers in international development with the Microfinance Club of New York. The panel (moderated by FAI's Timothy Ogden) included Paul Niehaus and Jeremy Schapiro, co-founders of GiveDirectly, Jenny Aker, Assistant Professor of Development Economics at The Fletcher School, and Johannes Haushofer, Assistant Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs at Princeton University.
As is to be expected when you mix practitioners and academics, the evening's conversations had a good mix of thoughtful insights, debates, and allusions to other bodies of work for futher research. Below is a list of what was mentioned as well as some additional items we feel are a nice complement for the issues raised by the panelists, including a new FAI infographic showing what we know so far about microcredit. For those of you who could not be there in person, don't worry - we taped the event and will provide the link to the video soon! (Although you missed highlights like Paul Niehaus responding to a question on donations for open borders by asking - "how do you donate to open borders? Just give money to Michael Clemens and see what happens?")
Thanks again to all who attended and participated! Please keep the discussion going in the comments section or add resources we may have overlooked.
Research and Publications by Panelists
- Aker, J. (2010), “Comparing Cash and Voucher Transfers in a Humanitarian Context: Evidence from the Democratic Republic of Congo.” CGD Working Paper 320.
- Aker, J. (2014), “Payment Mechanisms and Anti-Poverty Programs: Evidence from a Mobile Money Cash Transfer Experiment in Niger.” (with Rachid Boumnijel, Amanda McClelland and Niall Tierney). CGD Working Paper 268. Under review.
- Haushofer, J. and Shapiro, J. (2013), “Household Response to Income Changes: Evidence from an Unconditional Cash Transfer Program in Kenya.”
Cash Transfers Programs in the U.S.
- Implementing a Conditional Cash Transfer Program in Two American Cities, MDRC, October 2014
- The New York Times, "City Will Stop Paying the Poor for Good Behavior," March 30, 2010
Cash Transfers - Reports and Media Coverage
- Medium, "When It Comes to Cash Transfers, the Medium Matters," August 5, 2014
- The Economist, "Pennies from Heaven," October 26, 2013
- Planet Money, "What Happens When You Just Give Money To Poor People?", November 8, 2013
- Emergency Economies: The Impact of Cash Assistance in Lebanon, Christian Lehmann and Daniel Masterson International Rescue Committee,2014
Microcredit
- Karlan, D. & Zinman, J., 2012. "List randomization for sensitive behavior: An application for measuring use of loan proceeds," Journal of Development Economics, 98(1): 71-75.
Remittances and Development
- Migration as a Strategy for Household Finance: A Research Agenda on Remittances, Payments, and Development by Michael Clemens and Timothy Ogden
- Video: When Is Income Not Income?, Financial Access Initiative
- Video: What's Behind Door #3? Investment in Migration for the World's Poor, Financial Access Initiative
Remittances and Consumption Spending
- Airola, J. (2007), "The Use of Remittance Income in Mexico. International Migration Review," International Migration Review, 41: 850–859.
- Clemént, Matthieu (2011), "Remittances and Household Expenditure Patterns in Tajikistan: A Propensity Score Matching Analysis," Asian Development Review, Asian Development Bank, 28(2): 58-87.
- Zarate-Hoyos, G. A. (2004), "Consumption and Remittances in Migrant Households: Toward a Productive Use of Remittances." Contemporary Economic Policy, 22: 555–565.
Ultra-Poor Graduation Programs
- Goldberg, N. and Salomon, A. (2011), "Ultra Poor Graduation Pilots: Spanning the gap between charity and microfinance," Global Microcredit Summit Commissioned Workshop Paper.
- Morduch, J. and Ravi, S. and Bauchet, J. (2013), "Substitution Bias and External Validity: Why an Innovative Anti-Poverty Program Showed No Net Impact," NYU Wagner Research Paper No. 2134779.
- Ultra-Poor Graduation Pilots, Innovations for Poverty Action
Poverty and Psychology