Week of July 13, 2015

1. Savings:  A new report from the US Financial Diaries project provides evidence that lower income households are saving up for frequent, short-term emergencies that prevent the growth of long-term savings. Could 401k style auto-enrollment programs help to manage both long- and short-term savings goals? AARP

2. M-Pesa:  Is M-Pesa merely a fintech service or [cue foreboding music] "a stealth political coup by a private operator which profits only from enforcing discipline, control and transparency (via massive data capture) over a wayward system?"... Financial Times

3. ...Regardless of its characterization, new regulations could cause Safaricom to separate its mobile money service from its voice, data, and infrastructure businesses. The changes could weaken Safaricom's market position, but may be a win for competitors like Airtel. Quartz

4. Anti-poverty Policy: What is an effective way for service providers to assist low income households? For starters, cut the bandwidth tax - the time, money, and mental costs of making ends meet. Ideas42

5. Cash Transfers: The Dutch city of Utrecht is the latest to test out a basic income benefits program. But they are tweaking the experiment, offering either conditional or unconditional transfers to treatment groups. Quartz

View fullsize