1. Demonetization in India: It doesn't seem like I'm the only one who's a bit confused by exactly what's happening in India and why this particular set of steps will yield the stated outcomes. Here's my current understanding: Last week, the government declared that 500 and 1000 Rupee notes would no longer be legal tender, effective immediately. Except that those notes could be exchanged for new notes until December 31 at banks and post offices. But only by people with official government ID. The purpose is to drive more of the economy into the formal sector and to clamp down on black market activity and corruption. Usually advocates of this sort of step talk about high denomination bills (which they say facilitates corruption by making it relatively easy--in terms of size and weight--to transport large sums) like $100 bills. But 1000 Rupees is roughly $15 and a new 500 Rupee note will be in use and other large denominations like 2000 Rupees will also continue to exist.
As you can imagine, when 86% of the currency in circulation by value has to be immediately exchanged, there are some problems. Of particular interest to faiV readers might be the effect on microfinance banks, which are not allowed (as of now) to accept or exchange the old notes. That apparently has caused repayment to plummet since people can't get their hands on legal notes to make their payments. There's also a surge in use of ATMs and people signing up digital finance systems. Of course, then there's the problem that roughly 30 percent of the population (a mere 300 million people) doesn't have official ID (not counting the additional millions who are short-term migrants and don't have their ID with them where they currently are). Lot's more to come on this story I'm sure.
2. Digital Payments and State Capacity: Dan Radcliffe of the Gates Foundation has a new paper (published by CGD) on the knock-on benefits of government-to-citizen digital payments infrastructure. Direct transfers have already shown significant benefits in terms of efficiency and effectiveness of social welfare programs. Radcliffe argues that other benefits also deserve attention, specifically "strengthening energy policy, food security, government transparency" and overall state capacity.
3. Financial Inclusion for Refugees: CFI has been running a series on financial inclusion for refugees. The fourth and final installment is here, looking at the future of financial inclusion for refugees with specific advice for how donors, practitioners and governments can do better.
4. Goldman Sachs and Consumer Debt: I'm old enough to remember when Goldman Sachs was a "vampire squid" sucking the life out of the global economy. As of this week, GS is also your friendly (digital) neighborhood lender, here to help you manage life's demands and escape from credit card debt with low-interest loans. Beginning this week, GS is running ads for it's consumer lending business on Facebook and YouTube that "depict debt as an unavoidable nuisance of modern life." Given the amount of income and expense volatility documented in the US Financial Diaries, that sounds about right actually. The Goldman tagline is "Debt happens. It's how you get out that counts." I wonder if the Goldman loans will come with a "Don't Swipe the Small Stuff" sticker for credit cards?
In other consumer debt news, the former CEO of Lending Club, fired for potentially misleading investors, is already opening a new lending storefront. And here's an Urban report on how the overhang of bad credit scores from the Great Recession is continuing to hold back consumers and the US economy.
5. Obey the Evidence!: This week I happened across a review of the Milgram obedience experiments, which were conducted about 50 years ago. That led me to some more reading and research--there's a lot of recent material. Much of it is about what has been discovered by a close review of the Milgram archives and the difference between what actually happened in the experiments and what was reported--and what that means about how we should think about the results and the conclusions. It's interesting and thought-provoking reading, not only because it's about one of the foundational findings of behavioral science, but also because it should lead us to reflection on the conclusions we draw about the current generation of studies.
David Evans and Birte Snilstveit review what your paper should include so that it can be included in systematic reviews, including enough methodological details so that risks of bias can be assessed. Many papers don't. Source: Development Impact Blog
