1. Cash Crisis (India): India's demonetization "adjustment" continues. IMTFI has begun a special series on their blog focused on demonetization; the first post has an overview of the issues with links to work from many researchers from many disciplines, and the promise of more to come. The New York Times takes a look at the knock-on effects three months after the announcement--my only quibble is the headline which implies that demonetization only now "begins to bite."
2. Cash Crisis (US): It's certainly not sudden demonetization that's the cause of US household's troubles managing cash and cash flows. But there are struggles none-the-less. Diana Elliott of the Urban Institute looks at the budgetary effect on cities of residents who don't have $2000 in liquid savings, finding that 10 large US cities incur (via missed property tax payments, managing evictions, etc.) costs that amount to .3 to 4.6 percent of their annual budgets (the data can be found here). Lisa Servon has a new book, The Unbanking of America, which looks at how much of the traditional financial services industry has turned its back on customers who need help managing their day-to-day cash flow and short-term needs. Here's Lisa discussing her research, which included working at a check casher, a payday lender, and a debt crisis hotline, on Fresh Air, and a review from The Atlantic.
3. Policy Influence: Every week I link to new (at least to me) research--but does any of it matter? ODI has a new report on "10 Things to Know About How to Influence Policy with Research." It's also a question I ask everyone in my book on the use of randomized trials in development economics (hint, hint, nudge, nudge). Sometimes it's hard to draw the lines between basic research, research designed to inform or influence policy, and advocacy masquerading as research. Other times not so much. That particular instance from Justin Sandefur and colleagues as they respond to critics about their RCT evaluating Liberia's new charter school policy, and consider whether the research will change anyone's mind.
4. QTWTAIN: For those of you with better things to do than spend hours on social media, that's "Questions To Which the Answer is No." In this case, the question seems to be "Is behavioral economics dead?" which I had no idea was even a thing people were asking. In the course of answering "no," Noah Smith provides lots of links to interesting work connecting behavioral findings to macro questions. I think the far greater challenge is the on-going roll back of confidence in behavioral/social psych findings, but I don't think anyone really thinks even that is fatal.
5. Microfinance IPOs: While I've been worrying (and continue to worry) about a move away from social investment in microcredit innovation, it's true that there have been a couple of microfinance IPOs recently. Next Billion has an interview with Dan Rozas and Anna Kanze about the new IPOs in India and what they mean for the industry. Next Billion is also hosting a Twitter chat on Microfinance IPOs on Monday the 30th, at 10:00am (GMT-5) on the topic, using #mfichat if that's your sort of thing.
A Brookings study of the relationship between being a good researcher and being a good teacher at Northwestern University, finds a precise "none." Now we just need to find a way to measure "policy influence" instead of "instructor value added."
Source: Brookings
