Week of July 7, 2011

Articles, blogs and commentary that we’ve been reading or listening to in the past week:

• Draft microfinance bill gives RBI total control and puts sector under strict watch 
• Global Poverty Rate Falling according to the UN
• Esther Duflo on the power of data in decision making and, interestingly, aid as venture capitalism
• Interview with Susan Davis at BRAC on her history with microfinance, standing up to dictatorship in Bangladesh, and more 
• An "MBA" for the Bottom of the Pyramid
• Owven Barder on what the "dollar a day" poverty line really means 
• The Talk of Groningen: Milford Bateman and David Roodman go head-to-head

Week of June 20, 2011

• Part 1 of Timothy Ogden’s extended interview with Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo is now up 
• An overview of current state of mobile phone use & services in East Africa 
• Monetary Theory and Mobile Banking - Lessons from Kenya 
• The MLK project on “Is there a business case for microinsurance?” 
• Richard Thaler on smarter public policy in new McKQuarterly
• Reaching the Poor and Very Poor with Appropriate Savings Services
• The problem of WIZZIT vs. the success of M-PESA in serving the BOP 
• New info re: low-income client financial behavior. Very useful for mobile money productdesign
• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau likely to be driven by Warren's tenets
• Jonathan Morduch's recent Science article in its entirety and unedited: “Why Finance Matters,” a commentary on Karlan & Zinman Philippines microfinance study also published in Science (gated)
• Ignacio Mas contrasts 2 e-payment Success Stories: PayPal and M-PESA 
• "The Microfinance Contagion Scenario" by Timothy Ogden and David Roodman’s response and disagreement with the piece

Week of June 2, 2011

This edition features everything from posts about where the next microfinance crisis will likely strike to new articles from Jeff Sachs and Bill Easterly and much more.

• Cory Doctorow interviews Financial Times columnist Tim Harford about his new book Adapt
• David Roodman analyses data to pinpoint the next microfinance crisis, for the June edition of Beyond Profits
• Karuna Krishnaswamy examines “Microfinance in India: What caused the mass defaults in Karnataka and what can we learn from it?” for CGAP
• Interesting piece on customized mobile apps to connect the ultra-poor to funding opportunities
• New article from Karlan and Appel: “You Can't Always Get What You Want”  for Foreign Policy
• From JPAL: Charging small fees dramatically reduces access to important products for the poor 
• FAI’s Barbara Kiviat makes a call for better language: what does microfinance really mean?
• Contrary to Bill Easterly's thesis on economic growth under autocrats, Jeff Sachs looks to “Nigeria's Historic Opportunity" for development under a less autocratic ruler
• Microfinance Focus on microfinance for water and sanitation: lofty dream or wave of the future?

Week of May 16, 2011

Here is our short list of must reads for the week.

• FAI’s Jonathan Morduch and Barbara Kiviat preview the launch of a new research project on the financial lives of low-income Americans
• Two trends in global poverty --New report from Brookings 
• A new report from the World Economic Forum on mobile finance
• The NYT and "India’s Anti-Poverty Programs Are Big but Troubled"
• Tina Rosenberg on Microinsurance for the NYT Fixes blog 
• The Wall Street Journal on Financial Inclusion 2.0 & the need to focus microsavings 
• Stuart Rutherford on "Saving Up is Hard to Do"
• David Bornstein on "A Book In Every Home, and Then Some" for the NYT Fixesblog.
• Gift Cards as Tools of Financial Inclusion 
• Karlan and Appel on "Microfinance works, even without a Hollywood ending" 
• Nick Kristof on smarter aid, economists, and Michael Kremer's work on deworming
• Is credit a human right? Yunus says yes. NYU's Gershman and Morduchdisagree in a new paper
• In letter to 8 million Grameen members, Yunus warns of gov attempt to take over  
• Regulatory Architecture of India’s Financial System

Week of May 12, 2011

Links we’ve been reading this week.

• MIX looks into what effect the RBI's new regulation will have on MFIs in the future.
• The Business Standard: SKS sues Andhra Pradesh in Supreme Court, argues 2010 law unconstitutional.
• The Financial Express: Bad news for microfinance: Bangladesh government to amend 1983 ordinance & assert control over Grameen Bank. 
• Microfinance Focus: An exclusive interview with the director of the financial innovator KGFS.  
• From the Independent: "Why the dream of microfinance is turning sour."  
• Microfinance Horizon: "Evaluating the L/T Impact of Antipoverty Interventions in Bangladesh: An Overview" 
• The Economic Times: "MFIs witness talent drain; find it tough to retain senior professionals"

Week of May 9, 2011

This is our weekly round-up of stories and reports that piqued our curiosity. Please add any suggested “must reads” that have been missed via comments.

• Check out the latest in Savings and Microfinance Research
• Savings as Forward Payments: Innovations on Mobile Money Platforms by Ignacio Mas & Colin Mayer
• “Microfinance and its Discontents: Women in Debt in Bangladesh” – An anthropologist refutes the argument that microfinance empowers women and alleviates poverty. 
• CGAP on: Matching Types of Accounts to Types of Needs: Lessons from India - Latest in Savings series. 
• Reaching the Poorest: Findings from the CGAP-Ford Foundation Graduation Program 
• Microfinance Focus: Comparison of the recommendations of the Malegam Committee and Jonathan Lewis moderates a microfinance panel discussion at the Skoll World Forum on Do you have to trade profit for impact?
• Bill Easterly reviews two of microfinance’s most anticipated books: Poor Economics and More than Good Intentions (in the Washington Post)

Last week’s Yunus stories: 

• David Roodman on: Yunus Really Out and The Investigators Speak 
• Grameen Bank's response to the issues raised in the Bangladesh Bank's Review Committee Report
• An interview with chair of investigative committee at New Age.
• Professor Yunus' statement on the outcome of the court case

Week of April 29, 2011

Our weekly round-up of what we've been reading online:

• Savings and the poor: A better mattress from The Economist
• More on average effect of aid vs differential impacts of aid at AIDWATCH
• "Microfinance and Social Investment" a new paper from Jonathan Conning and Jonathan Morduch 
• Washington Post article on the Indian microfinance crisis and its impact on women
• “More Than 1 Billion People Are Hungry in the World” by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo and in Foreign Policy 
• Bdnews24 has the dirt on Grameen from new investigative report. 7 articles herecollected by David Roodman. 
• New blog on village finance
• "Linking Health and Microfinance," the potential for microfinance to promote universal healthcare in India 
• First details of Grameen probe: empire of related companies illegal 
• The new fad of cash transfers: what they accomplish, and what they don't at AIDWATCH
• David Roodman blogs about the truth behind an IRIN news service headline misrepresenting BRAC: Not Exactly "Pushing"

Week of April 22, 2011

Lots of articles and blogs worth looking at this week. Everything from Milford Bateman’s take on why microfinance isn’t working to how the Mexican government built rigorous impact evaluation programs into its policy processes. Check it out and please add any must reads we missed via comments.
•    How We Choose--Looking at household healthcare choices in the U.S. and India 
•    IRIN Asia: Microfinance institutions pushed loans, admits BRAC 
•    "6 microfinance crises that the sector does not want to remember" at Microfinance Focus
•    Behavioral Economics and Microfinance: A Review of the Literature 
•    “Yunus’ unceremonious removal from Grameen Bank does Bangladesh no favours” says Barun Roy at the Business Standard  
•    "Has the microfinance bubble really burst?" Guest blog by Milford Bateman
•    The case for microfinance: responses to Milford Bateman from Malcolm Harper and Thankom Arun 
•    CNNMoney.com, “In developing economies, equity beats microfinance”
•    CGAP series on savings: The Power of Successful, Market-led Savings Mobilization 
•    Indian Banks Seek Personal Guarantees from Microfinance Executives for Debt Restructuring
•    Miguel Székely explains how the Mexican government built rigorous impact evaluation into its policy process 
•    Andhra Pradesh government may start its own microfinance institution as a channel for credit to SHGs 
•    “The microfinance industry under the microscope” in The Globe and Mail

Week of April 14, 2011

Great reading this week—a new paper from Jonathan Conning and Jonathan Morduch, an interview with Jane Wales of the Global Philanthropy Forum, an op-ed debate between Professor Bhagwati and The Sunday Guardian's Zafar Sobhan, and more. Add any important links we missed via comments. 

• "Microfinance & Social Investment" is a new report by Morduch and Conning that examines age old debates in the sector and more;
• New study of mobile money business case from CGAP; 
• “The Ouster of Muhammad Yunus: Can Politics Destroy Grameen Bank?” from Knowledge @Wharton; 
• Risk vs. Return for MFIs;
• "I on Poverty" by Jonathan Lewis on the MFI Finca Peru;
• Jane Wales Of Global Philanthropy Forum On The State Of Philanthropy Today; 
• New blog from World Bank economists on impact evaluation has some interesting stuff on migration, microfinance, and more;
• Poor still benefit when microcredit reaps megaprofits from The Australian;
• Yunus court drama not over, more to come on May 2nd;and
• “The Real Truth Behind Yunus’ Grameen Story” from Prof. Jagdish Bhagwati and a rebuttal from The Sunday Guardian’s Zafar Sobhan.

Week of April 8, 2011

Stories and debates we read this week that you may have missed or may be interested in.

• The Economist on how the cellphone is swiftly becoming Africa’s computer of choice. And an even longer and interesting read on Digital Africa in Intelligent Life. 
• Ignacio Mas, Senor Advisor for the Financial Services for the Poor program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, on “Making Peer Incentives work for Savings.”  
• Nobel laureate loses final appeal to keep job at Grameen bank. 
• Yunus court drama not over.
• Professor Jagwati won’t be sad to see Yunus go, check out his take on the situation in “Grameen vs. Bangladesh.”
• The Sunday Guardian’s Zafar Sobhan takes apart Prof. Bhagwati's op-ed against Prof. Yunus.
• Alext Count, President of the Grameen Foundation weighs in on the Pitt vs. Morduch & Roodman debate. 
• MIX improves on David Roodman’s post comparing two sets of microfinance interest data.
• A round-up of research on programs targeting the ultra poor. 
• Interview with Esther Duflo on her new book and economics of poverty.
• Humanizing insight into the economic lives of the poor from FAI's Jonathan Morduch.
• Pt. 2 of interview with @MicrofinanceWWB CEO: Distinguishing Microcredit From Microfinance.
• Microfinance USA collects 15 groundbreaking books on microfinance & social entrepreneurship. Which have you read?