Editor's Note: Thanks for the many kind notes on the return of the faiV last week. Let's see if I can get back in the swing of things. I am still interested in a) thoughts on how best to share the faiV, b) anything you see that should go into the faiV. So please share. Oh, and you have to read, then watch, to the end to get the Edition joke.
- Tim Ogden
1. The State of Behavioral Economics
I'll start out this item by noting my own uncertainty on this topic (a behavioral nudge!)—I'm genuinely unsure about what I should think about what is real and what is not in the world of behavioral economics. In the 10+ years I've now been hanging out in the world of economics research, I've eagerly consumed Predictably Irrational, Nudge and Thinking Fast and Slow. I've gotten excited about the possibility that small, cheap changes to the design of products and messages could have big impacts. But I've also watched with no small amount of schadenfreude as some of the core findings in behavioral science and economics have been found seriously wanting, whether from outright fraud, data manipulation, or poor research practices.
The You Seem Vaguely Familiar Edition
Editor's Note: You're not hallucinating, experiencing a weird time warp or flashback. But maybe I am.
- Tim Ogden
1. What the hell?
Yes, this is a new faiV, for the first time since [checks notes; checks notes again; checks calendar on current date; checks calendar on current date and year; hangs head in shame and disbelief] June, 2021. So, you (and I) could hardly be blamed for asking "What the hell happened?" The answer is complicated but mostly prosaic: my time has been focused on a seven-country financial diaries study, and three or four other field work projects that we've been running or participating in. But it's also that the world that the faiV existed in and was a part of has changed a lot. Here I don't mean the pandemic etc., at least not directly. I mean that the world of information creation and sharing has changed dramatically. As we contemplated reviving the faiV at various times in 2022 and 2023, we kept running into barriers like: what platform should we be using? What's getting through email filters now? How do we gather the information to write a faiV? Where are people posting now?
Microfinance Meets Pandemic: Two Years Later, Two Years From Now
Two years ago we hosted a faiVLive on “the gathering storm” of the pandemic and the crisis it presented for low-income households and the MFI industry. It’s clear now the industry has endured the storm better than many (or at least Tim) expected.
Read MoreThe Financial and Digital Literacy Gap: It’s a Trap!
There’s no question that there are big gaps in financial literacy between the rich and poor, and between those included and excluded at every income level and in every country. As digital finance becomes more important, the gap grows and takes on added dimensions. No wonder that financial (and now digital) literacy programs attract attention and millions of dollars globally.
Read MorePart 2 on The Role of Digital Money in Financial Inclusion
Back for a second run, Tim Ogden and Jesse McWaters of Mastercard continued their conversation on digital money, and grappled with questions focused on applications of digital currency to advance financial inclusion, cybersecurity, and the interplay between regulation, consumer protection and innovation.
Read MorePart 1 on The Role of Digital Money in Financial Inclusion
In this edition of the faiVLive, the Financial Access Initiative’s Tim Ogden and Jesse McWaters, the Global Head of Regulatory Advocacy at Mastercard, explored basic frameworks for understanding the differences between the rapidly growing types of digital currencies. They covered new and evolving digital means of exchange, how they interact, and what that means for pro-poor financial inclusion.
Read MoreBuilding an Inclusive Financial System
In 2009, FAI founder Jonathan Morduch was part of a group that determined “half the world is unbanked.” Ten years later, the latest Global Findex tells us that the world’s unbanked population has been nearly cut in half. A combination of focused public and private efforts, aided by technology advances, yielded massive, though uneven, progress. It’s worth celebrating the gains, but also reflecting on what is still left to do. What lessons have we learned from the last 20 years that can close the rest of the inclusion gap? Why has inclusion in wealthier countries stalled? What does the inclusion agenda leave undone? How can technology be part of building more bridges to excluded communities?
This edition of the faiVLive was based on a new report from the Aspen Institute’s Financial Security Program, Building An Inclusive Financial System, that tackles those questions and more.
Read MoreWhen is FinTech Pro-Poor?
In this edition of the faiVLive, with a group of expert panelists from around the world, we delve into the possibilities for FinTech to serve the poor and reduce inequality. Six years after McKinsey heralded “a new era of digital globalization,” what have we learned about when, and where, FinTech meaningfully advances inclusion, and when it creates a new (digital) divide? When does FinTech (in the words of Greg Chen of CGAP, during this edition of the faiVLive) build a bridge and when does it dig a moat?
Read MoreThe Twilight Zone Edition
Editor's Note: When people (OK, a person; Hi Jeff!) starts checking on your safety since it's been so long since you've written the faiV, it's definitely time to bend the dimensions of space and time and finally get another one out. The last faiV turned into an extended rant on financial literacy. Here's a long overdue post on why I'm not convinced by the latest systematic review of finlit interventions, which claims evidence of impact on behavior.
–Tim Ogden
1. Digital Finance: First things first. The next faiVLive is coming up on June 23rd, and the topic will be the FinTech Expectations Gap. What's that you ask? Well, it comes from my obsession with the Great Convergence and domains where perceptions aren't converging. FinTech is one of those places. I've noticed that, in general, FinTech innovation is generally viewed as pro-poor in developing countries, but very skeptically in wealthier countries. So I'll be moderating a discussion of whether that's accurate, if those perceptions are justified, and whether there is a holistic framework for assessing whether digital finance innovations are pro-poor that applies across contexts. Joining me will be Yinka David-West, Tim Flacke, Tavneet Suri, Barbara Magnoni and Lois Bruu. Join us.
The Wage Garnishment Edition
Editor's Note: I didn't start writing this faiV as an extended rant about financial literacy. It just sort of happened.
Read More