Finance
Policy insight
Digital financial services to improve formalized access and inclusion
Digital financial services have dramatically improved access to formal accounts, especially for low-income households and rural populations. Increased access to digital services has reduced remittance transaction costs, which has helped households share financial burdens and improve resilience.
Policy insight
Microcredit: Impacts and promising innovations
Findings on the impacts of microcredit continue to evolve. Early evidence from randomized evaluations in low- and middle-income countries showed that the classic microcredit model did not lead to transformative impacts on income or consumption for the average borrower across many contexts. However...
Evaluation
Information Campaigns to Increase Mobile Banking Adoption in Ghana
In Ghana, researchers worked with a bank that provides services to low-income customers with limited access to mainstream banking to evaluate the impact of sending pre-recorded informational voice calls and text messages on the adoption of mobile banking. Clients that received messages encouraging...
Evaluation
Flexible Loan Contracts for Microentrepreneurs in Bangladesh
In Bangladesh, researchers partnered with BRAC to evaluate the impact of repayment flexibility in loan contracts for microentrepreneurs. Repayment flexibility benefited traditional microfinance borrowers primarily through the provision of insurance, enabling riskier investments at lower default...
Evaluation
Mobile Phone Data Compared to Household Surveys to Evaluate the Impact of Cash Transfers in Togo
In Togo, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the effect of cash grants on people's welfare and if using mobile phone data in impact evaluations yielded the same results as survey data. They found that the cash grant program increased food security, mental health, and self-perceived...
File: Policy publication
Winners and Losers: The Benefits and Dangers of Credit
Providing large loans to small businesses in Egypt had no impact on profits for the average borrower, but entrepreneurs predicted in advance to be top performers saw much higher returns than their peers.
