Finance

J-PAL’s Finance sector measures the impact of financial services, products, and process innovations, and tries to understand how access to financial services can be used as a mechanism to reduce poverty and spur economic development.

Low-income households need effective financial tools to help manage and grow their money. Yet many of the financial services they can access are costly, unsafe, or not well-suited to their needs. To support financial inclusion efforts around the world, the Financial Inclusion Program at IPA partners with service providers, governments, and researchers to design and rigorously test financial services and programs encouraging healthy financial behavior among the poor.

In addition to supporting policymakers in applying evidence from randomized evaluations to their work, sector chairs and staff write policy insights that synthesize general lessons emerging from the research and condense results from evaluations in policy publications and evaluation summaries

Sector Chairs

Photo of Emily Breza

Co-Líder, Finance

Frederic E. Abbe Professor of Economics

Harvard University

Headshot of Emanuele Colonnelli wearing a blue shirt and blazer

Co-Líder, Finance

Professor of Finance and Entrepreneurship

University of Chicago

Sector Contacts

Tyler Spencer

Policy Manager, J-PAL Global

Photo of Anne Kersting

Policy Advisor, J-PAL Global

Photo of Soumya Singhal from J-PAL Global

Policy Associate, J-PAL Global