Download or read book Commitment Savings Accounts in Malawi written by and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Impact of Commitment Savings Accounts written by Xavier Gine and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Commitments to Save written by Lasse Brune and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Commitments to Save written by Lasse Brune and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 55 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper reports the results of a field experiment that randomly assigned smallholder cash crop farmers formal savings accounts. In collaboration with a microfinance institution in Malawi, the authors tested two primary treatments, offering either: 1) "ordinary" accounts, or 2) both ordinary and "commitment" accounts. Commitment accounts allowed customers to restrict access to their own funds until a future date of their choosing. A control group was not offered any account but was tracked alongside the treatment groups. Only the commitment treatment had statistically significant effects on subsequent outcomes. The effects were positive and large on deposits and withdrawals immediately prior to the next planting season, agricultural input use in that planting, crop sales from the subsequent harvest, and household expenditures in the period after harvest. Across the set of key outcomes, the commitment savings treatment had larger effects than the ordinary savings treatment. Additional evidence suggests that the positive impacts of commitment derive from keeping funds from being shared with one's social network.
Download or read book Banking the Poor written by Jeffrey Flory and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 45 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The poor often save through informal methods outside of the financial systems of developing countries, restricting the extent to which their savings can help fuel growth. Moreover, a growing number of studies show large positive effects on outcomes among the poor from possessing a savings account. However, the vast majority of adults in the developing world do not have even a basic account. This paper uses a randomized field experiment in Malawi with over 2,000 households to examine an innovative approach to spur financial inclusion. The results show that periodic informational visits to a village can sharply increase take-up and use of savings accounts. The impact on adoption probability depends on a few key household characteristics, its effect the strongest for households in middle wealth categories, with educated heads, living outside the immediate vicinity of the bank. Results show account usage is robust among induced adopters. The randomly assigned information intervention is then used to identify sharp causal impacts of savings adoption on agricultural production inputs, crop income, and food consumption among farming households in poor rural areas. These results help extend a fast-growing literature on formal savings by examining a novel and effective method to encourage uptake and better understand the impact of savings accounts among poor farmers - the largest occupational group among the poor.
Download or read book Pathways to Prosperity in Rural Malawi written by Andrew Dabalen and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2017-07-06 with total page 195 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By most accounts, rural Malawi has lacked dynamism in the past decade. Growth has been mostly volatile, in large part due to unstable macroeconomic fundamentals evidenced by high inflation, fiscal deficits, and interest rates. When rapid economic growth has materialized, the gains have not always reached the poorest. Poverty remains high and the rural poor face significant challenges in consistently securing enough food. Several factors contribute to stubbornly high rural poverty. They include a low-productivity and non-diversified agriculture, macroeconomic and recurrent climatic shocks, limited non-farm opportunities and low returns to such activities, especially for the poor, and poor performance from some of the prominent safety net programs. The Report proposes complementary policy actions that offer a possible path for a more dynamic and prosperous rural economy. The key pillars of this comprise macroeconomic stability, increased productivity in agriculture, faster urbanization, better functioning safety nets, and more inclusive financial markets. Some recommendations call for a reorientation of existing programs such as the Malawi Farm Input Subsidy Program (FISP) and the Malawi Social Action Fund Public Works Program (MASAF-PWP). Others identify promising new areas of intervention, such as the introduction of digital IDs and biometric technologies to enhance the reach of mobile banking and deepen financial inclusion. Finally, and importantly, the report recommends the scaling up of investments on girls’ secondary education to curb early child marriage and early child bearing among adolescents. This will empower women at home and work and bend the trajectory of fertility rates in rural areas in order to boost human development and reduce poverty.
Download or read book Expanding Access to Financial Services in Malawi written by Kiendel Burritt and published by UN. This book was released on 2006 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report assesses the achievements and challenges for microfinance service delivery in Malawi, with particular attention to rural and agricultural markets. It identifies key elements that influence the development of Malawi's financial system, and provides some recommendations and opportunities for investors, donors, government and private sector entities to support the development of an inclusive financial system.
Download or read book Introduction To Microfinance written by Todd A Watkins and published by World Scientific Publishing Company. This book was released on 2018-04-05 with total page 427 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Microfinance has grown from the obscure efforts of a few philanthropic institutions into a global industry that reaches 150-200 million clients through the branches of thousands of institutions. Microfinance has matured from exclusively funding loans to providing savings, insurance, healthcare, and education. Yet many people still think of it narrowly as microcredit. Understanding remains thin of what the industry does, how it functions and why.Introduction to Microfinance provides a non-technical introduction to the broad array of inclusive financial and non-financial services for the world's poor. It explores the financial lives of those families, and the microfinance institutions and rapidly growing industry that serve them. Written in close collaboration with college students for college students, under the auspices of one of the US's leading undergraduate programs in microfinance, it is the first-ever introductory college textbook about microfinance.What is microfinance? What are its methods and why? Does it work? What are its prospects and challenges? Why is it controversial? This book tackles these questions and more.
Download or read book Saving for Development written by Inter-American Development Bank and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-07-08 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why should people - and economies - save? This book on the savings problem in Latin America and the Caribbean suggests that, while saving to survive the bad times is important, saving to thrive in the good times is what really counts. People must save to invest in health and education, live productive and fulfilling lives, and make the most of their retirement years. Firms must save to grow their enterprises, employ more workers in better jobs, and produce quality goods. Governments must save to build the infrastructure required by a productive economy, provide quality services to their citizens, and assure their senior citizens a dignified, worry-free retirement. In short, countries must save not for the proverbial rainy day, but for a sunny day - a time when everyone can bask in the benefits of growth, prosperity, and well-being. This book is open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO license.
Download or read book World Development Report 2015 written by World Bank and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2014-12-04 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Development economics and policy are due for a redesign. In the past few decades, research from across the natural and social sciences has provided stunning insight into the way people think and make decisions. Whereas the first generation of development policy was based on the assumption that humans make decisions deliberatively and independently, and on the basis of consistent and self-interested preferences, recent research shows that decision making rarely proceeds this way. People think automatically: when deciding, they usually draw on what comes to mind effortlessly. People also think socially: social norms guide much of behavior, and many people prefer to cooperate as long as others are doing their share. And people think with mental models: what they perceive and how they interpret it depend on concepts and worldviews drawn from their societies and from shared histories. The World Development Report 2015 offers a concrete look at how these insights apply to development policy. It shows how a richer view of human behavior can help achieve development goals in many areas, including early childhood development, household finance, productivity, health, and climate change. It also shows how a more subtle view of human behavior provides new tools for interventions. Making even minor adjustments to a decision-making context, designing interventions based on an understanding of social preferences, and exposing individuals to new experiences and ways of thinking may enable people to improve their lives. The Report opens exciting new avenues for development work. It shows that poverty is not simply a state of material deprivation, but also a tax ? on cognitive resources that affects the quality of decision making. It emphasizes that all humans, including experts and policy makers, are subject to psychological and social influences on thinking, and that development organizations could benefit from procedures to improve their own deliberations and decision making. It demonstrates the need for more discovery, learning, and adaptation in policy design and implementation. The new approach to development economics has immense promise. Its scope of application is vast. This Report introduces an important new agenda for the development community.
Download or read book Ill Gotten Money and the Economy written by Stuart Yikona and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2011-10-11 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many developing countries have introduced policies to tackle ill-gotten money over the past years. Perception remains that such moves were more a result of international pressure being exercised than genuine ownership of such an agenda. There is not enough analysis and literature of how an anti-financial crime framework does (or does not) contribute to the development path of developing countries or how best to use these tools in a developing country environment. This study was aimed at initially exploring the effects of ill-gotten money or proceeds of crime and anti-money laundering policies on economic development. The study focused on two developing countries: Malawi, (a low-income country) and Namibia (an upper-middle-income country). The starting point of this analysis is that anti-money laundering is essentially a tool to address criminal activities and that, as a result, understanding criminal activities and how proceeds of crime impact development. The purpose of this study was: (i) to provide an initial answer to the question if and how measures to address proceeds of crime contributes to economic development; and (ii) to develop a framework that enable governments in developing countries to analyze the main sources of ill-gotten money and its effects on the economy.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Banking written by Allen N. Berger and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2019-10 with total page 1309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbook of Banking provides an overview and analysis of state-of-the-art research in banking written by leading researchers in the field. This Handbook will appeal to graduate students of economics, banking and finance, academics, practitioners and policy makers. Consequently, the book strikes a balance between abstract theory, empirical analysis, and practitioner and policy-related material. The handbook is split into five parts. Part I, The Theory of Banking, examines the role of banks in the wider financial system, why banks exist, how they function, and their legal and governance structures. Part II entitled Regulatory and Policy Perspectives discusses monetary policy, prudential regulation and supervision, and antitrust policy. Part III of the book deals with bank performance. A number of issues are assessed including efficiency, financial innovation and technological change, globalization and ability to deliver small business, consumer, and mortgage lending services. Part IV of the book provides an overview of macroeconomic perspectives in banking. This part of the book includes a discussion of the determinants of bank failures and crises, and the impact on financial stability, institutional development, and economic growth. Part V examines International Differences In Banking Structures And Environments. This part of the handbook examines banking systems in the United States, Western Europe, Transition countries, Latin America, Japan and the Developing nations of Asia.
Download or read book Experimental Conversations written by Timothy N. Ogden and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2024-03-19 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discussions of the use and limits of randomized control trials, considering the power of theory, external validity, gaps in knowledge, and what issues matter. The practice of development economics has undergone something of a revolution as many economists have adopted new methods to answer perennial questions about the effectiveness of anti-poverty programs. In this book, prominent development economists discuss the use and impact of one of the most significant of these new methods, randomized control trials (RCTs) and field experiments. In extended interviews conducted over a period of several years, they explain their work and their thinking and consider the broader issues of how we learn about the world and how we can change it for the better. These conversations offer specialists and nonspecialists alike a unique opportunity to hear economists speak in their own words, free of the confines of a particular study or econometric esoterica. The economists describe how they apply research findings in the way they think about the world, revealing their ideas about the power of theory, external validity, gaps in knowledge, and what issues matter. Also included are interviews with RCT observers, critics, sponsors, consumers, and others. Each interview provides a brief biography of the interviewee. Thorough annotations offer background and explanations for key ideas and studies referred to in the conversations. Contributors Abhijit Banerjee, Nancy Birdsall, Chris Blattman, Alex Counts, Tyler Cowen, Angus Deaton, Frank DeGiovanni, Esther Duflo, Pascaline Dupas, Xavi Gine, Rachel Glennerster, Judy Gueron, Elie Hassenfeld, Dean Karlan, Michael Kremer, David McKenzie, Jonathan Morduch, Lant Pritchett, Jonathan Robinson, Antoinette Schoar, Dean Yang
Download or read book Microfinance Livelihoods and Poverty Reduction in Ghana written by Aaron Alesane and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-12-30 with total page 435 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book assesses the role of microfinance in the construction of livelihoods for poverty reduction in the Northern Savannah of Ghana, analysing the current microfinance landscape and financial services in the region. The book analyses the current microfinance landscape and financial services in Ghana. In doing so, it demonstrates the key factors for designing microfinance products and services to ensure greater uptake and outreach enhancing the sustainability of microfinance service providers. Chapters explore the impact of access to microfinance on livelihood diversification, asset accumulation patterns and welfare outcomes. In addition to assessing the role as well as of microfinance as an anti-poverty tool, the book presents new theoretical frameworks and models, including the microfinance livelisystem framework (MFL). This unique framework, which combines and goes beyond existing frameworks, situates the microfinance industry within national and international financial and economic ecosystems and presents the interrelationships between institutions providing services for the construction of livelihoods. Offering new theoretical frameworks and models developed for the microfinance industry with universal application, this book will be of particular use to students and scholars of Development Studies, Development Finance, Poverty and Inequality Studies, Rural Development and Sustainable Finance.
Download or read book Portfolios of the Poor written by Daryl Collins and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2009-04-20 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nearly forty percent of humanity lives on an average of two dollars a day or less. If you've never had to survive on an income so small, it is hard to imagine. How would you put food on the table, afford a home, and educate your children? How would you handle emergencies and old age? Every day, more than a billion people around the world must answer these questions. Portfolios of the Poor is the first book to systematically explain how the poor find solutions to their everyday financial problems. The authors conducted year-long interviews with impoverished villagers and slum dwellers in Bangladesh, India, and South Africa--records that track penny by penny how specific households manage their money. The stories of these families are often surprising and inspiring. Most poor households do not live hand to mouth, spending what they earn in a desperate bid to keep afloat. Instead, they employ financial tools, many linked to informal networks and family ties. They push money into savings for reserves, squeeze money out of creditors whenever possible, run sophisticated savings clubs, and use microfinancing wherever available. Their experiences reveal new methods to fight poverty and ways to envision the next generation of banks for the "bottom billion." Indispensable for those in development studies, economics, and microfinance, Portfolios of the Poor will appeal to anyone interested in knowing more about poverty and what can be done about it.
Download or read book Malawi written by International Monetary Fund. African Dept. and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2015-03-30 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper discusses Malawi’s Fifth and Sixth Reviews Under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) Arrangement, Request for Waivers for Non-observance of Performance Criteria (PCs), Extension of the Arrangement, Modification of PCs, and Rephasing of Disbursements. Program implementation was uneven given external financing shortfalls with several PCs not being observed. Three out of seven PCs for the fifth review were not met, including the continuous PC on the contracting of nonconcessional external loans. The new authorities are firmly committed to the core policies and objectives of the original ECF-supported program. Program discussions focused on key policy actions to address these challenges and bring the program back on track.
Download or read book The Financial Diaries written by Jonathan Morduch and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-03-27 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What the financial diaries of working-class families reveal about economic stresses, why they happen, and what policies might reduce them Deep within the American Dream lies the belief that hard work and steady saving will ensure a comfortable retirement and a better life for one's children. But in a nation experiencing unprecedented prosperity, even for many families who seem to be doing everything right, this ideal is still out of reach. In The Financial Diaries, Jonathan Morduch and Rachel Schneider draw on the groundbreaking U.S. Financial Diaries, which follow the lives of 235 low- and middle-income families as they navigate through a year. Through the Diaries, Morduch and Schneider challenge popular assumptions about how Americans earn, spend, borrow, and save—and they identify the true causes of distress and inequality for many working Americans. We meet real people, ranging from a casino dealer to a street vendor to a tax preparer, who open up their lives and illustrate a world of financial uncertainty in which even limited financial success requires imaginative—and often costly—coping strategies. Morduch and Schneider detail what families are doing to help themselves and describe new policies and technologies that will improve stability for those who need it most. Combining hard facts with personal stories, The Financial Diaries presents an unparalleled inside look at the economic stresses of today's families and offers powerful, fresh ideas for solving them.
