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Tag Search: “financial inclusion”

Empowering women through direct digital wage payments

India’s rate of female labour force participation dropped from 37% in 1990 to 28% in 2015. Can greater control over earned income incentivise women to work and influence gender norms? This article dis...

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What lies behind this year's economics Nobel

In this post, Maitreesh Ghatak discusses how randomised controlled trials – the use of which was pioneered by this year’s economics Nobel Laureates, Banerjee, Duflo, and Kremer – have been successfull...

  • Perspectives

Can the microcredit model be improved?

Microcredit is frequently touted as an effective policy tool to fight global poverty. However, studies suggest that the long-term impact on recipients’ lives is limited. In this post, Mushfiq Mobarak ...

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Closing gender gaps in India: Does increasing women’s access to finance help?

Gender gaps in women’s economic opportunities – in the labour market and in entrepreneurship – have remained high in India. This article analyses the macroeconomic impact of closing gender gaps in acc...

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Labelled loans and sanitation investments

Rural Indian households report lack of affordability as the main reason for not having a toilet. This article investigates – through an experiment in rural Maharashtra – whether microcredit labelled f...

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Measuring the equilibrium impacts of credit: Evidence from India’s 2010 microfinance crisis

In October 2010, the government of Andhra Pradesh issued an emergency ordinance, bringing microfinance activities in the state to a complete halt and causing a nationwide shock to the liquidity of len...

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Financial inclusion in India: Progress and prospects

Financial inclusion is globally considered as a critical indicator of development and well-being of society. In this post, Srinivasa Rao traces the financial inclusion journey in India so far, and dis...

  • Perspectives

The cycle of debt among vendors in India and the Philippines

Many street vendors rely on daily or weekly loans from moneylenders to finance working capital. Given the high interest rates, why do they not use a little bit of each day’s earnings to buy working ca...

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Research gaps and policy priorities: Evidence from Bihar

The gap between research and policy priorities has always presented an enormous challenge both for academics and policymakers. With a scarcity of rigorous evidence in certain areas, this gap is partic...

  • IGC Research on India

Give women credit

Since its inception in the 1970s microfinance has emerged as an important tool to support livelihoods among those who lack access to traditional banking services, though the method has its critics. Er...

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Indoor air pollution and stunting among Indian children

While the conversation on air quality has been focussed largely on outdoor air pollution, millions of deaths occur due to indoor air pollution as well. Based on 2005–2006 National Family Health Survey...

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Financial inclusion: Concepts, issues, and policies for India

The International Growth Centre recently brought out a synthesis paper (Singh 2017) that lays out the basic concepts surrounding financial inclusion, and reviews a wide range of IGC and other studies ...

  • Perspectives