Can microcredit help unlock a poverty trap for some people by putting their businesses on a different trajectory? Could …, India, we find that "gung ho entrepreneurs" (GEs), households who were already running a business before microfinance … facilitate escape from a poverty trap …

microfinance institution. We offer a commitment contract inspired by the rotating structure of a ROSCA. Additional treatments test … test -- using the same respondent population -- how demand for explicit commitment features differs between loan and … savings contracts. We find substantial demand for both credit and savings contracts but no demand for additional commitment …

This paper uses household-level data from Ethiopia to investigate the impact of food aid on the poor. We find that food … aid in Ethiopia is "pro-poor." Our results indicate that (i) net buyers of wheat are poorer than net sellers of wheat, (ii …

This paper studies the causal mechanisms behind persistent poverty. Using original data on Boran pastoralists of … southern Ethiopia, we find that heterogeneous and nonlinear wealth dynamics arise purely in adverse states of nature. In …

We review the empirical evidence on microfinance and asset grants to the ultra poor or microentrepreneurs, and assess … aggregate poverty traps …

economic model developed with this framework, we review the literature on hope from philosophy, theology, psychology, and its … relationship to emerging work on aspirations in development economics. We then present one-month follow-up results from an … experimental study based on a hope intervention in Oaxaca, Mexico among 601 indigenous women with access to microfinance loans. Our …

microfinance studying the demand for and effects of VCMF in credit, insurance, and savings markets. We conclude by highlighting … value chain relationships: value chain microfinance (VCMF). We first explore how VCMF can both overcome barriers to …

old-age poverty due to their longer longevity. This paper uses data from a special module we devised on planning and …

Using data from a field experiment in Kenya, we document that providing individuals with simple informal savings … providing a safe place to keep money was sufficient to increase health savings, through a mental accounting effect. Adding an … earmarking feature was only helpful when funds were put towards emergencies; earmarking for preventative health reduced savings …