Improving Financial Inclusion through the Delivery of Cash Transfer Programmes: The Case of Mexico’s Progresa-Oportunidades-Prospera Programme

This paper follows a quasi-experimental research design to assess the impact of the electronic payment system of Mexico’s Progresa-Oportunidades-Prospera (POP) programme. The switch from cash payments to electronic payments delivered via savings accounts is found to have medium-term effects on savings decisions, transaction costs, and coping strategies. Overall, the study finds that, following the intervention, a substitution effect emerged between saving portfolio choices, with the poor favouring bank accounts over informal saving arrangements. It also found that the Oportunidades savings account led to an increase in remittance reception, which in turn had important implications for household consumption smoothing and risk management decisions. The study also reveals impact heterogeneity depending on household composition and the rural-urban divide, with important implications for replicability of similar policy innovations in other countrie

Aid's impact on democracy

This paper investigates the impact of foreign aid on democratic outcomes using a panel of countries for the period between 1995 and 2018. In so doing, it speaks to a major critique of foreign aid, which is that it negatively impacts democratic governance. The analysis distinguishes between developmental aid and democracy aid, and examines democracy aid to specific sectors, in order to explore variation across different aid types. It draws on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Creditor Reporting System (CRS) data on foreign aid and indices of democracy from the Varieties of Democracy project, employing a combination of a maximum likelihood estimation and structural equation modelling (ML-SEM) model and fixed effects models. Overall, using a more extensive set of data and methods than previous analyses, we offer comprehensive evidence pointing to aid having a positive if modest impact on democratic outcomes. Our analysis suggests this effect is more significant for democracy aid than developmental aid, but there is no evidence of negative impact for either. These results are robust to multiple specifications

Financial services in a low-income area of Mexico City : from physical access to effective use

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Financial inclusion, vulnerability and mental models: from physical access to effective use of financial services in a low-income area of Mexico City

Quantitative analysis indicates that variation in use of regulated and unregulated financial services in a low-income area of Mexico City can only partially be attributed to differences in socio-economic variables including gender, employment, education and housing status. Qualitative evidence suggests cognitive resources (including financial knowledge, attitudes and values) and socialised experiential learning are also important to financial inclusion and its relationship to vulnerability. Better understanding of these links requires more research into actual and potential users’ diverse and malleable mental models.L’analyse quantitative indique que la variation dans l’usage de services financiers régulés et non-régulés dans une zone à bas revenu de la ville de Mexico ne peut être que partiellement attribuée à des différences dans les variables socio-économiques comme le genre; emploi; éducation et statut immobilier. L’évidence quantitative suggère que des ressources cognitives (comme la connaissance en matière de finances et diverses attitudes et valeurs par rapport aux marchés financiers) ainsi que l’apprentissage expérientiel socialisé sont également des facteurs importants dans l’inclusion de groupes vulnérables dans les marchés financiers. Une meilleure compréhension de ces liens requiert une recherche plus approfondie des divers modèles mentaux actuels et potentiels des usagers et des facteurs qui les influencent

Financial Access and Exclusion in Kenya and Uganda

Policy emphasis has recently shifted to 'Finance for All' given evidence that financial sector development contributes to growth but effects on poverty do not arise from pro-poor provision. We argue that, given this policy goal, analyses of barriers to access must be country specific and go beyond the emphasis on transactions costs to incorporate the effects of social institutions since these contribute to discrimination. This paper uses data from Financial Access Surveys carried out in 2006 in Kenya and Uganda to investigate the socio-economic, demographic and geographical factors influencing access to and exclusion from formal, semi-formal and informal financial services.