Is fin-tech the new panacea for poverty alleviation and local development? Contesting Suri and Jack’s M-Pesa findings published in Science

Financial technology, or simply ‘fin-tech’, is increasingly seen as one of the key tools to facilitate poverty reduction and local economic development. One article in particular by Tavneet Suri and William Jack published in the leading publication Science has played a hugely influential role in promoting the fin-tech model in the global South using the example of Kenya’s iconic M-Pesa money transfer platform. The authors’ central claim is that M-Pesa has been instrumental in facilitating a major episode of poverty reduction. Our analysis shows that their analysis and claims are extremely problematic

The corporation tax is under attack. It must be defended

Nicholas Shaxson argues that a corporation tax cut may increase revenue for big business but this does not in any way translate to increased revenue for the country in which they reside. Corporations the world over sit on vast sums of wealth and without a tax on revenue, economic growth and vital public services will remain all the more elusive