New Releases by Jonathan Morduch

全球將近四成的人，平均每天靠不到2美元過活 隱藏於記帳日記裡的關鍵線索，將如何翻轉貧困陷阱？ ★ 來自印度、南非、孟加拉250個貧困家庭的第一線田野調查，揭露最真實的底層生活。 ★ 經濟學者、微型金融機構專家挺身面對巨大的貧窮困境，找出最佳解方。 ///// 南非鄉村寡婦諾莎的資產負債表 ///// 來自南非鄉村的諾沙已經77歲，女兒死於愛滋病、 孫子來和她一起同住，全家人住在破舊不堪的房屋裡。 一家五口只靠她每個月114美元的政府老人津貼過活， 諾莎一遍又一遍試著向社工申請育兒津貼，但被打回票， 女兒的喪事花費又讓諾莎遭逢雙重夾擊。 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ◆ 資產 銀行存款 ▍占比67.0% ▍政府的老人津貼固定匯入銀行戶頭 存錢社團 ▍占比 2.4% ▍參加2個存錢社團 喪葬社團 ▍占比 1.3% ▍參加2個喪葬社團 放在家裡 ▍占比21.3% ▍將每天購買三餐後剩下的錢放在家裡 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ◆ 負債 無息借貸 ▍占比 0.4% ▍向鄰居與家人借了4筆錢 有息借貸 ▍占比 4.0% ▍向放款者、儲蓄社團借錢，利率為25%至30% 商店賒帳 ▍占比 3.6% ▍向村裡的兩間商店賒帳 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 全球各地收入飄忽不定、三餐不繼的人們， 如何巧妙運用各種財務工具，讓桌上有食物、為家人保險、儲蓄， 還能應付五花八門的生活支出並做出投資？ 【財務日記法揭露最真實的財務生活】 作者群走訪孟加拉、印度、南非的貧困村莊進行一年期的訪談，利用「財務日記法」協助受訪家戶記錄每天的支出與收入情形。日記呈現了出乎意料的複雜財務生活：窮人除了工作收入外，會大量利用各種非正式的財務工具，例如親友借貸、互助會，或是較正式的銀行微型貸款來周轉各種生活上的金錢需求，不僅能應付日常所需，還能存下緊急預備金並做出投資。 【微型經濟的力量與未來】 從受訪對象的經驗，不僅打破窮人一定是「日光族」或「月光族」的刻板印象，作者群更歸納出打擊貧窮的新方法與原則，例如，微型金融若能提供方便、可靠、有彈性的服務，將能對窮人的經濟狀況帶來更大的幫助。本書的研究除了提供金融機構參考外，也替每天靠不到2美元過活的人們，帶來改變的一線曙光。 各界推薦 ▍林明仁│臺灣大學經濟學系特聘教授 ▍莊雅婷│臺北大學經濟學系助理教授 ▍朱剛勇│「人生百味」共同創辦人 這是一本希望讓世界變得更好的書。而詳細的資料蒐集與社會科學嚴謹的推論 過程與分析方法，是本書最重要的特色。就讓經濟學家溫暖的心加上冷靜的頭腦，帶讀者走過這趟了解貧窮、提出解方的知識之旅吧！ ▍林明仁│臺灣大學經濟學系特聘教授 在這樣一頁頁被整理解讀的財務日記中，我彷彿讀到一個個栩栩如生的故事，那些可怕突如其來的喪病意外、那些歡喜支出卻龐大到傷腦筋的喜慶，都在這些現金流的敘述中活了過來。 ▍莊雅婷│臺北大學經濟學系助理教授 一條令人耳目一新的獨特道路。與其等待世界辯論和接受他們的想法，作者們已經用他們自己的方式來實踐。在對抗全球貧困的戰爭中，感覺就像贏得了一場小小的戰鬥。 ▍《華盛頓郵報》（Washington Post） 這項研究提供了明確的證據，證明窮人對於其財務規劃有著老練而世故的想法。 ▍《經濟學人》雜誌（The Economist） 我向任何關注如何改善窮人生活的人推薦這本書！ ▍梅琳達‧蓋茲（Melinda Gates）│比爾與梅琳達‧蓋茲基金會聯合主席

Effective altruists wish to do good while optimizing the social performance they deliver. We apply this principle to the labor market. We determine the optimal occupational choice of a socially motivated worker who has two mutually exclusive options: a job with a for-profit firm and a lower-paid job with a nonprofit. We construct a model in which a worker motivated only by pure altruism will work at a relatively high wage for the for-profit firm and then make charitable contributions to the nonprofit; this represents the “earning to give” option. By contrast, the occupational choice of a worker sensitive to warm glow (“impure altruism”) depends on her income level. While the presence of “warm glow” feelings would seem to clearly benefit charitable organizations, we show that impure altruism can create distortions in labor market choices. In some cases, warm glow feelings may push the worker to take a job with the nonprofit, even when it is not optimal for the nonprofit.

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.

Microfinance is generally seen as a way to fix credit markets and unleash the productive capacities of poor people who are dependent on self-employment. The microfinance sector has grown quickly since the 1990s, paving the way for other forms of social enterprise and social investment. But recent evidence shows only modest average impacts on customers, generating a backlash against microfinance. This paper reconsiders the claims about microfinance, highlighting the diversity in evidence on impacts and the important (but limited) role of subsidies. The paper concludes by describing an evolution of thinking: from microfinance as narrowly construed entrepreneurial finance toward microfinance as broadly construed household finance. In this vision, microfinance yields benefits by providing liquidity for a wide range of needs rather than solely by boosting business income.

Muhammad Yunus, the microcredit pioneer, has proposed that access to credit should be a human right. We approach the question by drawing on fieldwork and empirical scholarship in political science and economics. Evidence shows that access to credit may be powerful for some people some of the time, but it is not powerful for everyone all of the time, and in some cases it can do damage. Yunus''s claim for the power of credit access has yet to be widely verified, and most rigorous studies find microcredit impacts that fall far short of the kinds of empirical assertions on which his proposal rests. We discuss ways that expanding the domain of rights can diminish the power of existing rights, and we argue for a right to non-discrimination in credit access, rather than a right to credit access itself.

SmartBookTM is the first and only adaptive reading experience designed to change the way students read and learn. It creates a personalized reading experience by highlighting the most impactful concepts a student needs to learn at that moment in time. As a student engages with SmartBook, the reading experience continuously adapts by highlighting content based on what the student knows and doesn''t know. This ensures that the focus is on the content he or she needs to learn, while simultaneously promoting long-term retention of material. Use SmartBook’s real-time reports to quickly identify the concepts that require more attention from individual students–or the entire class.

SmartBookTM is the first and only adaptive reading experience designed to change the way students read and learn. It creates a personalized reading experience by highlighting the most impactful concepts a student needs to learn at that moment in time. As a student engages with SmartBook, the reading experience continuously adapts by highlighting content based on what the student knows and doesn''t know. This ensures that the focus is on the content he or she needs to learn, while simultaneously promoting long-term retention of material. Use SmartBook’s real-time reports to quickly identify the concepts that require more attention from individual students–or the entire class.

Built from the ground up to focus on what matters to students in today’s high-tech, globalized world, Dean Karlan and Jonathan Morduch’s Macroeconomics represents a new generation of products, optimized for digital delivery and available with the best-in-class adaptive study resources in McGraw-Hill’s LearnSmart Advantage Suite. Engagement with real-world problems is built into the very fabric of the learning materials as students are encouraged to think about economics in efficient, innovative, and meaningful ways. Drawing on the authors’ experiences as academic economists, teachers, and policy advisors, a familiar curriculum is combined with material from new research and applied areas such as finance, behavioral economics and the political economy, to share with students how what they’re learning really matters. This modern approach is organized around learning objectives and matched with sound assessment tools aimed at enhancing students’ analytical and critical thinking competencies. Students and faculty will find content that breaks down barriers between what goes on in the classroom and what is going on in our nation and broader world. By teaching the right questions to ask, Karlan and Morduch provide readers with a method for working through decisions they’ll face in life and ultimately show that economics is the common thread that enables us to understand, analyze, and solve problems in our local communities and around the world.

Ensayo en el que los economistas Beatriz Armendáriz y Jonathan Morduch analizan el impacto de las instituciones de microcrédito sobre la economía de los habitantes de regiones pobres del mundo. Los autores conceptualizan a las microfinanzas como una herramienta para permitir una mejor distribución de la riqueza y para proporcionar una mejor posición social a las mujeres.

Microfinance institutions have proved the possibility of providing reliable banking services to poor customers. Their second aim is to do so in a commercially-viable way. This paper analyzes the tensions and opportunities of microfinance as it embraces the market, drawing on a data set that includes 346 of the world''s leading microfinance institutions and covers nearly 18 million active borrowers. The data show remarkable successes in maintaining high rates of loan repayment, but the data also suggest that profit-maximizing investors would have limited interest in most of the institutions that are focusing on the poorest customers and women. Those institutions, as a group, charge their customers the highest fees in the sample but also face particularly high transaction costs, in part due to small transaction sizes. Innovations to overcome the well-known problems of asymmetric information in financial markets were a triumph, but further innovation is needed to overcome the challenges of high costs.

Expanding access to financial services holds the promise to help reduce poverty and spur economic development. But, as a practical matter, commercial banks have faced challenges expanding access to poor and low-income households in developing economies, and nonprofits have had limited reach. We review recent innovations that are improving the quantity and quality of financial access. They are taking possibilities well beyond early models centered on providing “microcredit” for small business investment. We focus on new credit mechanisms and devices that help households manage cash flows, save, and cope with risk. Our eye is on contract designs, product innovations, regulatory policy, and ultimately economic and social impacts. We relate the innovations and empirical evidence to theoretical ideas, drawing links in particular to new work in behavioral economics and to randomized evaluation methods.

An accessible analysis of the global expansion of financial markets in poor communities, incorporating the latest thinking and evidence. The microfinance revolution has allowed more than 150 million poor people around the world to receive small loans without collateral, build up assets, and buy insurance. The idea that providing access to reliable and affordable financial services can have powerful economic and social effects has captured the imagination of policymakers, activists, bankers, and researchers around the world; the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize went to microfinance pioneer Muhammed Yunis and Grameen Bank of Bangladesh. This book offers an accessible and engaging analysis of the global expansion of financial markets in poor communities. It introduces readers to the key ideas driving microfinance, integrating theory with empirical data and addressing a range of issues, including savings and insurance, the role of women, impact measurement, and management incentives. This second edition has been updated throughout to reflect the latest data. A new chapter on commercialization describes the rapid growth in investment in microfinance institutions and the tensions inherent in the efforts to meet both social and financial objectives. The chapters on credit contracts, savings and insurance, and gender have been expanded substantially; a new section in the chapter on impact measurement describes the growing importance of randomized controlled trials; and the chapter on managing microfinance offers a new perspective on governance issues in transforming institutions. Appendixes and problem sets cover technical material.

Present eight recommendations for microinsurance providers

When capital and labor markets are imperfect, choice sets narrow, and parents must choose how to ration available funds and time between their children. One consequence is that children become rivals for household resources. In economies with pro-male bias, such rivalries can yield gains to having relatively more sisters than brothers. Using a rich household survey from Ghana, we find that on average if children had all sisters (and no brothers) they would do roughly 25-40% better on measured health indicators than if they had all brothers (and no sisters). The effects are as large as typical quantity-quality trade-offs, and they do not differ significantly by gender.

In this work, the authors report on the yearlong ''financial diaries'' of villagers and slum dwellers in Bangladesh, India, and South Africa. The stories of these families are often surprising and inspiring.

Microfinance contracts have proven able to secure high rates of loan repayment in the face of limited liability and information asymmetries, but high repayment rates have not translated easily into profits for most microbanks. Profitability, though, is at the heart of the promise that microfinance can deliver poverty reduction while not relying on ongoing subsidy. The authors examine why this promise remains unmet for most institutions. Using a data set with unusually high quality financial information on 124 institutions in 49 countries, they explore the patterns of profitability, loan repayment, and cost reduction. The authors find that institutional design and orientation matter substantially. Lenders that do not use group-based methods to overcome incentive problems experience weaker portfolio quality and lower profit rates when interest rates are raised substantially. For these individual-based lenders, one key to achieving profitability is investing more heavily in staff costs-a finding consistent with the economics of information but contrary to the conventional wisdom that profitability is largely a function of minimizing cost

"Helping to reduce venerability poses a new set of challenges for public policy. A starting point is understanding the ways that communities and extended families try to cope with difficulties in the absence of public interventions. Coping mechanisms range from the informal exchange of transfers and loans within families and communities to more structured institutions that enable an entire community to provide protections to their neediest members. this paper describes ways to build public safety nets to complement and extend informal and private institutions. The most effective policies will combine both transfer systems that are sensitive to existing mechanisms and new institutions for providing insurance and for generating savings."--Leaf [2].