A Thai village study finds wide variation in risk attitudes, suggesting that policy to smooth economic volatility may need to be nuanced. The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis: The Region, June 2010 Douglas Clement, Editor It may be a vestige of colonial history that leads people in industrialized...

New book by MIT Economist Robert M. Townsend establishes foundation for analyzing the impact of financial policies in developing countries. CHICAGO, March 22, 2011 Ever since widespread defaults on microloans in India thrust the microfinance industry into crisis, a compelling and fundamental question...

Robert M. Townsend, Interviewed by Stephen Yeo Robert M. Townsend of MIT talks about his research on how the lives of the world’s poor can be improved through more efficient financial systems. Drawing on data gathered from an extensive survey of Thai households, Townsend discusses risk-sharing and the...

Robert M. Townsend, Interviewed by Stephen Yeo Robert M. Townsend talks about his recent book, co-authored with Krislert Samphantharak, that analyses household finance in developing countries using integrated household surveys. Townsend describes how to create new and more comprehensive household ‘accounts...

Leading experts will discuss ways to improve survey design and data collection in developing economies when they meet Dec. 10-11 at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. for “Survey Design and Measurement in Development Economics,” a conference presented by the University of Chicago, the World Bank and...

Published: Jan / Feb 2008 Along a narrow gravel road in central Thailand’s Lopburi province stands a two-story house with a corrugated-steel roof. On a hot day last August a family of three sat cross-legged on the cobalt-tiled floor and talked about their life and work with interviewers from the Thai...

Published: March 20, 2008 The John Templeton Foundation has provided a $3.3 million grant for a new project to focus on wealth creation and poverty reduction in developing countries by bringing together some of the nation’s leading economists and scholars to form The Enterprise Initiative, based at the...

Entrepreneurs are considered a source of innovative ideas, unique perspectives and much-needed enterprise, but their role in a developing country is even more critical. The entrepreneur drives both growth and productivity. A close examination of financial access is essential to this discussion, as financial...