Author Archives: admin

Developmental Benefits from a Low Carbon Pathway

Sudhir Chella Rajan, Sujatha Byravan

India is in a position to reap enormous benefits from a low-carbon developmental pathway. This publication shows that a focus on inclusivity in India’s economic growth can result in large benefits. In fact, there are four economic reasons to adopt … Read More

Return to Kolar Crisis

Veena Jayaram, Deeptha Umapathy, Shreyas Gopinath, Amulyakrishna Champatiray

This CMF study looks into how the access to microfinance has dried up for the people in this region. What are their current options as far as access to credit is concerned? The report attempts to throw light on various … Read More

Informal Microfinance in Assam

Debabrata Das

This report presents insights from a study undertaken as a part of the Microfinance Researchers Alliance Program (MRAP), a research capacity development programme run by the Centre for Micro Finance (CMF) at IFMR Research. The study throws light on how … Read More

Client Profiling: a Qualitative Study of Experiences of Female Microfinance Clients

Shani Schechter

This study uses in-depth interviews to understand how women decide to be clients of an MFI, which factors guide loan usage and repayment, and women’s negotiating powers within the household. The focus is on the micro-credit client rather than the … Read More

Futures Pricing in the Agricultural Sector: Research Findings

Shawn Cole, Stefan Hunt, David Yanagizawa-Drott

For anyone trading or investing in a product, knowledge of prevailing market prices is of utmost significance. For products with high price volatility, informed future pricing can affect current investment decisions as well as lead to more accurate price expectations. … Read More

Role of Financial Intermediaries in the Indian Life Insurance Sector

Santosh Anagol, Shawn Cole, Shayak Sarkar

Agents continue to be the lifeblood of India’s life insurance sector, even with rapid urbanisation and advent of customer-friendly technologies. As there are several complexities associated with the sector, most consumers prefer taking the agent route to purchase a policy … Read More

Unpacking the Causal Chain of Financial Literacy

Fenella Carpena, Shawn Cole, Jeremy Shapiro, Bilal Zia

A growing body of literature examines the causal impact of financial literacy on individual, household, and firm level outcomes. This paper unpacks the mechanism of impact by focusing on the first link in the causal chain. Specifically, it studies the … Read More

Barriers to Household Risk Management – Evidence from India

Shawn Cole, Xavier Giné, Jeremy Tobacman, Petia Topalova, Robert Townsend, James Vickery

A study conducted by the Centre for Microfinance (CMF) in 5 districts of Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat looked deeper into identifying the reasons for the low take-up of rainfall insurance products using a statistically rigorous methodology (Randomized Controlled Trials – … Read More

A Civil Action: The Role of Indian Civil Society in the Climate Arena

Ambuj Sagar, Sujatha Byravan, Sudhir Chella Rajan

In this report, the authors present an overview of the science of climate change and its impacts in South Asia, examine India‟s climate emissions profile and the range of impacts that may result from a changed climate, and discuss possible … Read More

Are there Cultural Determinants of Entrepreneurship?

Rajkamal Iyer, Antoinette Schoar

This paper sheds light on the heterogeneity in the way that entrepreneurs from different communities conduct their business and the importance of community ties on the business dealings of entrepreneurs.