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on Community banking and credit unions |
| By: | Yeandle, Alex; Doyle, David |
| Abstract: | Mobile money platforms are ubiquitous in many emerging economies. Hailed for raising financial inclusion and economic wellbeing, governments have now turned to mobile payments as a source of tax revenue. Transaction levies are often regressive, unpopular, and can encourage a return to cash. We present experimental evidence that they may also harm tax morale, a core component of the social contract between citizen and state. We present results from a survey experiment in Ghana, in which priming a controversial mobile transaction levy significantly lowers support for the state's right to collect taxes and willingness to comply with tax laws. We combine this with focus group discussions and analyse effect heterogeneity to examine two pre-registered explanations: transaction taxes cost citizens more than they expect to gain (reciprocity) and provoke particular backlash from non-government voters (partisanship). Our findings suggest that taxing mobile money can undermine efforts to expand fiscal capacity, while raising important mechanistic and policy questions for future research. |
| Keywords: | Africa;experiment;mobile money;public opinion;tax morale |
| JEL: | J1 E6 |
| Date: | 2026–06–24 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:140135 |
| By: | Ryan, Alexander |
| Abstract: | To assist policymakers and economic developers in measuring the effectiveness of using firm-specific incentives to attract large manufacturing investments and catalyze broader economic development, I study the role of access to community bank capital in catalyzing spillovers from large manufacturing plants to small business development. I construct a novel dataset of large manufacturing plant openings between 2010 and 2018 and estimate the impact of these openings on small business lending, creation, and expansion in the local economy, using difference-in-differences designs with multiple control groups. The results suggest that community banks drive post-opening increases in small business lending, which translates to higher growth rates in small business creation and expansion. Small businesses in complementary industries experience the largest growth, while small businesses that may compete for labor and other resources do not. These findings will inform policymakers evaluating which places will benefit from place-based policies and financial regulators monitoring the consolidation of the banking industry. |
| Keywords: | Community/Rural/Urban Development |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea26:404879 |
| By: | Greco, Giulia; Gulesci, Selim; Prabhakar, Pallavi; Sulaiman, Munshi |
| Abstract: | We present evidence from a randomized controlled trial in Uganda where married women were randomly provided unconditional cash transfers. Among treated women, we randomized the modality of payment (in cash or mobile money) and whether the beneficiary's spouse was informed about the transfer or not. We find that using mobile money for cash transfers is more effective in improving women's economic independence and decision-making power. In particular, women in the mobile money treatments have higher individual labor income and more of a say in household decisions. On the other hand, cash-based transfers are more effective in reducing intimate partner violence (IPV), especially when both partners are informed. This highlights a trade-off between improving the effectiveness of cash transfers on women's economic empowerment versus reducing IPV. While providing cash transfers digitally is more effective in improving women's control over resources, this may lower their effectiveness in addressing IPV. |
| Keywords: | Women's empowerment; Domestic violence; Cash transfers; Digital services; Privacy |
| JEL: | C93 D10 D82 J12 |
| Date: | 2025–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:20261 |
| By: | Callen, Michael; Fajardo-Steinhäuser, Miguel; Findley, Michael; Ghani, Tarek |
| Abstract: | Can digital payments systems help reduce extreme hunger? Humanitarian needs are at their highest since 1945, aid budgets are falling behind, and hunger is concentrating in fragile states where repression and aid diversion present major obstacles. In such contexts, partnering with governments is often neither feasible nor desirable, making private digital platforms a potentially useful means of delivering assistance. We experimentally evaluated digital payments to extremely poor, female-headed households in Afghanistan, as part of a partnership between community, nonprofit, and private organizations. The payments led to substantial improvements in food security and mental well-being. Despite beneficiaries' limited tech literacy, 99.75\% used the payments, and stringent checks revealed no evidence of diversion. Before seeing our results, policymakers and experts are uncertain and skeptical about digital aid, consistent with the lack of prior evidence on digital payments for humanitarian response. Delivery costs are under 7 cents per dollar, which is 10 cents per dollar less than the World Food Programme's global figure for cash-based transfers. These savings can help reduce hunger without additional resources, demonstrating how hybrid partnerships utilizing digital platform technologies can help address grand challenges in difficult contexts. |
| Keywords: | Fragility; Partnerships |
| Date: | 2025–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19970 |
| By: | Sebastián Katz (Central Bank of Argentina) |
| Abstract: | Among the diverse impacts of digital technologies, one of the most significant concerns their repercussions on the evolution of payment systems. Consequently, the methods by which value is stored, recorded, and transferred, as well as the manner in which transactions are conducted, areundergoing accelerated transformation. Several recent developments merit particular attention. On one hand, numerous economies have witnessed an intensification of pre-existing trends toward the reduction of cash usage in transactional activities. On the other hand, the emergence of the crypto ecosystem presents substantial opportunities alongside significant challenges and risks.A pertinent question in this regard is whether these shifts in the payment landscape—which involve the rise of new actors, markets, and potential institutional arrangements—entail more profound changes in the operational logic of the monetary and credit systems. This is the central inquiry of the present study, which examines how these developments interact with the established monetary and financial system, the policy responses and initiatives of regulatory authorities (e.g., CBDC, Fast Payment Systems, and the impetus toward tokenization), and the eventual consequences for the morphology of money and credit as they are currently understood. |
| Keywords: | banks, digitalization, money, payment systems |
| JEL: | E02 E42 E51 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bcr:wpaper:2026119 |
| By: | de Haas, Ralph; Mamonov, Mikhail; Popov, Alexander; Shala, Iliriana |
| Abstract: | How do violent conflicts shape cross-border lending? Using syndicated loan data on 14, 021 creditors and 97, 169 firms across 179 countries, we document a dual response. Relative to domestic creditors, foreign lenders reduce overall lending by 27% (supplydriven) but increase lending to military-related sectors by 24% (demand-driven). This reallocation is concentrated among lenders with military-sector expertise but limited country specialization, and flows toward politically non-aligned conflict zones. Preconflict exposure to cross-border lenders is associated with divergent firm-level outcomes: military firms expand assets, revenues, and employment, while exposed civilian firms contract. Violent conflicts thus selectively redirect, rather than uniformly suppress, cross-border credit. |
| Keywords: | Cross-border lending, syndicated loans, violent conflict, military lending, geopolitical fragmentation, credit reallocation |
| JEL: | G21 G15 F34 F51 D74 H56 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:bofitp:342402 |
| By: | Anderson, Siwan |
| Abstract: | Regarding the consequences of culture, there is perhaps no aspect so profound as gender biased norms. Customs and beliefs promoting the inferiority of females relative to males have been ubiquitous throughout human history and remain pervasive today in a majority of countries. This paper reviews the cultural economics literature which has examined the persistence and transformation of gendered beliefs and norms across the globe. While this innovative work has been expanding, in general, our understanding in economics of gender norm formation and evolution is still quite nascent and there are many exciting possibilities for future research. |
| Date: | 2025–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:20211 |