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on Community banking and credit unions |
| By: | Usama Abdul Rauf (Pakistan Institute of Development Economics); Rafia Ali (Pakistan Institute of Development Economics) |
| Abstract: | Pakistan's large shadow economy remains key challenge to tax collection, quality of governance, and slow economic growth. Formalizing financial inclusion offers a strategic and evidence based trail by increasing trustful dependence on official, transparent and traceable system to shrink the size of shadow economy. This knowledge brief highlights the development of financial inclusion from 2008 to 2025. It also defines the underlying causes of the shadow economy and financial inclusion and the empirical insights by financial services contribute to the transfer of economic activities into the formal economy. Pakistan's still suffers from gaps across gender based exclusion, regional and income disparities despite a significant progress in branchless banking and digital payment platforms. Thus, cash remains a main medium of exchange leading to tax avoidance and informal economic activity. This brief suggest that reduction in shadow economy needs inclusive access and continuous usage of financial services for Pakistan's citizens. Therefore, with organized reforms, financial inclusion is a powerful tool to reduce informality and it will support long-term sustainable development. 1.Introduction Pakistan, the world's fifth most populous country and second populous in South Asia, still operating with a large shadow economy, basically the economy outside the official system. In 2024, a joint study conducted by the ILO and the SMEDA had estimated the shadow economy in Pakistan to be approximately 35-40% of the GDP, estimated at about US$457 billion. About 6% of the GDP is unreported annually. This weakens the inclusive growth and lowers government revenue. A significant number of traders do not register their business or workers and large number of workers remain unbanked. The high cash transactions enhances inequality and creates financial challenges for the country. Therefore, connecting individuals and businesses into documented economy through digital transactions, regi... |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pid:kbrief:2026:143 |
| By: | Kar, Sohini |
| Abstract: | As microfinance has expanded in India, so have efforts to regulate the sector. The competing regulatory authority of the state governments and the central bank have produced unexpected refusals by borrowers to repay loans, claiming waivers. These waivers, however, are often found to be fakes. In the context of financial inclusion, this article examines regulatory authority at the margins of the state. The growth of microfinance has raised concerns over the systemic impact of non-performing assets in the sector. While the expansion of formal finance has required the greater reach of the central bank, this often comes into competition with the political arm of the state. This paper shows how waivers—both real and fake—operate as a form of claims-making by poor borrowers. |
| Keywords: | microfinance;financial inclusion;regulation;central banks;debt |
| JEL: | F3 G3 J1 |
| Date: | 2026–08–29 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:138696 |
| By: | Jarvis, Lauren |
| Abstract: | The international humanitarian system’s localization agenda increasingly relies on digital technologies to coordinate local and global actors. While NGO literature emphasizes digital literacy (DL) as the primary driver of transformative digital integration, this study examines how environmental constraints shape the relationship between DL and NGO digital integration outcomes. Through a comparative analysis of 16 Nigerian NGOs across infrastructure-rich Ogun State and infrastructure-poor Borno State, findings reveal that environmental barriers create a skill-implementation gap where even highly skilled NGOs cannot translate capabilities into transformative integration due to three barriers: infrastructure gaps, bandwidth ceilings, and beneficiary connectivity limitations. Borno NGOs consequently experienced constraints in maintaining digitally mediated accountability to donors, beneficiaries, other NGOs, and staff. These findings reveal that digital skill building alone cannot address humanitarian accountability challenges without parallel infrastructure development. |
| Keywords: | accountability;digital technologies;international humanitarian system;Nigeria;non-governmental organizations |
| JEL: | J50 |
| Date: | 2026–08–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:140912 |
| By: | Anouck Butraud-Assathian (PcEn - Chaire Pluralisme culturel et Ethique du numérique (Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Joëlle Farchy (PcEn - Chaire Pluralisme culturel et Ethique du numérique (Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)); Léna Laqueyrerie (PcEn - Chaire Pluralisme culturel et Ethique du numérique (Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | The article examines the shift in the digital cultural ecosystem triggered by the widespread adoption of Generative AI. Historically, the platformization of cultural industries established an attention economy, where recommendation algorithms were essential for guiding users through overwhelming content catalogs. However, the recent influx of synthetic media has disrupted the dynamic, creating a synthetic tsunami that threatens cultural diversity, undermines user trust, and jeopardizes the livelihoods of human creators. Furthermore, this unchecked proliferation risks model degeneration for the AI systems themselves. To mitigate these economic and social tensions, Digital Service Providers are evolving their algorithmic policies. We analyze how platforms handle AI detection tools, transparent labeling, and adjusted recommendation guidelines to filter and distinguish human creations from automated content. Ultimately, this paper argues that platforms transition from a pure attention economy to a trust economy, actively protecting and highlighting human-made works to preserve the integrity and sustainability of the cultural value chain. |
| Keywords: | trust economy, digitization, recommender systems, GenAI, cultural industries, attention economy |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:hal-05751501 |
| By: | Lucia Esposito (Bank of Italy); Elisa Guglielminetti (Bank of Italy); Elia Moracci (Bank of Italy); Andrea Papetti (Bank of Italy); Massimiliano Pisani (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on monetary policy transmission and on central banks' reaction functions. By speeding up routine and repetitive tasks through automation and accelerating the incorporation of incoming information into decision-making, AI may affect productivity, market structure and broader macroeconomic developments. AI may also increase macro-financial complexity and systemic vulnerabilities by amplifying interconnectedness, heightening operational and cyber risks, and reinforcing procyclical and herding dynamics in an environment characterized by faster and partly algorithmic decision-making. Central banks' reaction functions will need to adapt to a setting marked by a different transmission mechanism, new uncertainty surrounding the natural rate of interest and tail risks. At the same time, AI could enhance the effectiveness of monetary policy by improving assessments of the macroeconomic outlook and the distribution of risks around it, as well as by strengthening monetary policy communication and the management of expectations. |
| Keywords: | artificial intelligence, credit markets, financial markets, inflation, business cycle, monetary policy |
| JEL: | O33 E44 E32 E31 E52 |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_1051_26 |
| By: | Cherchye, Laurens (University of Leuven); De Rock, Bram (ECARES); Vermeulen, Frederic (University of Leuven) |
| Abstract: | Standard household-level data hide substantial heterogeneity in how consumption, money, and time are allocated within households. This motivates the need for measuring welfare at the individual level and a structural approach on how household data can be used to capture these differences. After documenting what can be learned from direct survey evidence, we present the collective approach as an attractive framework for modeling intra-household decision-making with preference heterogeneity, public consumption, and home production. We then survey three identification strategies that recover individual preferences and resource shares from widely available datasets: differential, revealed preference, and preference-similarity methods. Applying these tools reveals that a sizable share of overall inequality originates within households and that individual poverty rates often diverge sharply from household-level measures. Overall, our review demonstrates that measuring welfare at the individual level fundamentally reshapes our understanding of inequality, and offers practical guidance for incorporating intra-household heterogeneity into empirical welfare evaluations. |
| Keywords: | individual welfare measurement, intra-household inequality, collective household consumption, sharing rule, time use |
| JEL: | D13 D31 I32 J22 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18941 |
| By: | Sultan Mehmood; Yaroslav Prokhorskoy; Leonard Wantchekon |
| Abstract: | Can foreign intervention redirect domestic mobilization toward the regime it seeks to weaken? We study the 2026 U.S.–Israeli strikes on Iran, which occurred amid a nationwide anti-government uprising. Combining high-frequency geocoded data on protests with geocoded records of U.S.–Israeli strikes, we document a sharp reversal in political mobilization. Anti-government protest was widespread before the strikes and receded sharply through February amid domestic repression and an intensifying “foreign-agent” narrative. Following the strikes, pro-government rallies and protests against the United States and Israel spread across the country. Exploiting the precise location and staggered timing of counties’ first exposure to a U.S.–Israeli strike, we find little change in total protest activity but a sharp shift from anti-government to pro-government protest. Public statements by U.S. and Israeli leaders increasingly aligned themselves with the protest movement, while Iranian officials portrayed the unrest as foreign-backed. These patterns are consistent with strategic sovereignty: overt foreign intervention can make domestic opposition easier to portray as aligned with an external adversary, weakening its legitimacy and redirecting collective action toward defense of the state. |
| JEL: | H56 H89 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35734 |