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Four Ways Big Data Can Improve Financial Lives: CFSI previews its upcoming report on harnessing data technology for the underserved market
Big Data is a buzzword, but it’s also a very real phenomenon: analysts estimate that annual data production will increase by a whopping 4300% between 2009 and 2020. In advance of a new report on the subject, the Center for Financial Services Innovation discusses four key trends driving Big Data innovation that can unlock value for both financial providers and consumers.
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- Education
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Don’t Cover Everything: Why targeted health microinsurance can work better than full coverage
EA Consultants’ efforts to understand both the business case and client value of microinsurance led to some interesting findings. For instance, catastrophic health insurance represented much greater value than primary or outpatient care for clients, but its behavioral effects skewed against good health outcomes. Barbara Magnoni discusses these findings, and offers some solutions.
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- Education, Health Care
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A Radio Jingle … Followed by an Economic Transformation
Hernando de Soto, economist and best-selling author, was determined to figure out what was keeping Peruvians in poverty. He quickly found that Peru had a bureaucracy that moved at glacial speeds. His solution? Catchy commercial jingles and a reality TV show featuring the president of Peru.
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- Education
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When Operations Equal Value Creation: Process innovation up and down value chains can leap the ‘voids’ in BoP markets
Business models are important, but in reality they are derived from the aggregation of value-creating processes. Put succinctly, operations = value creation in exemplary social ventures, argues James Koch, of the Center for Science, Technology and Society at Santa Clara University.
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- Technology
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NexThought Monday – My ‘big bet’ is equal economic opportunity for everyone
We can’t just give people tablets and access to education and expect to create change. We need to go one step further – to show them how to use these tools to supplement their incomes in the short term, argues Leila Janah, founder and CEO of Sama Group.
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- Education, Technology
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Weekly Roundup – 2/20/15: A Turning Point in the Evolution of Microfinance?
There has been plenty of research questioning the social impact of microcredit. But the latest studies in the American Economic Journal feel far more momentous. Conducted by prominent poverty researchers, and covering six countries on four continents, they consistently undermine the sector’s core social impact claims. NextBillion will cover the Feb. 27 event on the research and the path ahead.
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- Education, Environment, Impact Assessment
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Good for You, David Brooks: Now, could I please have Thomas Friedman’s phone number?
It’s great that New York Times Columnist David Brooks recently helped catapult impact investing into mainstream consciousness. But to move the impact investing space forward, we will have to look beyond the mainstream to challenge the boundaries of what we’d previously imagined was possible.
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- Uncategorized
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Disease-fighting Data: In Sierra Leone, tracking Ebola’s economic impact
Bad information has been problematic during the Ebola outbreak. As a result, IPA has been collecting data on the economic impacts of the crisis and is working on piloting and evaluating an electronic contact-tracing system that could substantially improve efficiency and reduce Ebola transmission rates.
- Categories
- Health Care, Impact Assessment
