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A data-driven perspective on Islamic finance
In an effort to add some empirical rigor to ongoing debates surrounding Islamic finance, a new working paper and Findex Note explore differences in the usage of formal financial services between Muslims and non-Muslims, and the usage of and preference for Sharia-compliant banking products.
- Categories
- Education
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
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Microinsurance: Ripe for Disruption
The microinsurance market grew to more than 500 million risks in 2011, from 78 million risks in 2006, and could be as large as 360 million people in Latin America alone, according to a report from Celent.
- Categories
- Education
- Tags
- research
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Expanding the Platform: What’s holding back Kenya’s mobile money ecosystem – and how to improve it
Kenya leads the world in mobile money, but the wildly successful M-Pesa platform is still used mainly for remittances. For the country to realize its mobile finance potential, it must develop a much broader range of payment use cases, says Jake Kendall. He challenged a team of researchers to identify the country’s mobile finance challenges and to come up with solutions - here’s what they found.
- Categories
- Education
- Tags
- mobile finance, research
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Beauty as Business: Research on women entrepreneurs in India
Women’s World Banking conducted market research in North and South India to support the expansion of an individual lending program. Their goal was to understand the financial needs of micro-entrepreneurs and identify how individual loans could help them reach their business goals. In this post, they discuss the findings from one particularly promising business sector: beauty parlors.
- Categories
- Education
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MasterCard Launches Center to Drive Inclusive Growth Around the World
MasterCard has launched the Center for Inclusive Growth to further sustainable and equitable economic growth and financial inclusion around the world.
- Categories
- Education
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Piloting the 2014 Findex
As President Kim pointed out earlier this month at the plenary of the World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings, 2.5 billion adults worldwide aren’t using the formal financial system
- Categories
- Education, Impact Assessment
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Micro-finance: the fuel or fall of entrepreneurship in emerging markets?
The advent of micro-finance has ignited hopes that micro-entrepreneurs would now have one less obstacle in their way.
- Categories
- Education
- Tags
- microfinance, research
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GSK and BMGF ink new partnership to accelerate research into vaccines for global health needs
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) have launched a new joint initiative that will endeavour to make vaccines more resistant to heat, thus reducing the need for refrigeration. GSK and BMGF will invest a combined $1.8 million in early stage research into vaccine thermostability.
- Categories
- Education, Health Care
- Tags
- research
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