Financial Access Initiative - Research Assistant

TERMS OF REFERENCE:  Research Assistant, Regulatory Policy 

PROJECT:     Financial Access Initiative

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

            

Free-market solutions, especially microfinance, hold great promise for reducing poverty on a mass scale.  As many as a billion poor households remain without quality financial services.  Solutions will require further innovation, experimentation, and evaluation.  The Financial Access Initiative, a joint project of

Harvard

University

,

Yale University

,

New York

University, and Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), has been formed as a research consortium focused on improving access to financial services for the world’s poor through research on innovation, regulation, and financial policy. 

The initiative is directed by Jonathan Morduch, Professor of Public Policy and Economics,

New York

University

; Dean Karlan, Assistant Professor of Economics,

Yale

University

; and Sendhil Mullainathan, Professor of Economics,

Harvard

University

and led by Christina Barrineau as the Managing Director.  Key research include the nature of demand for financial services; the extent of impacts of financial access on incomes, businesses, and broader aspects of well being; and regulatory and policy issues.

RESEARCH

Regulators of financial services have not had the benefit of learning from their peers in other countries.  The objective of this research is to document examples of regulators safeguarding the stability of the financial sector while at the same time enabling the flexibility needed by institutions to expand services to the un-banked.  The final result would not be a “best practices” compendium but a practical tool based on past experiences, hurdles, and possibilities that can be used to forge an appropriate regulatory regime. 

An important set of outputs will focus specifically on regulatory policy.  Focus notes and synthetic reviews will be completed on widely-debated issues including interest rate policy, prudential regulation, consumer protection, and the regulation of competition.  We anticipate writing 4 substantial focus notes on experience to date. Our aim is to achieve wide dissemination to regulators and policymakers. The main areas of focus will be:

a.    Interest Rate Policy

i.    Have there been successful instances of interest rate caps?
ii.    What are the trade-offs in interest rate regulation?
iii.    Where and how have interest rate policies been too restrictive?
iv.    What is the effect of slippages in enforcement of interest rate policies?

b.    Regulating Competition

i.    How have credit bureaus been used effectively?
ii.    How have licensing and branching policies been used?
iii.    What are the dangers of over-regulation?
iv.    To what extent has competition served to reduce costs?  Increase service quality?  Diminish repayment incentives?

v.    Where and how are hands-off policies working?

c.    Consumer Protection

i.    How can consumers be protected without over-regulating?
ii.    What types of consumer protection strategies permit innovation that may bring product improvement and lower costs to customers?
iii.    How do consumers perceive real effective rates as opposed to nominal rates?
iv.    Where and how have financial education programs been effective in improving customer decision making without additional regulation?

d.    Prudential Regulation

i.    How should insurance and savings regulation be structured?
ii.    How has tiered regulation worked?
iii.    To what extent have initial balance requirements, minimum transaction size and reserve requirements helped stabilize institutions?  To what extent have they diminished financial access?

RESEARCH ASSISTANT ROLE

The FAI seeks a Boston-based Research Assistant to work with consultant David Porteous on regulatory issues. David Porteous is the founder and principal of Bankable Frontier Associates, a niche consulting firm based in

Boston

,

Massachusetts

USA

. He has undertaken consultancy assignments in the areas of housing finance, inclusive financial sectors and making markets work for the poor for a range of clients including the Affordable Housing Institute, DFID and the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP).

The Research Assistant will have the following specific duties:

1. Systematizing research: Conceptualizing issues, cataloguing major work to date, assessing evidence, identifying knowledge gaps, detailing issues in moving forward; and
2. Assist with research and writing of focus notes and other publications and materials
3. Work closely with and report directly to David Porteous

Qualifications

·         A masters or PhD student in public administration, policy or economics

·         Strong writing abilities in English;

·         Strong administrative and organizational skills;

·         Strong communication and advocacy skills;

·         Experience working in microfinance industry;

·         Prior research experience is an asset; and

·         Competency in French and/or Spanish an asset.

]

Duration: Mid-July 2007 onward

Compensation: This is an uncompensated position

Please contact: Caitlin Weaver at

caitlin.weaver@nyu.edu

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