IMTFI is devoted to supporting innovative research on the financial lives of the world’s poor and marginalized, and the potential for new technologies to change the monetary ecologies in which people seek to make a life for themselves. IMTFI investigates the pros and cons of digital platforms for payment and savings, and tries to show how the experiences and philosophies of the “target” populations of development initiatives themselves provide invaluable guidance for how to design and implement systems and policies that will actually benefit those they are intended to serve. See below for White Papers from IMTFI funded researchers.

 

IMTFI White Papers

(View full list on eScholarship)

Monetary Ecologies and Repertoires: Research from the Institute for Money, Technology & Financial Inclusion. First Annual Report & Design Principles by Bill Maurer, January 2010.

Consumer Finance Research Methods Toolkit by Erin B. Taylor and Gawain Lynch.

Afford Two, Eat One. Financial Inclusion in Rural Myanmar, by Proximity Design, Frog and Studio D Radiodurans.

Betting on Chance in Colombia: How game network operators succeed in providing financial services to the poor while other networks fall behind, by Ana Maria Echeverry Cuartas and Coppelia Herran Cuartas (En Español: Apostándole al Chance en Colombia).

El contexto socio-político de la nueva arquitectura financiera y el sistema público de dinero electrónico en Ecuador by Javier Félix, 2014. View the Executive Summary: The New Financial Architecture and the Public Mobile Money System in Ecuador. 

Journeys for Water, by Gaurav Bhushan, Nitin Gupta, & Jennifer Lee Fuqua.

The GILA Mobile Money Project: Present-Day Money Handling and Mobile Money Opportunities in Greater Ibadan-Lagos-Accra, aka GILA, West Africa, Research Report by Joel Patenaude, 2013.

In the Hands of God: A Study of Risks and Savings in Afghanistan, Research Report by Jan Chipchase, 2013.

Embracing Informality: Designing Financial Services for China's Marginalized, Research Report by Reboot, 2012. Embracing Informality (Executive Summary).

Best Practices in Mobile Microfinance, Research Report by Grameen Foundation, 2012.

Landscaping Mobile Social Media and Mobile Payments Indonesia (Final Report) by Tom Boellstorff with Khanis Suvianita, Dédé Oetomo, and Nurul Ilmi Idrus, and in collaboration with Amelia Damayanti Ihsan, Andreas Mahardika, Theresia Pratiwi, Athifah Anastasia Soraya, and Wulan Widaningrum, July 2013.

Landscaping Mobile Social Media and Mobile Payments in Indonesia (Further Thoughts) by Tom Boellstorff, February 2013.

Landscaping Mobile Social Media and Mobile Payments Indonesia (Interim Report) by Tom Boellstorff and Bill Maurer, 2012.

Mobile Money Afghanistan, Research Report by frog design, 2011.

Mobile Money in Haiti: Potentials and Challenges, Final Research Report by Erin B Taylor, Espelencia Baptiste, and Heather A. Horst, April 2011.

Haitian Monetary Ecologies: A Qualitative Snapshot of Money Transfer and Savings (Executive Summary) by Espelencia Baptiste, Heather Horst, and Erin Taylor, February 2011.

Haitian Monetary Ecologies and Repertoires: A Qualitative Snapshot of Money Transfer and Savings, Research Report by Espelencia Baptiste, Heather Horst, and Erin Taylor, November 2010.

Organizational Models, a catalog of selected works of IMTFI researchers from 2008-2010 by Melissa Cliver.