Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
What do you do?
Answering this question requires a certain savoir faire. The one word answer just doesn't cut it. If I simply reply microfinance, people get confused. In order to avoid that confusion, I've got a one liner: I am working for a company studying the effects of small loans on poor people in rural Egypt. At least it avoids that awkward confusing look people would give me if I just said microfinance.
What is microfinance?
The provision of financial services including loans, savings accounts, and insurance to low-income people who don't have access to finance through traditional banks. It's regular finance tailored to low income people.
Why study its effects?
In order to deliver aid and spur economic development in the most efficient manner, we have to understand the degree to which programs like microfinance improve lives.
How do you study the effects?
You compare what happened with what would have happened if there hadn't been microfinance. In other words, you compare reality with its counterfactual.
How can you know what could have happened?
You can't! But you can mimic the counterfactual with an intelligent experimental design. You take a sample of your target population and randomly divide it into two groups -- treatment and control. Theoretically, the two groups have identical characteristics because they were chosen at random. The treatment group is offered microfinance products and the control group is not. After two year, you compare the characteristics of the two groups. That comparison is the best simulation of what happened with what would have happened.
What is microfinance?
The provision of financial services including loans, savings accounts, and insurance to low-income people who don't have access to finance through traditional banks. It's regular finance tailored to low income people.
Why study its effects?
In order to deliver aid and spur economic development in the most efficient manner, we have to understand the degree to which programs like microfinance improve lives.
How do you study the effects?
You compare what happened with what would have happened if there hadn't been microfinance. In other words, you compare reality with its counterfactual.
How can you know what could have happened?
You can't! But you can mimic the counterfactual with an intelligent experimental design. You take a sample of your target population and randomly divide it into two groups -- treatment and control. Theoretically, the two groups have identical characteristics because they were chosen at random. The treatment group is offered microfinance products and the control group is not. After two year, you compare the characteristics of the two groups. That comparison is the best simulation of what happened with what would have happened.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Salam wa Alaikum
A wise man once told me, "If you drink from her nile, you will undoubtably return." And, he was right. I'm back in Egypt -- the so-called "mother of the world," and it's time for round two.
Somewhere in cyberspace exists the original blog The Law of Small Numbers, which consists of over one hundred posts from August 2008 to July 2009 about life in Egypt through an American student's eyes. It began with the story of my first day in Egypt: the very first time I used the bathroom, I unknowingly pressed the bidet lever instead of the flusher. My pants got completely soaked... I learned a lot that year.
As I was walking in downtown Cairo on my first day back in Egypt, I literally bumped into two people I knew. I've already racked up a few Egyptian experiences including chilling in many cafes, eating koshary, fuul, and falafel, taking taxis everywhere for cheap, surviving two car crashes (two days in a row), debating women's rights with fundamentalists, and drinking plenty of fruit juices. Speaking of fruits, the man who sells mangos outside my apartment just told me there are over 50 kinds of mangos in Egypt.
Grab a taxi, put on your seatbelt (only applicable in the new white taxis), and get ready for another ride. Round two. Go!
Somewhere in cyberspace exists the original blog The Law of Small Numbers, which consists of over one hundred posts from August 2008 to July 2009 about life in Egypt through an American student's eyes. It began with the story of my first day in Egypt: the very first time I used the bathroom, I unknowingly pressed the bidet lever instead of the flusher. My pants got completely soaked... I learned a lot that year.
As I was walking in downtown Cairo on my first day back in Egypt, I literally bumped into two people I knew. I've already racked up a few Egyptian experiences including chilling in many cafes, eating koshary, fuul, and falafel, taking taxis everywhere for cheap, surviving two car crashes (two days in a row), debating women's rights with fundamentalists, and drinking plenty of fruit juices. Speaking of fruits, the man who sells mangos outside my apartment just told me there are over 50 kinds of mangos in Egypt.
Grab a taxi, put on your seatbelt (only applicable in the new white taxis), and get ready for another ride. Round two. Go!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)