Agricultural development is facing great challenges in meeting global food security and is expected to face even greater difficulties under climate change. The overall goal of this paper is to examine how foreign aid in particular can be used to achieve t

Building and maintaining financial security is increasingly difficult for a growing portion of American households. Wealth is less prevalent in middle-class households and increasing among the already well-to-do. At the same time, poverty is growing and concentrating disproportionately among the...

What began several years ago as a network of matched savings programs to encourage low-income Texans to save has blossomed into a statewide, comprehensive asset-building movement now known as RAISE Texas.

Micro- and small-scale enterprises (MSEs) have become important players in the Kenyan economy, but at the same time they continue to face constraints that limit their development. Lack of access to financial services is one of the main constraints, and a number of factors have been identified to...

Using a comprehensive firm-level dataset spanning the period 1998-2005, this paper provides a thorough investigation of the relationship between f$

A recent study finds that telephone and face-to-face counseling can be equally effective and appear to generate equivalent outcomes for consumers' creditworthiness two years later. The increase in telephone and online counseling may encourage consumers to seek earlier assistance for their credit...

Government actions, combined with oversight and standardization from industry organizations, benefit consumers by enabling them to more easily identify agencies that work in their best interest and are certified to provide them with quality financial education.

Access to mainstream financial services is on the horizon for unbanked and underbanked consumers in Houston through Get Checking(TM), a national initiative sponsored by eFunds Corp. and the University of Wisconsin Extension.