FinTech in the Philippines has been gaining more attention in recent years, especially during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic when lockdowns are prevalent and cashless payment methods are encouraged to limit exposure to health risks from face-to-face and cash-based transactions. Digital...

Using a unique FinTech data containing monthly individual-level consumption, investments, and payments, we examine how FinTech can lower investment barriers and improve risk-taking. Seizing on the rapid expansion of offline usages of Alipay in China, we measure individuals' FinTech adoption by...

Digital technology applied to banking and financial transactions or e-finance in general has made financial services more widely available and affordable to consumers. And with appropriate and affordable technologies and applications, the financially excluded and the unserved can participate in...

We document the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on digital finance and fintech adoption and usage. Drawing on mobile application data from 71 countries, we estimate that the spread of COVID-19 and related government lockdowns led to between a 33.1 and 36.6 percent increase in the relative rate...

The COVID-19 crisis created conditions for digital finance to accelerate financial inclusion in the Philippines. Anecdotal and survey data suggest that the pandemic has indeed spurred large gains in financial inclusion in the country, with adoption of digital finance as a strong driver. This...

With transformative evolution involving crypto-assets, machine learning applications and data-driven finance models, complex regulatory and policy issues are emerging. Inadequate frameworks in FinTech markets create regulatory friction and regulatory fragmentation. These limitations continue to...

The first goal of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is the absence of poverty to be achieved by 2030. Thus, access to and usage of financial services play an important role in achieving this, where ICT and digital technologies are the main tools, that describe it as a digital financial...

Financial literacy and economic preferences are considered to be important drivers of health, income, and general well-being. In this paper we bridge the gap between studies on financial literacy and research on economic preferences by how they interplay with each other and the field behavior of...

We present the results of a randomized intervention in schools to study how teaching financial literacy affects risk and time preferences of adolescents. Following more than 600 adolescents, aged 16 years on average, over about half a year, we provide causal evidence that teaching financial...