Center for Development Economics to Host Conference

Media contact: Noelle Lemoine, communications assistant; tele: 413-597-4277; email: [email protected]

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., March 20, 2018—On Thursday, April 5, and Friday, April 6, the Williams College Center for Development Economics (CDE) will host its 2018 conference with the theme of “Technology and Financial Services: Finance for All?.” The keynote address on April 5 will be held in Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall and the talks on April 6 will be in Griffin Hall, room 3. The conference is free and open to the public.

Technology is changing rapidly in finance, with cash transactions falling in some countries and technology being used to increase the availability of financial services to many of the unbanked around the world. With this in mind, the 2018 CDE Conference focuses on the promises and pitfalls of rapidly changing technology in developing and emerging market financial systems.

The 2018 conference events schedule:

Thursday, April 5, Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall

8 p.m. Keynote address: Arvind Panagariya, Columbia University. “Financial Technology, Inclusion and Development: The Case of India.” Panagariva will discuss how rapidly changing technology is being used to increase access to financial services in India, with lessons for other countries.

Friday, April 6, Griffin Hall, room 3

9 a.m. William Jack, Georgetown University, “Mobile Money: Gender and Poverty Impact.”

9:45 a.m. Jon Robinson, UC Santa Cruz and Co-Scientific Director, Digital Credit Observatory, “Mobile Money in Malawi.”

10:45 a.m. Xavier Gine, The World Bank. “Banking with Agents: Experimental Evidence from Senegal.”

11:30 a.m. Paul Niehaus, UC San Diego, “General Equilibrium Effects of (Improving) Public Employment Programs: Experimental Evidence from India.”

1:45 p.m. Liliana Rojas-Suarez, Center for Global Development, “Regulation for Improving Financial Inclusion.”

2:30 p.m. Margaret Miller, The World Bank, “Fintech and Financial Development: Lessons from Around the World”

3:30 p.m. Dean Karlan, Northwestern, “The Promise of Digital Finance.”

The conference is sponsored by the Williams College Center for Development Economics with the support of the World War II Memorial Lecture Fund.

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Published March 20, 2018