The co-authors of Portfolios of the Poor, Daryl Collins, Jonathan Morduch, Stuart Rutherford and Orlanda Ruthven, will be joined by MicroSave’s Graham Wright for a two-day virtual conference on June 8 and 9. Click through to MicroSave’s site to register for the conference and register to participate in these discussions.
Day 1: Understanding How Poor People Manage their Money – Lessons from “Portfolios of the Poor”
Day 2: Designing Financial Services for the Poor – Lessons from “Portfolios of the Poor”
As a reminder, Portfolios of the Poor is an amazing book that combines on-the-ground research with deep analysis to answer questions like “how do the poor spend the limited funds they earn?”, “how do they save?”, and most importantly, “how can we help them do it better?”. We will release a paperback early next year, but the hardcover is still available.
Here’s your cheat sheet for the conference (though you really should pick up a copy of the book):
1.) Read the intro to Portfolios of the Poor on our site here: http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s8884.pdf
2.) Listen to the authors appearance on Planet Money here: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2009/07/hear_making_a_life_on_2_a_day.html?ft=1&f=93559255
3.) David Roodman’s review of the book at the Center for Global Development: http://blogs.cgdev.org/globaldevelopment/2009/05/review-of-portfolios-of-the-poor-how-the-worlds-poor-live-on-2-a-day.php
4.) Seth Nemeroff at the Next Billion: http://www.nextbillion.net/blog/2009/05/11/portfolios-of-the-poor-financial-diaries-of-the-bottom-billion
5.) Chris Blattman chimes in here: http://chrisblattman.com/2009/09/04/the-main-problem-with-living-on-2-a-day/
6.) Diane Coyle writes about the book here: http://blog.enlightenmenteconomics.com/blog/_archives/2009/6/24/4233281.html
7.) A review at Science magazine (may be behind the firewall, but if you have access it’s a good one): http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/326/5960/1634
8.) An interview with WBUR’s On Point radio about their research: http://www.onpointradio.org/2009/06/how-to-live-on-2-a-day
9.) A Q&A with Daryl Collins: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/05/17/q_and_a_with_daryl_collins/
10.) And last but not least, Nicholas Kristof blogged about the book a while back: http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/portfolios-of-the-poor/
