Damien Sheehan-Connor

Evaluation of the impact of Village Savings and Loan Associations using a novel survey instrument

ABSTRACT Formal microfinance institutions have been an important tool in the fight against poverty in developing countries, but their reach is necessarily limited. Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) are an alternative, informal mechanism for saving and borrowing that do not require external capital or ongoing financial or administrative support from a founding organisation. This article evaluates the impact of VSLAs on their members and finds that long-term members fare better along multiple economic, nutritional, and health dimensions compared with a control group of recent joiners.

Environmental Policy and Vehicle Safety: The Impact of Gasoline Taxes

Policies to reduce carbon emissions by vehicles, such as fuel economy standards and gasoline taxes, have impacts on vehicle weight and thus on safety. This paper develops a model that separately identifies the impact of vehicle weight on mortality and selection effects that impact accident propensity. The main results are that (1) the safety externalities associated with heavy vehicles are greater than the environmental ones; (2) under fuel economy standards, vehicle weights have recently decreased with little likely effect on accident deaths; and (3) similar environmental benefits could be combined with substantial reductions in deaths by implementing higher gasoline taxes . ( JEL H23, D62)