Margaret Miller

Goals for Development: History, Prospects, and Costs

The Millennium Development Goals set quantitative targets for poverty reduction and improvements in health, education, gender equality, the environment, and other aspects of human welfare. At existing rates of progress many countries will fall short of these goals. However, if developing countries take steps to improve their policies and increased financial resources are made available, significant additional progress toward the goals is possible. The suthors provide a preliminary estimate of the additional financial resources which would be required if countries would work vigorously toward meeting the Millennium Development Goals. Two estimates of the resource gap are developed, one by estimating the additional resources necessary to increase economic growth so as to reduce income poverty, the other by estimating the cost of meeting specific goals in health, education, and the environment. Both estimates yield a figure in the range of

Improving Credit Information, Bank Regulation, and Supervision: On the Role and Design of Public Credit Registries

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Influencing positive financial behaviors: the social marketing solution

70 billion in additional assistance per year, which is in line with estimates from other international development agencies and which would roughly represent a doubling of official aid flows over 2000 levels. While the authors believe this is a reasonable first approximation of the costs associated with achieving the Millennium Development Goals, it should be interpreted with caution for several reasons, including the lack of empirical data in many countries to estimate the relationship between expenditures on health or education and related outcomes, or the relationship between investment and growth, the sensitivity of the results to changes in the policy environment (both at the macroeconomic and sector level, and with respect to international trade), and opportunities for increased-and more efficient-domestic resource mobilization.

Unlocking Credit: The Quest for Deep and Stable Bank Lending

The authors analyze how data in public credit registries can be used both to strengthen bank supervision and to improve the quality of credit analysis by financial institutions. Empirical tests using public credit registry (PCR) data were performed in collaboration with the central banks in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico. The results of the empirical tests confirm the value of the data for credit risk evaluation and provide insights regarding its use in supervision, including in calculations of credit risk for capital and provisioning requirements, or as a check on a banks internal ratings for the Basel IIs internal rating-based approach. The authors also define a set of critical design parameters and use the results to comment on appropriate public registry design. Finally, they discuss the relationship between the different objectives of a PCR and how they influence the registrys design.

CREDIT REPORTING SYSTEMS AROUND THE GLOBE: THE STATE OF THE ART IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE CREDIT REGISTRIES

Purpose – Influencing positive financial behaviors is the natural next frontier for social marketers to “get serious about”, as there are clear behaviors that, once adopted by target populations, will improve the quality of life for individuals as well as society. The purpose of this paper is to describe a study conducted on behalf of the Consultive Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), an independent policy and research center dedicated to advancing financial access for the worlds poor.Design/methodology/approach – The seven best practices presented in this paper are based on original research undertaken in 2009‐2010 which examined more than 100 cases around the world where a social marketing approach was used to influence a financial behavior.Findings – Relevant behaviors identified, including those related to establishing a bank account, increasing savings, using credit wisely, avoiding over indebtedness, applying for micro finance loans, adopting new technologies, reducing chances of fraud, choosing the r...