Research Paper or Working Paper is the culmination of a research process and critical thinking. Here, we present our findings of primary research, surveys, and/or literature review in a format that is mostly found in academic papers. These may take us several months to produce and may involve a slow pace and deliberate reflection by the researchers.
This paper studies the changes in balance sheet composition across both extensive and intensive margins during this decade, allowing for heterogenous effects of year and regional banking sector development by household occupation type.
This paper argues that institutional stability and change in social protection policy in India are best explained through the explanatory power of ideas and the interactive processes of discourse. However, traditional institutionalist theories, whether rational choice, sociological, or historical, tend to underplay the role of ideas and discourse as drivers of institutional stability and change.
In the paper, we lay out a theoretical frame for thinking about microfinance crises. The theoretical frame draws from Hyman Minsky’s 1977 work on financial instability, and layers over it a cultural reasoning that recognises overlending and overborrowing as cultural traits that sometimes takes hold of microfinance markets.
The objective of this paper is to draw attention to those aspects of the lives of Low-Income Households (LIHs) that aren’t related to their income. In doing so, the paper characterises LIHs from a social capital perspective, highlighting the maintenance and strengthening of social capital as a deep-rooted cultural trait that is central to meaning-making in the lives of LIHs.
This paper traces the historical evolution of TSP in social protection discourse and argues that TSP rests on an incomplete diagnosis of poverty and inequality that underestimates the role of a hyper‑financialised global economy.
By studying people’s instinctive, unguided ‘trust-decisions’, we hope to uncover their mental models of trust. More specifically, we aim to (i) articulate the expectations that customers have of trustworthy lenders, (ii) help lenders design their products in a manner consistent with the customer's expectations, and (iii) translate these principle-level expectations into processes that lenders may adopt in their customer service to become trustworthy.
In this paper, we aim to identify the challenges and opportunities in financing regenerative agriculture within the context of smallholder farming in India and offer suggestions for enhancing the financing of regenerative agriculture in the country.
In this paper, we take a look back at 30 months of action research work and reflect on the process, the hurdles overcome, and the lessons learned. Unlike our usual publications, this one is a meta-reflection on the method of action research. We hope it will be useful for other organizations like ours that are doing this kind of work and to funders who fund it.
How can finance be designed and structured for agriculture, farmers, agricultural households, agrarian communities and the larger economy so as to ensure economic equity, social well-being, and environmental sustainability?
This paper aims to document the unique characteristics of the financial lives of low-income households in India. It focuses on the intra-year fluctuations in income that are faced by these households owing to the precarity of their occupations.
In all our research efforts, we strive to maintain an independent voice that speaks for the low-income household and household enterprises. Our ability to perform this function is significantly enhanced by our commitment to disseminate as a pure public good, all the intellectual capital that we create.
