News & Updates:

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  The critical role of development finance institutions in economic development
  An appreciation for the role of private capital in economic development is not new: the UK’s CDC Group and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) were founded over 50 years ago to channel private sector capital from developed to developing countries. While much emphasis is placed on the role of governments to grow incomes in these countries, the private sector is often the primary growth engine in emerging markets—generating 9 out of 10 jobs.[1] Moreover, official development assistance (ODA) budgets have stagnated. Foreign direct investments (FDI) have now overtaken the volume of ODA by a factor of 5 to 1.[2] And in 2012, for the first time, developing economies absorbed more FDI than their developed counterparts.[3] As a result, during the last 15 years, the role of ODA as the major source of development financing has shifted. ODA has been redefined as a “catalyst” to mobilize additional investments, especially private capital.
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  10 years later: Is the global financial system more secure?
  Is the global financial system more secure since the crash of 2008? Professor Richard J. Herring indicates that because of new regulations, banks are less prone to experience another collapse. He argues “Most of the reforms have aimed at reducing the vulnerability of banks…. Equally important, however, are the reforms aimed at enabling the authorities to deal with a bank insolvency without imperiling the financial system.” Herring also compares the effects of the global financial crash in other markets, such as the European Union. He contends “…the fundamental problem [the Europeans] faced is that they lacked the important back-up of a facility comparable to TARP. They lacked financial resources to recapitalize banks that were inadequately capitalized…”
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  EPA announces new regulations, effectively reversing all Obama-era power plant rules
  EPA reveals the Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule designed to replace former President Obama’s Clean Power Plan regulations with new restrictions on coal-fired power plants; Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky) introduced a new amendment that would prohibit federal funding to organizations that offer abortion services such as Planned Parenthood; Wall Street observes upticks across a variety of major benchmarks as US stock continues to be traded at a high level.
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  Fintech is Coming to Retirement Planning – But You Still Need a Good Ol’ Budget
  Faculty Affiliate Olivia Mitchell discussed how fintech  – or the use of technology to support banking and financial services – holds a great deal of promise, but how it’s not yet fully helping those saving for or living in retirement. 
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  Elder Financial Fraud Is Worse Than We Thought. Here’s What We Can Do About It.
  In an op-ed piece featured on the Wall Street Journal, Faculty Affiliate Olivia Mitchell discusses the unique financial vulnerability of elderly individuals and  solutions for this unrecognized problem. Her ethnographic research discovered that “financial fraud experienced by the over-50 population is a large and important problem, and more prevalent than commonly believed.” She goes on to outline three potential solutions; one from the private sector, one from technological innovation, and one from policy makers.