讲座主题：“Can Hope ElevateMicrofinance? Evidence from Oaxaca, Mexico”

主讲嘉宾：Travis J. Lybbert

讲座时间：2018年10月12日（周五），13：30-15：00

讲座地点：学院南路校区学术会堂604

嘉宾简介：TravisJ. Lybbert，加州大学戴维斯分校农业与资源经济系教授。他发表了多篇应用微观经济学方面的文章，包括贫困动态性、气候变化、儿童营养、技术采用行为、知识产权和创新政策等。他与研究人员、学生、NGOs、政府和私人公司合作，曾经在印度、海地以及整个撒哈拉以南非洲、北非和欧洲生活和工作。他曾在世界贸易组织知识产权部门、世界知识产权组织经济与统计司以及加纳、德国和瑞典的大学担任访问研究员。他目前是美国农业经济学杂志的合作编辑。在康奈尔大学获得应用经济学硕士学位(2000年)和博士学位(2004年)之前，他是摩洛哥的富布莱特学者。

内容摘要：Recent evidence suggeststhat the average effects of microfinance on borrowers is more modestthanpreviouslyclaimed. Treatment effects are heterogeneous and may includetransformative impacts for some, but the moderators and mechanisms behind thisheterogeneity are poorly understood. We carry out an experiment to testwhetheran intervention designed to increase aspirational hope among borrowerscanelevate microfinance impacts. In collaboration with a microfinance lender inMexico, we produced a documentary featuring successful borrowers within theorganization and designed and implemented a hope curriculum rooted in positivepsychology (Snyder, 1994), which conceptualizes hopeas aspirations, agency, andpathways. Bank officers incorporated this curriculum into their regular weeklymeetings with a randomly treated half of 52 women’s savings and credit groupswith 780 women over the course of one year. We find that the interventionsignificantly increased indices measuring both aspirational hope andmicroenterprise performance over this time period. Treated borrower groups werealso more likely to persist to future lending cycles.

本讲座获得2018年中央财经大学专题学术讲座项目资助。