Is fin-tech the new panacea for poverty alleviation and local development? Contesting Suri and Jack’s M-Pesa findings published in Science

Bateman, Milford, Duvendack, Maren ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8125-9115 and Loubere, Nicholas (2019) Is fin-tech the new panacea for poverty alleviation and local development? Contesting Suri and Jack’s M-Pesa findings published in Science. Review of African Political Economy, 46 (161). pp. 480-495. ISSN 0305-6244

Preview

PDF (Accepted_Manuscript) - Accepted Version Download (647kB) | Preview

Abstract

Financial technology, or simply ‘fin-tech’, is increasingly seen as one of the key tools to facilitate poverty reduction and local economic development. One article in particular by Tavneet Suri and William Jack published in the leading publication Science has played a hugely influential role in promoting the fin-tech model in the global South using the example of Kenya’s iconic M-Pesa money transfer platform. The authors’ central claim is that M-Pesa has been instrumental in facilitating a major episode of poverty reduction. Our analysis shows that their analysis and claims are extremely problematic.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	sdg 1 - no poverty,sdg 8 - decent work and economic growth ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/no_poverty
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Global Development (formerly School of International Development)
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Gender and Development Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Impact Evaluation
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	24 Jun 2019 09:30
Last Modified:	22 Oct 2022 04:53
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/71521
DOI:	10.1080/03056244.2019.1614552

Downloads

Actions (login required)

View Item