To get people into the digital economy, give them a bank account, not a classroom.
We’ve spent years thinking that 'digital literacy' and education are the keys to bringing the unbanked into the modern economy. This study flips that, showing that institutional 'anchors'—like a legal identity or a formal bank account—are what actually drive inclusion in developing nations. Education is secondary to the physical and legal infrastructure that allows a person to exist in the system. It turns out that knowing how to use a smartphone doesn't matter if you don't have the legal right to open an account on it. For policy makers, this is a clear signal to stop funding apps and start funding IDs.
Anticipatory Governance in Data-Constrained Environments: A Predictive Simulation Framework for Digital Financial Inclusion
SSRN · 6589388
Governments in resource-constrained environments frequently encounter difficulties in formulating forward-looking policies because of limited access to longitudinal administrative data. This study addresses this issue by presenting a predictive simulation framework that converts periodic, static microdata into a proactive policy instrument. Drawing on the UNCDF Pacific Digital Economy dataset, which comprises 10,108 respondents from seven Pacific Island countries, the study develops a machine le