A Financial Analysis of Mobile Money Services
With limited reporting by mobile network operators (“MNOs”) on the financial performance of mobile money businesses, the paper develops a financial reporting framework to indentify (and quantify) operating costs associated with delivering mobile financial services to unbanked populations in emerging markets. The framework is based on a review of relevant literature and an analysis of the financial reporting of conventional money transfer businesses.
The Economics of Branchless Banking
Provides a formal analysis of the economic drivers for branchless banking solutions. It exposes the design trade-offs that occur at the each of the key layers of service: the retail network (transaction acquisition), payments network (transaction aggregation and routing) and account/service platforms. It also reviews the volume drivers of various existing deployments.
Warm Hands in Cold Age – On the Need of a New World Order of Care
The world is aging as fertility and mortality are both decreasing. This article focuses on practical care work for the elderly. Such work is done primarily by women even though a larger portion than previously is paid rather than unpaid. All over the world, most elderly care work is organized within the family, most often unpaid. Men receive more care from partners than women, while women receive more care from female relatives. When care work is paid, the payment is generally low. A comparison between Germany, Spain, and Sweden demonstrates similar gender patterns, even though the role of the state in supporting care differs considerably as do care workers' conditions. The sustainability of today's distribution and organization of care work is questioned as the need for care increases, and the possibility of more equal sharing of care work between women and men is explored.