Financial Inclusion in Afghanistan

Project description

Through a coordinated set of projects in Afghanistan, we investigate how individuals in low-income and fragile settings make financial decisions under uncertainty, and how context-sensitive interventions can promote economic opportunity. The work combines behavioral economics, development economics, and field experimentation to understand both the psychological frictions (e.g. defaults, inattention, risk aversion) and structural barriers (e.g. conflict, institutional distrust, cash infrastructure) that limit participation in formal financial systems.

Through rigorous empirical methods—often leveraging novel datasets and randomized experiments—the research seeks to design and evaluate financial products, policies, and interventions that improve economic outcomes while being feasible in challenging environments.