YALE SAVINGS AND PAYMENTS RESEARCH FUND
SOUTH ASIA IMPACT EVALUATION TRAINING
The Yale Savings and Payments Research Fund, part of the Global Financial Inclusion Initiative at
Innovations for Poverty Action and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is recruiting
researchers from South Asia to participate in a four day training event in September 2012.
The training will help build understanding of randomized controlled trials (RCTS), with a focus on
acquiring tools to evaluate innovative savings and payments interventions. Topics will include
expanding knowledge of the techniques involved in rigorously conducting an RCT, including power
calculations and study design, as well as discussions about current research in the savings and payments
sphere. Researchers will be challenged not only to participate in the training but also to think critically
about how they can further expand their work to include RCTs. To learn more about randomized
evaluations, please click here.
To be eligible to apply, applicants must:
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Hold a PhD or currently be pursuing a PhD,
Demonstrate interest in and capacity to conduct randomized trials,
Demonstrate interest in studying innovative savings products and payment
channels, and
Be a citizen and current resident of a South Asian country (Afghanistan,
Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, or Sri Lanka).
To apply, researchers should submit the following to microsavings@poverty-action.org:
1. Completed application. Save file as Lastname_Firstname_SA_workshop_2012.pdf
2. Curriculum vitae
3. A pdf file of a recent publication
The subject line of the email should read: Last name, First name: SA Workshop Application 2012.
Applicants are encouraged to apply early as applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. The final
deadline for applications is July 23, 2012, at 11:59pm Eastern Daylight Time.
For further information, please contact:
Emily Cupito
Project Coordinator, Yale Savings and Payments Research Fund
Innovations for Poverty Action
ecupito@poverty-action.org
+256 781 814 816
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YALE SAVINGS AND PAYMENTS RESEARCH FUND
SOUTH ASIA TRAINING APPLICATION
Personal Information
Name
Email address
Title
Country of citizenship
Phone
Institution
Country of Residence
Education: Please list the post-secondary educational institutions you attended, beginning with the
most recent.
Institution #1
Course of study
Degree
Date degree obtained/expected
Institution #2
Course of study
Degree
Date degree obtained/expected
Institution #3
Course of study
Degree
Date degree obtained/expected
Please list up to three of the most relevant papers you have published in this research domain. Please
list all the authors as well as the title, date, and journal of publication for each. We are especially
interested in publications that focus on innovations in financial inclusion and use rigorous research
methods. If you are a PhD student and have yet to publish, please attach working drafts and a
description of your upcoming research projects.
Publication #1
Publication #2
Publication #3
Please attach one publication you believe to be most relevant to this training. This can be one of the
publications listed above. We are particularly interested in publications for which you were the main
author (i.e. you set up the research design, conducted the data analysis, and did most of the writing).
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SHORT ANSWERS
Please describe your responsibilities in your current position. If you are a student, please describe
your involvement in teaching and mentoring as well as your plans for after graduation. (50 words)
Please discuss what you hope to get out of this training. How do you think this training can benefit
you and your institution in the future? (100 words)
Please describe your experience with impact evaluation in the past. Describe any evaluations you
have conducted and the methodologies you have used. Please also include any trainings and
coursework you have followed on impact evaluation. Be sure to mention any experience with RCTS.
(100 words)
Please describe one of your current research projects. Note that this project does not have to be an
RCT and does not have to deal with savings and payments research. We simply want to hear about
the research that you are currently working on. Describe your key research questions and your
methods for conducting your evaluation. If you have results or preliminary results, please share
those as well. (150 words)
Discuss your knowledge of savings and payments research and identify gaps where you feel more
research is necessary. Please include citations. To learn more about IPA’s work on savings, and
payments, click here. (200 words)
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RESEARCH DESIGN – CASE STUDY
A philanthropic donor is interested in learning how mobile money affects the lives and welfare of the
rural poor. A Mobile Network Operator (MNO) has just developed an e-wallet that allows parents to
earmark savings to pay school fees for their children. The MNO has agreed to randomize the roll-out of
the product so that you can evaluate it.
In 300 words or less, explain how you would design a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate the
impact of the e-wallet on parents’ ability to save for and pay school fees. Be sure to clearly describe
how the implementation and evaluation would work. Discuss the unit of randomization and how you
would deal with problems such as spillovers or attrition. Include information on how you would
measure the amount parents save for school fees as well as any long-term impacts on school attendance
or educational attainment. Note that this section will allow us to understand how you think through
implementation challenges while preserving the rigor of the randomized trial. Coherent, succinct, wellwritten answers will be appreciated.
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