讲座主题：“Can Hope Elevate Microfinance? Evidence from Oaxaca, Mexico”

主讲嘉宾：Travis J. Lybbert

讲座时间：2018年10月12日（周五），13：30-15：00

讲座地点：学院南路校区学术会堂604

嘉宾简介：Travis J. Lybbert，加州大学戴维斯分校农业与资源经济系教授。他发表了多篇应用微观经济学方面的文章，包括贫困动态性、气候变化、儿童营养、技术采用行为、知识产权和创新政策等。他与研究人员、学生、NGOs、政府和私人公司合作，曾经在印度、海地以及整个撒哈拉以南非洲、北非和欧洲生活和工作。他曾在世界贸易组织知识产权部门、世界知识产权组织经济与统计司以及加纳、德国和瑞典的大学担任访问研究员。他目前是美国农业经济学杂志的合作编辑。在康奈尔大学获得应用经济学硕士学位(2000年)和博士学位(2004年)之前，他是摩洛哥的富布莱特学者。

内容摘要：Recent evidence suggests that the average effects of microfinance on borrowers is more modest thanpreviouslyclaimed. Treatment effects are heterogeneous and may include transformative impacts for some, but the moderators and mechanisms behind this heterogeneity are poorly understood. We carry out an experiment to testwhether an intervention designed to increase aspirational hope among borrowers canelevate microfinance impacts. In collaboration with a microfinance lender in Mexico, we produced a documentary featuring successful borrowers within the organization and designed and implemented a hope curriculum rooted in positive psychology (Snyder, 1994), which conceptualizes hopeas aspirations, agency, and pathways. Bank officers incorporated this curriculum into their regular weekly meetings with a randomly treated half of 52 women’s savings and credit groups with 780 women over the course of one year. We find that the intervention significantly increased indices measuring both aspirational hope and microenterprise performance over this time period. Treated borrower groups were also more likely to persist to future lending cycles.

[编辑]：张萌