Financial Literacy Research Roundup: August 31, 2026

Even as governments push to build infrastructure to achieve universal access to electricity, demand-side barriers constrain uptake where infrastructure already exists. This paper assesses the impact of the quasi-experimental introduction of mobile money on electricity adoption by households. We conduct a granular district-level analysis of 33 sub-Saharan African countries that leverages differential sub-national mobile network coverage. We find that mobile money access improves district-level power uptake by around 24% relative to similar districts without mobile money access. We provide evidence consistent with demand-side channels, specifically reduced financial frictions, driving this relationship as opposed to supply-side infrastructure expansion. Furthermore, we highlight the enabling role of mobile network coverage and the detrimental impact of mobile money taxes on electrification efforts.

Expanding access to credit markets can be seen as a source of empowerment when it increases economic opportunities and changes who is able to start a new business. It can also have equilibrium effects on wages so that the gains from financial development are widely shared. But others see credit market expansion as an unwelcome process of `financialization' with many of the gains being appropriated by financial institutions, pointing to the concentration in ownership of financial intermediaries, especially banks, around the world. This paper explores these issues, investigating the consequences of financial sector expansion for profits, wages and entrepreneurial activity using a calibrated general equilibrium model with financial frictions, endogenous default, and wealth inequality. A key element of the model is to examine how the surplus created in the real economy by expanding financial markets is shared between borrowers, lenders, and workers employed by firms. We show that competition in banking can be an important determinant of both equity and efficiency, and hence the gains from financial inclusion. The framework also highlights the role that different types of contractual imperfections can play in determining the distribution of gains from expanding market access.

" Objective - To explore personal financial management practices, financial decision-making, and the gap between economic independence and financial capability among career women in Bengkulu City. Methodology/Technique - A qualitative case study approach utilizing semi-structured interviews with 15 career women from government institutions, state-owned enterprises, and banking sectors. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis based on the Miles and Huberman interactive model. Findings - The study identified five major themes: budgeting practices, consumption orientation, debt reliance, saving and investment behavior, and long-term financial planning. Many respondents demonstrated limited financial capability, characterized by weak budgeting discipline, consumption-oriented spending, inadequate savings, and limited retirement planning, revealing that economic independence does not automatically translate into effective financial management. Novelty - The integration of Gender Role Theory and the Financial Capability Framework to explain how socio-cultural expectations and financial competence jointly shape the financial decision-making and sustainable well-being of career women. Type of Paper - Empirical"

We ask a representative sample to write prompts seeking spending and investing advice from LLMs, then simulate the lifetime effects of following the advice under realistic asset and labor market conditions. Applying this method to GPT-5.2, we find following the advice would move respondents toward life cycle theory: broader participation in diversified equity funds, age-declining equity shares, and larger savings buffers. Recommendations vary systematically by gender, prior AI experience, and financial literacy. For gender, two-thirds of recommended equity-share differences arise from men and women writing different prompts (demand), while one-third arise from gender labels attached to otherwise identical prompts (supply).

Over 8 million Venezuelans have left their country since 2014, mostly settling in Latin America. Using original survey data from nearly 3, 000 Venezuelan migrants across nine Latin American countries, this paper examines how legal immigration status shapes labor market integration and settlement intentions. Legal status is strongly associated with better labor market outcomes: migrants with documentation are 30.5 percentage points more likely to receive wages through a bank account, 21.6 pp more likely to hold a written employment contract, and similarly more likely to contribute to social security, pay taxes, and hold formal jobs—associations that are robust across specifications, bootstrap inference, and leave-one-out analysis. Legal status alone, however, is not associated with wanting to stay in the host country: legal and undocumented migrants report virtually identical settlement intentions. There is suggestive evidence that a link between legal status and settlement may materialize when legal status is paired with formal employment, particularly written contracts. The findings point to the potential value of complementing regularization programs with measures that facilitate formal employment, financial inclusion, and labor market integration.