Conference | December 11, 2023 – December 12, 2023

Location: Spieker Forum, Chou Hall, Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley, 2220 Piedmont Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94720-1900 + Google Maps

View Agenda

The Lab for Inclusive Fintech (LIFT) at the University of California, Berkeley and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) are excited to host a two- day event “The Digital Future: Fintech, AI, and the Path to Financial Inclusion.” The conference will be held on December 11-12, 2023, at Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.

The technology and data revolutions have transformed how households and businesses interact in the economy, as they face novel opportunities and challenges. The conference will feature industry leaders, policymakers, and leading scholars dedicated to exploring the latest advancements and future implications of financial and blockchain technologies and AI, and their role in fostering financial health, economic resilience, and prosperity.

REGISTRATION will be required for this event. Sessions and panels will be in person; audiences will have the option to attend in person or join remotely via livestream.

If you require an accommodation for effective communication (ASL interpreting/CART captioning, alternative media formats, etc.) or information about campus mobility access features to fully participate in this event, please contact [email protected] with as much advance notice as possible and at least 10 days prior to the conference.

Agenda

Monday, December 11th, 2023
2:00 pm – 5:30 pm | Spieker Forum, Chou Hall

1:45 – 2:00 pm Check In
2:00 – 2:10 pm Welcome Paul Gertler, University of California, Berkeley
Cesaire Assah Meh, IFC
2:15 – 3:00 pm Opening Panel: The Promise of Fintech and the Path to Financial Inclusion
 Chair: Laura Chioda, University of California, Berkeley

  • Olayinka David-West, Associate Dean & Professor of Information Systems, Lagos Business School
  • Sophie Sirtaine, CEO, CGAP
  • Edom Tsegaye, Sr, Program Officer, Financial Services for the Poor, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
3:00 – 3:40 pm Policy Panel:  Fintech, Big Tech, and Financial Services: a Policy Agenda Chair: Adel Meer, IFC

  • Julapa Jagtiani, Senior Economic Advisor and Economist, FRB Philadelphia
  • Linda Jeng, CEO / Visiting Scholar on Financial Technology, Digital Self Labs / Georgetown Law
  • Eric Parrado, Chief Economist & General Manager of Research, IDB
3:40 – 3:55 pm Coffee Break
4:00 – 5:15 pm Session: Fintech: Vulnerable Populations and Consumer Protection Chair: Rich Lyons, University of California, Berkeley

  • Learning to Navigate a New Financial Technology: Evidence from Payroll Accounts
    Presenter: Emily Breza, Harvard University
  • The Impact of Price Comparison Tools in Consumer Credit Markets
    Presenter: Sean Higgins, Northwestern University
  • What works to connect women to digital technology?
    Presenter: Simone Schaner, University of Southern California
  • Effect on Employment of Government Guaranteed Loans to Small Businesses during COVID
    Presenter: Paul Gertler, University of California, Berkeley
5:20 – 5:35 pm Closing Remarks Rich Lyons, University of California, Berkeley, Associate Vice Chancellor for Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Tuesday, December 12th, 2023
8:30 am – 5:15 pm | Spieker Forum, Chou Hall

8:30 – 9:00 am Check-In
9:00 – 9:05 am Introduction to Day 2  
9:05 – 9:40 am Keynote Address Dean Karlan, Northwestern University and Chief Economist, USAID
9:40 – 9:50 am Coffee Break
9:55 – 10:30 am Innovating for impact:
Fintech and Mission-Driven Investing to Advance Financial Inclusion 		Chair: Denis Medvedev, IFC

  • Matt Flannery, Co-founder and CEO, Branch Intl.
  • John Onwualu, Principal, Flourish
  • Viviana Siless, CTO, Co-founder, and Professor, Quipu & Universidad Torcuato Di Tella
10:35 – 11:15 am The Role of Digital ID as a Key Component of Expanding Financial Inclusion Chair: Ken Weber, Ripple Impact
11:20 – 11:30 am Coffee Break
  
11:30 – 12:35 pm Session: When Nontraditional Financial Actors Offer Financial Services Chair: Marcel Fafchamps, Stanford University

  • Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL)…On Your Credit Card
    Presenter: Benedict Guttman-Kenney, University of Chicago
  • The Effect of Stock Ownership on Individual Spending and Loyalty
    Presenter: Paolina Medina, University of Houston
  • Invisible Primes: Fintech Lending with Alternative Data
    Presenter: Dimuthu Ratnadiwakara, LSU
12:40 – 1:40 pm Lunch Break
1:40 – 2:45 pm Session: Privacy and Fairness in Machine-assisted Decisions Chair: Sonia Katyal, University of California Berkeley

  • Paper Title to TBC
    Presenter: Catherine Tucker, MIT
  • On the Fairness of Machine Assisted Human Decisions
    Presenter: Jann Spiess, Stanford University
  • Differential privacy
    Presenter: Joshua Blumentock, University of California, Berkeley
2:50- 3:55 pm Session: P2P transfers, Tech Adoption, and Mobile Money Chair: Jill Grennan, University of California, Berkeley

  • Friends and Family Money: P2P Transfers and Financially Fragile Consumers
    Presenter: Emily Williams, Harvard University
  • Mobile Money, Interoperability, and Financial Inclusion
    Presenter: Nicola Limodio, Bocconi University
  • Strategic Complementarities in a Dynamic Model of Technology Adoption: P2P Digital Payments
    Presenter: David Argente, Yale University
3:55 – 4:10 pm Coffee Break  
4:15 – 5:20 pm Session: Digital Businesses, and SMEs Performance in Developing Countries Chair: David Sraer, University of California, Berkeley

  • Virtual Windows Through Glass Walls? Digitization for Mobility-Constrained Female Entrepreneurs
    Layanne Alhorr, Harvard University
  • Connecting the Countryside via E-Commerce: Evidence from China
    Presenter: Benjamin Faber, University of California, Berkeley
  • Smiles in Profiles: Improving Fairness and Efficiency Using Estimates of User Preferences in Online Marketplaces
    Presenter: Emil Palikot, Stanford University

INITIATIVE
Lab for Inclusive FinTech

DATES
December 11 – 12, 2023

LOCATION
Spieker Forum, Chou Hall, Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley, 2220 Piedmont Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94720-1900 + Google Maps

CONTACT
[email protected]