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Micro-insurance has a protective role against risk in low-income households. The present study designed a micro-insurance development model for rural areas. The data was collected from 60 questionnaires given to experts of the Agricultural Insurance Fund and the Insurance Institute. The findings from the structural equation model developed using PLS show that the order of latent variables affecting on micro-insurance development were socio-cultural (B = 0.518), economic (B = 0.269) and educational (B = 0.265). The results showed that this model is appropriate for development of micro-insurance in rural areas for low-income households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that, far from collaborating with informal economic systems and actors, frugal innovation tends to treat informal economies as a pool of workers and organizational resources to be tapped for the benefit of corporate actors. I will examine how frugal innovation models selectively transform informal economic and institutional systems around formal economic interests, reconfiguring informal opportunities and the distribution of gains in ways that promote adverse incorporation of informal actors rather than mutual benefit. I will examine four mechanisms of adverse incorporation operating within frugal innovation models: copying, free-riding, bypassing nodes of accumulation and shifting risk. Drawing on case studies of M-Pesa and micro-insurance, I will illustrate the often selective and disempowering effects of frugal innovation, which operate to reconfigure informal economic systems in ways that divert profits and control away from informal operators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Microinsurance has recently received much attention as a promising tool to protect poor individuals from important shocks. Yet, voluntary demand from people has been low, shedding doubt on the viability of microinsurance as a useful risk-management tool. To better understand this puzzle, this paper reviews both the theoretical and empirical literature on the demand for insurance. While people's lack of understanding of insurance does seem to limit the demand for it, several more fundamental factors, such as price, quality, limited trust in the insurer, and liquidity constraints also seem to have an important role in explaining the puzzle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the Internet of Things (IoT) is not new, its key components are becoming increasingly affordable now, which makes the technology extremely attractive for the Global South. By collecting data from various IoT sources, combining them with data from other sources and using big data analytics, decisions can be made and actions can be taken that can have important economic, social, ecological and environmental implications in these countries. The most visible impacts of the IoT in these countries include improvements in agricultural and food systems, enhancement of environmental security and resource conservation, achievement of better healthcare, public health and medicine, and enhancement of the efficiency of key industries. This paper provides an overview of how the IoT is currently being used in the Global South. It also discusses the opportunities and challenges that IoT initiatives present there. The analysis indicates that the IoT may address some of the institutional bottlenecks, technological challenges and key sources of high transaction costs. On the other hand, various sources of underdevelopment may act as barriers to full utilisation of the IoT. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Summary: To reduce the burden of health expenditures in developing countries, health-insurance schemes have become popular and now feature prominently in poverty-reduction strategies. There is, however, limited empirical evidence on the effect of such schemes on the livelihoods of clients, especially regarding household strategies to finance medical expenditures. This paper explores the relationship between health insurance and other risk-coping strategies used to finance medical expenditures in Uganda. Insurance is associated with a lower frequency of asset sales but not with lower incidences of borrowing. The amount of money borrowed or generated through the sales of assets is lower for insured households. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Health services and modern medicines are out of reach for over one billion people globally. Micro-insurance for health is one method to address unmet health needs. This case study used a social exclusion perspective to assess the health and poverty impact of micro-insurance for health in Bangladesh and contrasts this with several micro-insurance systems for health offered in India. Micro-insurance for health in Bangladesh targeted towards the poor and the ultra-poor provides basic healthcare at an affordable rate whereas the Indian micro-insurance schemes for health have been implemented across larger populations and include high-cost and low-frequency events. Results of analysis of the existing literature showed that micro-insurance for health as currently offered in Bangladesh increased access to, and use of, basic health services among excluded populations but did not reduce the likelihood that essential health-related costs would be a catastrophic expense for a marginalized household. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]