EUROPEAN BOOK TOUR: Portfolios of the Poor

The office is quiet this week: FAI directors and staff are in Europe promoting the launch of Portfolios of the Poor: How the World's Poor Live on $2 a Day. Comprised of the financial “diaries” of over 250 families in Bangladesh, India, and South Africa, Portfolios of the Poor tracks the financial practices of the poor with unprecedented detail. Households maintained meticulous records for a year, reporting on their income, savings, expenses, and loans, every two weeks. This attention to detail revealed an unexpected lesson about poverty: the poor lead complex and active financial lives; not despite being poor, but because they are poor.

Published less than a month ago, Portfolios of the Poor has already received a considerable amount of press:

May 26

Noted Times columnist Nicholas Kristof reviews the book here:

May 18

Portfolios of the Poor is featured in the New York Times Idea of the Day, an editor-run blog dedicated to "highlighting the most interesting writing on the Web."

May 17

Portfolios of the Poor co-author, Daryl Collins, discusses the complex and sophisticated instruments with which the poor manage their unpredictable incomes in a Boston Globe article.

May 14

PRNewswire New York reviews Portfolios of the Poor.

May 14

The Economist magazine features Portfolios research and stories.

February 14

An early review from the Financial Times highlights lessons of Portfolios of the Poor.