Finance

MIT was named the top university in the world for the sixth consecutive year in the QS World University Rankings, reports Kyle Scott Clauss for Boston Magazine. 

John Wasik of Forbes explains Prof. Robert Merton’s funded retirement ratio, which determines whether an investor will have enough retirement funds based on money saved, rate of return, and planned retirement. Checking this number allows time to improve it by “saving more, working later and adding more stocks to your portfolio,” explains Wasik. 

A study by Prof. Tanveet Suri shows that a mobile-money service called M-Pesa had a long-term impact on poverty in Kenya, writes Tina Rosenberg for The New York Times. The researchers found that M-Pesa “helped women graduate from subsistence agriculture to small business, perhaps because having an M-Pesa account gives a woman her own money…and a greater sense of agency.”

In this MarketWatch video, Joseph Coughlin, director of the AgeLab, explains how investors can ensure they save enough for retirement. In addition to regularly putting aside money, Coughlin advises that millennials should also invest in core skills and professional development “so that they are able to stay in the workforce for as long as possible.” 

Prof. Andrew Lo speaks with Barry Ritholtz of Bloomberg View about the field of economics. Lo explains that his new book chronicles his “intellectual journey from a diehard devotee of efficient markets and rational expectations into the realm of first psychology and behavioral finance, and then to neuroscience and how people really make decisions.”

John Authers of the Financial Times writes about Prof. Stephen Ross, best known for the arbitrage pricing model, who died at age 73. Ross was "one of the world’s most respected financial economists,” writes Authers. “Exceptionally versatile, he had at least three insights each deserving of a Nobel citation.”

Prof. Stephen Ross, whose work helped reshape the field of financial economics, died at 73, reports Jessica Silver-Greenberg for The New York Times. Prof. Antoinette Schoar said that all of Ross’ “intellectually intricate finance theories were aimed at solving real-world problems,” adding this the models he developed were “both extremely elegant and extremely practical.”

Prof. Stephen Ross, a prize-winning professor known for his work developing the arbitrage pricing theory, died on March 3, reports Stephen Miller for Bloomberg News. Miller writes that Ross’ “work in the field of financial economics provided powerful contributions to both investment management and academic research.”

In an article for The Washington Post, Prof. David Singer writes that by limiting the Federal Reserve’s independence, Congress could hurt the U.S. economy. “Keeping the Fed independent and actively engaged in international coordination is the best way to maintain a stable and internationally competitive financial system in the 21st century,” he explains.

A new study by Prof. John Van Reenen finds that Britain’s exit from the European Union could cause a “negative impact on gross domestic product per capita of almost four times that of previous estimates,” reports Lucy Meakin for Bloomberg. 

CNBC reporter Karen Gilchrist writes that a study by Prof. John Van Reenen shows that Brexit could end up reducing the incomes of people living in Great Britain by as much as 9.5 percent. “The report points to a 6.3 to 9.5 percent reduction in GDP per capita with the U.K. outside of the EU's single market,” Gilchrist explains. 

Melvin Konner writes for The Wall Street Journal about new MIT research that shows mobile-money services helped lift at least 194,000 Kenyan households out of extreme poverty. The researchers found that the services significantly helped women, and estimated that mobile banking “induced 185,000 women to switch into business or retail” from farming, and increased saving. 

Robert Gebelhoff writes for The Washington Post about a study by Prof. Tavneet Suri that shows mobile-money services helped reduce poverty in Kenya. The study “offers good evidence that having a place to put money that’s safe and easily accessible can make the lives of poor people considerably more efficient than cash-reliant economies,” Gebelhoff explains. 

Nurith Aizenman reports for NPR on a new study that shows mobile banking can help lift people out of poverty. Prof. Tavneet Suri says she was “blown away” by the study’s results, which showed that women-led families with access to mobile-money services, “set aside 22 percent more in savings between 2008 and 2014.”

Popular Science reporter Kate Baggaley writes that a new study by MIT researchers shows that mobile money services helped two percent of households in Kenya rise out of poverty. “Women especially have benefitted from the spread of mobile money, which has helped many move from farming into business,” writes Baggaley.