Researchers partnered with IPA, the World Bank, and Banco de la Producción to assess the volume and number of remittances sent to Nicaragua during the COVID-19 pandemic. The overall volume of remittances sent to Nicaragua increased—driven mainly by an increase in the number of transfers by new clients and to a lesser extent by an increase in the average amount sent by regular clients.

Expanding credit access to small- and medium-sized agricultural producers is an important policy challenge, given the millions of livelihoods affected along its supply chain. Researchers used data on loans to coffee processors across 24 developing countries to study credit and insurance constraints in the coffee sector and assessed whether relationships between lenders and coffee mills could mitigate strategic default. Results show that strategic default is a pervasive problem in this market and that business relationship can significantly mitigate the consequences of the possibility of default. The data also suggests that both credit and insurance availability are a significant constraint even to relatively large firms, like coffee producers and exporters.