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Households of low to moderate income struggle in multiple ways. To what extent can access to appropriate financial tools help alleviate some of their stress? While microcredit, the provision of small loans to people in poverty, is typically associated with developing countries, issues of access to appropriate financial products are everywhere.

This course focuses on Access to Finance in the US and will involve direct engagement with Philadelphia organizations dealing with the issue that finance might address - and both the potential and actual problems that arise withing households, small business and the industries that are in the ecosystem supporting them. We will read books, articles and studies to ground us in different understandings of poverty and households' financial needs, whether theoretical, empirical and/or directly observed. And, we will examine how the financial sector and adjacent industries are providing products and services to serve those households and small businesses, not always in helpful ways. We will look at eco-systems, providers, regulators and financial literacy.

A major portion of the class will be project-based and will have you take a deep dive into one of the Philly organizations involved in access to finance to better understand what they do, how they are doing it and how they are making strategic decisions. We will develop basic analytical skills and deploy useful frameworks to better understand the operations of each organization. And, we will assess how their success is affected both by the capabilities they bring and the environment in which they are working. This class will be taught in Philadelphia as part of the Tri-Co Philly Program.

Come join Professor Mudd in the city and learn together the issues and current local efforts to deal with them.