Biography
Michael King is Assistant Professor of Economics at Trinity College Dublin. His research is on the microeconomics of development with a focus on financial inclusion, social protection and gender. Michael is a co-founder and director of the Trinity Impact Evaluation Research Centre (TIME) and regularly contributes to the literature on development policy. His large scale research project spans nine countries; Kenya, India, ireland, Malawi, Mexico, Nigeria, Mauritania, the US and Zambia.
Michael has previously worked as Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for International Integration Studies (2007-2012), economist with Forfás and the National Competitiveness Council in Dublin (2016-2017) and is the founder and former Chief Executive Officer (2001-2004) of Dublin based international development agency Suas Educational Development.
Michael holds a Masters in economics and international development (MPA/ID) from Harvard University and a BA and PhD in economics from Trinity College Dublin. Michael has been awarded the O'Reilly Foundation Scholarship (2003), the Fulbright Scholarship (2004), the John F. Kennedy Scholarship (2004) and the Provost Teaching Award (2017).
Publications and Further Research Outputs
Peer-Reviewed Publications
King Michael, Chaning Jang, Daniel Putman and Shane Byrne, Strategies for Reducing Non-Institutional Fraud and Building Trust in a Digital Market Platform: Evidence from a Lab Study in Nigeria, Innoivation for Poverty Action , 2023
King, Michael, Bedi, Tara and Anu Jose, Joint Accounts in the Fintech Era: How Does Labelling, Transparency and Approval Rules Affect Spousal Financial, Trinity College Dublin , 2022
King, Michael, Bhanot, Syon and Siegfried Zottel, Two-way Text Messaging for Financial Behavior Change in Zambia, World Bank, 2022
Michael King, Tara Bedi, Impact of the 2019 Malawi Floods, Trinity College Dublin, TIME, 2021
Inequality and Poverty in, editor(s)John O'Hagan, Francis O'Toole and Ciara Whelan , The Economy of Ireland: Policy Making in a Global Context, London, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021, [Michael King]
King, Michael and Anuj Singh, Understanding Farmer's Valuation of Agricultural Insurance: Evidence from Viet Nam, Food Policy, 94, (101861 3), 2020
Michael King, Consumer Mortgage Preferences and Behavioural Biases, Trinity College Dublin, 2018
Michael King and Tara Mitchell, Savings Groups in Western Kenya: Transactions and Member Data, Trinity College Dublin, 2018
Distribution and Poverty in, editor(s)John O'hagan and Francis O'Toole , The Economy of Ireland: Policy Making in a global Context, Palgrave Macmillan , 2017, pp205 - 235, [Michael King]
Michael King, Broadening the Global Development Framework Post 2015: Embracing Policy Coherence and Global Public Goods , European Journal for Development Research, 2016
Amrik Heyer and Michael King, The Kenyan Financial Transformation (2005-2015), FSD Kenya, 2015
Social Justice: Distribution, Poverty, and Policy Responses in, editor(s)John O'Hagan and Carol Newman , The Economy of Ireland, 12th Edition, Dublin, Gill and Macmillan, 2014, [Michael King]
A Conceptual Framework for Financial Inclusion and Recent Evidence for Sub-Saharan Africa in, editor(s)Loius Brennan , Enacting Globalization: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on International Integration, Dublin, Palgrave, 2014, pp20-32 , [Michael King]
Cause and Effect of Financial Access in Sub-Saharan Africa: Cross Country Evidence from the Finscope Surveys in, editor(s)Robert Cull, Asli Demirgüç-Kunt and Jonathan Morduch , Banking the World: Empirical Foundations of Financial Inclusion, Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, 2013, pp45-84 , [Patrick Honohan and Michael King]
Michael King, Green Growth and Poverty Reduction: Policy Coherence for Pro-Poor Growth, 2013
Social Justice: Distribution, Poverty and Policy Responses in, editor(s)John O'Hagan and Carol Newman , The Economy of Ireland, Dublin, Gill and Macmillan, 2011, pp205 - 235, [Michael King]
Frank Barry, Michael King and Alan Matthews, Policy Coherence for Development: Five Challenges, Irish Studies in International Affairs, 21, 2010, p207-223
Frank Barry and Michael King, The Coherence of Ireland's Foreign Direct Investment Policy with Development Objectives, Trócaire Development Review, 2009, p97 - 113
Non-Peer-Reviewed Publications
Tara Bedi, Anu Puthenmadathil Jose, Michael King, How Does Workfare, Labelling, Transparency and Approval Rules Affect Spousal Financial Decision Making, 2023
Formal Financial Inclusion in Kenya: Understanding the Demand-Side Constraints in, editor(s)Amrik Heyer and Michael King , Kenya's Financial Transformation in the 21st Century, Nairobi, Kenya, FSD Kenya, 2015, [M. King]
Niels Keijzer and Michael King, Monitoring the Effects of the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) in Developing Countries, London, Overseas Development Institute (ODI), 2012
Niels Keijzer, Michael King, Alan Matthews and Eunike Spierings, Measuring Policy Coherence for Development: Study on Modernising the Comparability of Donor Contributions Post-2015, Maastricht, The Netherlands, ECDPM, 2012
Niels Keijzer and Michael King, Monitoring the Effects of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in Developing Countries, London, Overseas Development Institute (ODI), 2012
Michael King, The Unbanked Four-fifths: Informality and Barriers to Banking Services in Nigeria, 2012
Keijzer, N., King, M., Spierings, E., Matthews, A. , Measuring Policy Coherence for Development, Maastricht, Netherlands, European Centre for Development Policy Management, May, 2012, 58
Michael King, Is Mobile Banking Breaking the Tyranny of Distance to Bank Infrastructure? Evidence from Kenya, 2012
Michael King and Alan Matthews, Policy Coherence for Development : Indicators for Ireland, Dublin, Institute for International Integration Studies, 2012, 1, 101
Ireland's Treasure by National Competitiveness in, editor(s)Ed Burke and Ronan Lyons , Next Generation Ireland, Dublin, Blackhall Publishing, 2011, pp91 - 114, [Michael King]
Frank Barry, Michael King and Alan Matthews, Policy Coherence for Development (PCD): The State of Play in Ireland, Dublin, Institute for International Integration Studies, 2009
Vahagn Galstyan , Michael King and Alan Matthews, The Competitiveness of UK Priority Export Sectors, London, United Kingdom Trade and Investment (UKTI), 2009
Research Expertise
Projects
- Title
- Graduation out of Poverty and Gender Dynamics in Malawi
- Funding Agency
- Concern Worldwide
- Date From
- 2017
- Date To
- 2021
- Title
- Text Messaging for Financial Behaviour Change in Zambia
- Summary
- Working with Natsave, Zambia, this project employs a novel text-messaging-based intervention to: 1) identify the behavioral barriers that lead to low engagement with formal financial services amongst those using the services; and 2) test strategies to help people overcome those barriers to increase engagement and financial security. Additionally, the study will provide the first evidence on the impact of conversational, two-way text messaging designed to encourage savings and improve loan repayment behaviors through Q&A capabilities and efforts to enhance trust in formal financial products. The study is working with 84,000 Natsave customers and involves both phone surveys and in-person surveys.
- Funding Agency
- World Bank i2i Fund
- Date From
- 2017
- Date To
- 2019
- Title
- Flexible Loans and Locked Savings for Female Market Vendors in India
- Summary
- Financing Working Capital for Female Vendors in India
- Funding Agency
- Innovation for Poverty Action
- Date From
- 2017
- Date To
- 2021
- Title
- Financial Inclusion and Financial Sector Development in Kenya
- Summary
- This research programme will investigate important issues such as the interaction between poverty and financial inclusion, the geospatial dimensions of financial access, the impact of new financial services and the changing role of mobile banking services. The research programme will have a special focus on assessing the impact of new financial products and related technologies.
- Funding Agency
- Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) Kenya
- Date From
- Nov 2013
- Date To
- Dec 2015
- Title
- The Impact of Innovative Mobile Financial Products on Vulnerable Groups in Kenya
- Summary
- In partnership with a leading bank in Kenya this project seeks to assess the impact of mobile savings and lending products on welfare outcomes and bargaining power within the household.
- Funding Agency
- TCD
- Date From
- April 2015
- Date To
- April 2016
- Title
- Policy Coherence for Development
- Summary
- With the support of The Advisory Board for Irish Aid (ABIA), IIIS is conducting a four year research programme (2007-2010) on the coherence of various aspects of Irish government domestic policy with the objectives of Irish Aid to reduce poverty in developing countries in line with our commitment to the Millennium Development Goals. The research programme is comprised of two phases. In phase one an extensive survey of the activities of all Irish Government Departments will be conducted to identify policy areas that affect developing countries. The findings of this scoping research will be published in mid-2008. Phase two comprises in-depth research into a number of key PCD issues identified by the scoping research report and will be concluded in 2010. The IIIS/ABIA research will be widely disseminated to policy makers and members of the development community through open presentations and publications.
- Funding Agency
- ABIA
- Date From
- June 2006
- Date To
- May 2010
Recognition
Representations
Research Associate, Trinity Research in Social Science (TRISS)
Awards and Honours
Provost Teaching Award
Provost Teaching Award Commendation
O'Reilly Scholarship
John F. Kennedy Scholarship
Fulbright Scholarship (awarded)
Memberships
Research Affiliate, Innovation for Poverty Action (IPA)
Member, American Economic Association
European Economics Association