Cynthia Kinnan's research focuses on how households and small firms in developing countries use financial products (e.g., credit, insurance, savings) and informal insurance networks to finance investments, save, and cope with risk. She is particularly interested in the causes of missing markets, in the interaction between risk and household investment, in social networks, and in microfinance.
She is a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), an affiliate of the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD), and an affiliate of the Jameel Poverty Action Lab. She was a visiting scholar at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government for the 2013–14 academic year.
