Philanthropy & Funding
Behavioral Economics and Donor Nudges: Impulse or Deliberation?
Charitable organizations can use insights from behavioral economics to help people follow through on their impulsive and deliberative intentions to give.
Dean Karlan
Measurement & Evaluation
Ten Reasons Not to Measure Impact—and What to Do Instead
Impact evaluations are an important tool for learning about effective solutions to social problems, but they are a good investment only in the right circumstances.
Economic Development
Cash as Capital
To fulfill the promise of cash transfers, we need to double down on investment in research.
Economic Development
The Next Stage of Financial Inclusion
Research on the needs and habits of the poor shows that nonprofits can serve a vital function in expanding access to financial services.
Philanthropy
Measuring Impact Isn’t for Everyone
Collecting data to demonstrate your organization’s impact is great to do when you should, wasteful when you should not.
Economic Development
Changing Savings Habits
Can financial education in grade school have long-term effects?
Economic Development
Development Controversy a Sign of Sophistication
Public debate about two prominent poverty-alleviation programs shows that over the past 15 years international development has become much more scientific.
Education
Training to Save?
Does financial education training for children in Ghana help instill a culture of good decision-making? Take a reader survey and find out.
Economic Development
Can Management Consulting Help Small Firms Grow?
Economic development efforts are best served by testing and refining assumptions about what works.
Economic Development
Survey: Can Management Consulting Help Tiny Firms Grow?
Predict the results of two recent development studies, conducted by IPA, one of the world’s leading poverty research organizations.
Review
Measuring Social Impact
Survival of the Deviant
The Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators Solve the World’s Toughest Problems by Richard Pascale, Jerry Sternin, & Monique Sternin
Social Innovations
Helping the Poor Save More
To enrich the bottom of the pyramid, bankers to the poor should make saving money easier by using the latest findings from economics and psychology.