Economic Development
On the Rise
A new book reminds pessimists that growing numbers of people around the world are wealthier and healthier than ever before.
Review
Tag: Poverty
Understanding why people are poor and innovative ways to alleviate poverty
Review
Social Services
A First-Class Solution
The success of the Housing First movement shows why social service providers must listen to the people they serve.
Social Services
Lost to Foreclosure
One of the cities hit hardest by the wave of home foreclosures was Stockton, Calif., a city that later declared bankruptcy.
Impact Investing
What Impact Investors Can Learn from the Microfinance Industry
Substitute the word “impact” for “social performance,” and current debates in the investment community sound exactly like the ones the microfinance industry had 10 years ago. The investor community can learn from microfinance’s successful efforts to set standards for non-financial returns—the “other bottom line.”
Economic Development
Responsible Lending when Traditional Underwriting Doesn’t Work
For households facing financial volatility, the wrong kind of credit can drag them under. But it can also be a tool for building stability. How can we make loans for big-ticket items like vehicles both good for people and good for business?
Economic Development
Start-ups Bring New Solutions to Cash-Flow Challenges
The financial services industry is at the beginning of a wave of innovation that has the potential to improve consumer financial health.
Economic Development
Financial Security in an Age of Short-Term Volatility
Policies aimed at generating long-term financial security have become irrelevant to many American households. We need new policies to shore up households in the short term.
Leadership
Seduced by “The Reductive Seduction of Other People’s Problems”
Even in the world of poverty and development, seduction sometimes works out OK.
Economic Development
Solving for Shelter: Matching Income Volatility with Housing Stability
Housing programs and policies implicitly assume households have stable incomes. Here’s some ways to change them.
Impact Investing
Impact Investing: Four Opportunities for 2016
Let’s be ambitious about using innovative financing to help sort out global supply chains, provide catalytic capital for energy transition, and link talent in emerging markets to online marketplaces.