Development economics

October 26, 2016

‘The world has never been less bad’

A new interactive tool shows that men, women, and families from around the world have a lot more similarities than differences. With the U.S. presidential election, confusion over Brexit, and seemingly crumbling international relationships, 2016 feels like it’s been months and months of anger, resentment, and disharmony. Continue Reading...

December 06, 2013

Mandela’s Vision for Ecumenical Economic Engagement

Here’s a key section from a speech given by Nelson Mandela in 1998 at the World Council of Churches: At the end of a century that has taught that peace is the greatest weapon in development, we cannot afford to spare any effort to bring about a peaceful resolution of such conflicts. Continue Reading...

June 04, 2013

How Did the Global Poverty Rate Halve in 20 Years?

From 1990 to 2010, the global poverty rate dipped from 43% to 21%. The Economist explains why the rate halved in twenty years: How did this happen? Presidents and prime ministers in the West have made grandiloquent speeches about making poverty history for fifty years. Continue Reading...

October 25, 2012

Bono, Babel, and the Myth of Economist as Savior

Bono, lead singer of U2 and co-founder of charity-group ONE, recently offered some positive words about the role of markets in reducing global poverty and spurring economic development (HT): The Irish singer and co-founder of ONE, a campaigning group that fights poverty and disease in Africa, said it had been “a humbling thing for me” to realize the importance of capitalism and entrepreneurialism in philanthropy, particularly as someone who “got into this as a righteous anger activist with all the cliches.” Continue Reading...

September 28, 2012

ResearchLinks – 09.28.12

Article: “Big Questions and Poor Economics” James Tooley. “Big Questions and Poor Economics: Banerjee and Duflo on Schooling in Developing Countries.” Econ Journal Watch 9, no. 3 (September 2012): 170-185. In Poor Economics, MIT professors Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo set out their solutions for global poverty. Continue Reading...

May 24, 2011

Rev. Sirico: Change thinking on poverty

Last week in Rome the Acton Institute presented a promotional video for the PovertyCure initiative before an international audience of businessmen, scholars, journalists, graduate students and missionaries in attendance at the Institute’s May 18 development economics conference: “Family-Enterprise, Market Economies, and Poverty: The Asian Transformation.” Continue Reading...