Publications

January 2018 (Revised February 2018)
Technical Note

The Scope of Business at the Base of the Pyramid: Poverty in the U.S. and Other OECD Countries

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Tricia Gregg

Using data from U.S. Census and OECD, this note defines poverty as those populations who fall below 50% of that country’s median per capita income. It then provides a brief statistical tour of six key challenges facing such populations: Income and Jobs, Healthcare,... View Details

Keywords: Poverty; Social Issues; Problems and Challenges; Global Range

July 2020
Article

Higher Economic Inequality Intensifies the Financial Hardship of People Living in Poverty by Fraying the Community Buffer

By: Jon M. Jachimowicz, Barnabas Szaszi, Marcel Lukas, David Smerdon, Jaideep Prabhu and Elke U. Weber

The current research investigates whether higher economic inequality disproportionately intensifies the financial hardship of low-income individuals. We propose that higher economic inequality increases financial hardship for low-income individuals by reducing their... View Details

Keywords: Economic Inequalty; Economy; Income; Equality and Inequality; Poverty; Civil Society or Community

Find at Harvard

2011
Book

Antonio Serra, A Short Treatise on the Wealth and Poverty of Nations (1613)

By: Sophus A. Reinert

Keywords: Wealth; Poverty

Find at Harvard

2006
Chapter

My Policies or Yours: Do OECD Agricultural Policies Affect Poverty in Developing Countries?

By: Nava Ashraf, Margaret McMillan and Alix Peterson-Zwane

Keywords: Agribusiness; Policy; Government and Politics; Developing Countries and Economies; Trade; Poverty; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

October 5, 2023
Column

A Smarter Way to Design Business Strategies to Serve the Poor

By: Bhavani Shanker Uppari, Ioanna Popescu, Serguei Netessine and Rowan P. Clarke

Keywords: Poverty Reduction; Technology; Business Model; Strategy; Renewable Energy; Consumer Behavior; Developing Countries and Economies; Poverty; Africa; Rwanda

Read Now

June 2007 (Revised February 2008)
Teaching Note

Aid, Debt Relief, and Trade: An Agenda for Fighting World Poverty (TN) (A) and (B)

By: Laura Alfaro, Eric D. Werker and Renee Kim

Keywords: Money; Borrowing and Debt; Trade; Poverty

March 2016
Case

Advanced Leadership Pathways: Doug Rauch and the Daily Table

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Peter Zimmerman and Penelope Rossano

Former Trader Joe’s President Doug Rauch developed an innovative idea to address the challenge of food insecurity, food waste, and nutrition. His concept was a new retail grocery model, offering nutritious affordable food to a food insecure population in the inner city... View Details

Keywords: Food Waste; Poverty; Food Security; Food Labeling; Nonprofit; Food; Social Entrepreneurship; Social Enterprise; Nonprofit Organizations; Nutrition; Health

March 2014 (Revised October 2015)
Case

Teach For China and the Chinese Nonprofit Sector

By: William C. Kirby and Erica M. Zendell

Teach For China was founded in 2008 with the mission of expanding educational opportunity across China. By 2013, Andrea Pasinetti's lofty dream had taken flight: over 300 graduates from top American and Chinese universities were participating in its 2-year teaching... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit; China; Business And Government Relations; Business And Poverty; Business And Society; Emerging Market Entrepreneurship; Emerging Market; NGO; Education; Entrepreneurship; Social Enterprise; Emerging Markets; Non-Governmental Organizations; Nonprofit Organizations; Education Industry; China

December 2014 (Revised November 2015)
Case

Governing the 'Chinese Dream': Corruption, Inequality and the Rule of Law

By: Rafael Di Tella, Meg Rithmire and Kait Szydlowski

Xi Jinping assumed his position as head of China's fifth generation of leaders in 2012. Xi was head of both the People's Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party, which had ruled China since 1949. Xi inherited a country far more unequal than the one that Mao... View Details

Keywords: China; Growth; Inequality; Wealth And Poverty; Social Stability; Perceptions Of Inequality; Chinese Dream; Chinese Political Thought; Corruption; Equality and Inequality; China

March 2014
Case

Inequality and Growth in the 'Chinese Dream'

By: Rafael Di Tella, Meg Rithmire and Kaitlyn Szydlowski

Xi Jinping assumed his position as head of China's fifth generation of leaders in 2012. Xi was head of both the People's Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party, which had ruled China since 1949. Xi inherited a country far more unequal than the one that Mao... View Details

Keywords: China; Growth; Inequality; Wealth And Poverty; Social Stability; Perceptions Of Inequality; Chinese Dream; Chinese Political Thought; Corruption; Equality and Inequality; China

December 2013 (Revised April 2014)
Case

Seeding Growth in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

By: Ray Goldberg, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Djordjija Petkoski

By 2013, the agricultural sector in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) had long suffered from war, political instability, and dilapidated infrastructure. A country with 75 million inhabitants and the second lowest GDP per capita in the world in 2011, the DRC's... View Details

Keywords: National Agricultural Investment Plan (PNIA); Developing Agriculture; World Bank; Poverty Reduction; Special Economic Zones (SEZs); Small-scale Farmers; Agricultural Business Parks; Agriculture Reform; Agribusiness; Economic Growth; Infrastructure; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Africa; Congo, Democratic Republic of the

06 Aug 2007
Research & Ideas

High Hills, Deep Poverty: Explaining Civil War in Nepal

to prevent them. "The main conclusion from this whole stream of research is that investing in poverty reduction strategies not only has direct economic benefits but also political benefits," says Lakshmi Iyer, a Harvard Business... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

19 Apr 2004
Research & Ideas

Ground-Floor Opportunities for Retail in India

India's economic growth is an exciting new playing field for the retail industry and for entrepreneurs looking to get in on the ground level, a panel of that country's businessmen agreed. Rising incomes, increased advertising, and a jump in the number of women working... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Consumer Products; Retail

2023
Chapter

Analyzing Human Decisions and Machine Predictions in Bail Decision Making

By: Jon Kleinberg, Himabindu Lakkaraju, Jure Leskovec, Jens Ludwig and Sendhil Mullainathan

BOOK ABSTRACT: Oriented toward the introductory student, The Inequality Reader is the essential textbook for today's undergraduate courses. The editors have assembled the most important classic and contemporary readings about how poverty and inequality are... View Details

Keywords: Equality and Inequality