Publications

November 2014
Case

BRAC in 2014

By: Tarun Khanna, Rachna Tahilyani, Reeti Roy and Aldo Sesia

In the early 1970s BRAC was a startup nongovernmental organization (NGO) working in Bangladesh. By 2014, it was the world's largest NGO. It had a strong presence in Bangladesh and had begun to deliver social development programs in nine other countries. Its founder and... View Details

Keywords: BRAC; Bangladesh; NGO; Strategy; Business Model; Business Organization; Social Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Social Enterprise; Social Issues; Poverty; Bangladesh

Article

In Microfinance, Clients Must Come First

By: Srikant M. Datar, Marc J. Epstein and Kristi Yuthas

In the debate over whether microfinance works, few microfinance institutions articulate what, exactly, their ultimate goals are and how, exactly, they will achieve them. The authors cut through the confusion by mapping a clear theory of change for microfinance. If the... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Customer Focus and Relationships; Social Entrepreneurship; Microfinance; Goals and Objectives; Success; Social Enterprise; Poverty

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December 2004
Supplement

Basic Statistics from the World Bank's World Development Indicators, 2004

By: David A. Moss, Sarah A. Brennan and Peter Epstein

Provides basic economic and social indicators for 145 countries, drawn from the World Bank's World Development Indicators (2004). The data include: population, land area, GNP per capita, real GDP growth, life expectancy, adult illiteracy, fertility rate, access to... View Details

Keywords: Equality and Inequality; Wealth and Poverty; Standards; Economics; Society

June 2017
Case

Guillermo Jaime—An Endeavor Entrepreneur

By: Lynda M. Applegate, Sarah Mehta and Aldo Sesia

Guillermo Jaime was the founder and CEO of Mejoramiento Integral Asistido (MIA), a for-profit company providing affordable housing to low-income Mexicans living at the base of the pyramid (BOP). This case tells the story of Jaime and Endeavor, a nonprofit dedicated to... View Details

Keywords: Base Of The Pyramid; Social Capitalism; Housing; Emerging Markets; Social Enterprise; Society; Wealth and Poverty; Social Entrepreneurship; Construction Industry; Mexico

July 2007
Teaching Note

Rwanda: National Economic Transformation (TN)

By: Michael E. Porter and Michael Patrick McCreless

Teaching Note to 706491. View Details

Keywords: Economy; Problems and Challenges; Development Economics; Policy; Poverty; Transformation; Performance Evaluation; Political Elections; Rwanda

Portrait Project

Israt Tarin

mother was a brilliant student her recitation of William Wordsworth’s “Daffodils” drew crowds of far-flung villagers to the school grounds. Yet, poverty and patriarchy meant she would be married at the age of sixteen while her brothers... View Details

01 Jun 2007
News

Letters

Corruption, Poverty, and Global Finance Thank you for your excellent article about global poverty in the March Bulletin. I’m delighted to see these issues getting more attention. This year marks the 45th year of my involvement in the... View Details

30 Oct 2019
News

Creating Agents of Change

health, education, and empowerment through life skills and employment. “Success for us is that, by the time the young adults leave our program at age 24, they're living above the level of poverty in their country. In most cases, this is... View Details

24 Apr 2014
News

For African farmers looking to escape poverty, honey brings sweet success

Yusuf Keshavjee (OPM 17, 1991) helps African farmers and their families escape poverty through beekeeping. He cofounded Honey Care Africa (HCA), a private-sector enterprise in Kenya that partners with local NGOs and international... View Details

November 2018 (Revised June 2019)
Case

The Rise of Populism and Italy's Electoral 'Tsunami'

By: Rawi Abdelal, Dante Roscini and Elena Corsi

Italy’s March 2018 elections led to a populist government that included the right-wing League and the anti-establishment 5 Star Movement. To respect their electoral promises, the two parties came up with a budget plan that provided for a public deficit at 2.4%, a... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Economies; Unemployment; Extremism; Political Elections; Immigration; Poverty; Social Issues; Government and Politics; Financial Condition; Financial Markets; Italy

01 Sep 2013
News

Beantown as a Beacon

replicated elsewhere. Here are a few Boston-born ideas highlighted by the event's panelists that appear ready for export. TWO BIRDS, ONE JOB Attacking poverty and a national labor shortage While serving as a Big Brother, Internet... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

Web

Blog | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

intergenerational poverty i... Ten years on, HBS students revive the push for an MBA Oath Evan Kornbluh 04 May 2018 This year’s graduating MBA class will re-enter the work force ten years after the onset of the gr... Funding exceptional... View Details

2021
Working Paper

Employee Ownership and Wealth Inequality: A Path to Reducing Wealth Concentration

By: Thomas Dudley and Ethan Rouen

This paper examines the impact of an economy-wide shift to broad-based employee ownership on wealth concentration in the United States. Relying on government data, we show that if all private firms became 30% employee-owned, the wealth distribution would be profoundly... View Details

Keywords: Wealth Inequality; Employee Ownership; Wealth; Equality and Inequality; Analysis; United States

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01 Dec 2005
News

The Deleterious Effects of Dirty Money

Baker: Chronicler of dirty money. In his new book, Capitalism’s Achilles Heel: Dirty Money and How to Renew the Free-Market System (John Wiley & Sons, 2005), Raymond W. Baker (MBA ’60) chronicles the widespread illegal flow of money around the world through schemes... View Details

Keywords: Lewis I. Rice; Finance

July 2017 (Revised November 2017)
Case

Propel

By: Mitchell Weiss and Sarah McAra

In 2014, Jimmy Chen, a former product manager at Facebook, founded the start-up Propel to build software for low-income Americans. After conducting in-depth behavioral research, Chen and his small team in New York City began to develop technology to address the... View Details

April 2007
Case

Microfinance in Bolivia: A Meeting with the President of the Republic

By: Michael Chu

Herbert Muller, chair of leading microfinance bank BancoSol, has met with Evo Morales one year after the populist leader's inauguration as president of Bolivia and proceeds to write an email to his fellow board directors. The bank is world famous for pioneering... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Race; Government Administration; Business and Government Relations; Microfinance; Poverty; Interest Rates; Banks and Banking; Financial Services Industry; Bolivia; South America