Publications

28 Jan 2014
News

The $300 House

Keywords: affordable housing; urban poor; rural poor

July 2020
Case

Super 30: Educating the Elite Poor

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury, Tarun Khanna and Shreya Ramachandran

In the summer of 2019 in New Delhi, S K Shahi and his daughter, Meenakshi, faced a difficult problem. India had 19 centers of their non-profit, the Center for Social Responsibility and Leadership. Also called the 'Super 30' program, this offered free training for... View Details

Keywords: Non-profit; Inclusive Growth; Education; Higher Education; Diversity; Nonprofit Organizations; Operations; Expansion; Geographic Location; Strategy; Decision Making; India

01 Mar 2007
News

The Plight of the Global Poor

its leavings. Every night on the outskirts of Manila, thousands of people lie down to sleep amid acres of rotting food and industrial detritus in a vast urban dumping ground called Payatas. At dawn, they rise and swarm across a... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; bottom of the pyramid (BOP); Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services; Social Assistance; Health, Social Assistance

24 Apr 2014
News

Addressing the housing needs of India’s poor

Rakhi Mehra (MBA 2009) is enabling a growing number of India’s 82 million urban poor households to have structurally safe and well-ventilated homes through the enterprise she cofounded, micro Home Solutions... View Details

27 May 2015
News

When poor people can’t get on due to lack of public transport

28 Jun 2004
Research & Ideas

Microfinance: A Way Out for the Poor

poor by removing the high cost of everything they need. Chu discussed the benefits and complexities of microfinance with Harvard Business School alumni on June 4, in a session titled "Microfinance: Harnessing the Market for Social... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

01 Dec 2020
News

In the Zone

Practitioners Institute to share best practices and offer guidance to groups looking to adopt its approach to transforming neighborhoods battling poverty, poor health, underperforming schools, and high crime rates. Since 2005, HCZ has... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; nonprofit management; urban development; leadership; public education; Educational Services

15 Mar 2016
News

The costs of inequality: Faster lives, quicker deaths

December 2007
Case

Akshaya Patra: Feeding India's Schoolchildren

By: David M. Upton, Christine Ellis, Sarah Lucas and Amy Yamner

Describes a highly successful effort by an Indian Charity to feed poor schoolchildren at lunchtime. This provides two significant benefits. It improves nutrition for the children, and helps keep them in school since the provided meal is occasionally the only meal they... View Details

Keywords: Food; Service Operations; Education; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Food and Beverage Industry; India

Teaching Interest

Field Course: Social Innovation Lab

By: Brian L. Trelstad

Co-taugh with Prof. John Kim

This course provides students an opportunity to use the discipline of entrepreneurial... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Social Enterprise

02 Jan 2019
News

New England doesn’t need new factories. But it does need new ideas.

11 Apr 2016
News

System Overload

2016
Working Paper

Infrastructure, Incentives and Institutions

By: Nava Ashraf, Edward L. Glaeser and Giacomo A.M. Ponzetto

Cities generate negative, as well as positive, externalities; addressing those externalities requires both infrastructure and institutions. Providing clean water and removing refuse requires water and sewer pipes, but the urban poor are often unwilling to pay for the... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Urban Development; Organizations; City; Infrastructure; Zambia

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February 2010 (Revised June 2011)
Case

SEWA Trade Facilitation Center: Changing the Spool

By: Mukti Khaire and Kathleen L. McGinn

The case is about the decision to convert a not-for-profit organization into a for-profit company. SEWA Trade Facilitation Center (STFC), which is part of a larger non-profit organization—the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA)—works to improve the livelihoods of... View Details

Keywords: Cooperative Ownership; For-Profit Firms; Gender; Business Model; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Nonprofit Organizations; Arts; Entrepreneurship; Economic Growth; Growth and Development Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; India

September 2024
Article

Investing in the Next Generation: The Long-Run Impacts of a Liquidity Shock

By: Patrick Agte, Arielle Bernhardt, Erica M. Field, Rohini Pande and Natalia Rigol

How do poor entrepreneurs trade off investments in business enterprises versus children's human capital, and how do these choices influence intergenerational socio-economic mobility? To examine this, we exploit experimental variation in household income resulting from... View Details

Keywords: Socio-economic Mobility; Entrepreneurship; Education; Income; Literacy; Poverty

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October 2023 (Revised March 2024)
Case

KOKO Networks: Bridging Energy Transition and Affordability with Carbon Financing

By: George Serafeim, Siko Sikochi and Namrata Arora

The problem was massive: two million hectares of African forests were lost annually to charcoal production for cooking, an area equivalent to 13 times Greater London, resulting in one billion tons of carbon emissions yearly. At the same time, an estimated 700,000... View Details