Take the Quiz: Could You Manage as a Poor American? Do you have paper mail you plan to read that has been unopened for more than a week? Yes/No. 26 percent of Americans say yes. But in some states, failing … Continue reading Mistakes of the poor
The Psychology of Poverty There seems to be the genuine belief that if you just work hard enough, dream big and go hard, you will escape poverty. If you’re poor, you just have the wrong mindset. It is quite obvious … Continue reading Being poor
Children’s Handwashing and Quality Interactions In Peru, over 90% of deaths in children under five from diarrhea could be prevented by handwashing. Low-income children receive less quality interaction in Peru, a critical behavior for childhood development. Leveraging communal norms to … Continue reading Handwashing for healthy lives
When a Disappointment Helped Lead to a Nobel Prize When Michael Kremer looked at the data for a study underway in Kenya in the 1990s, he was taken aback. Mr. Kremer, a professor at Harvard, expected that the data would … Continue reading Field experiments to study poverty
If we’re serious about changing the world, we need a better kind of economics to do it In 2017, a poll in the UK asked: “Whose opinion do you trust the most when they talk about their field of expertise?” … Continue reading The humane economics
How Should We Estimate the Number of People in the U.S. Experiencing Poverty? How should we estimate the number of people in the United States experiencing poverty?The official measurement the government uses is the “poverty threshold.” This metric, developed in … Continue reading The poverty line
Behavioral Science is Clear: Work Requirements are Doomed to Fail Safety net programs help millions of Americans each year by providing basic needs like money, food, health care, and housing. These anti-poverty programs are crucial to the well-being of so … Continue reading Supporting poverty
