The tenth post in this blog series singled out microfinance, and financial inclusion in general, as the “money pump” that powers market-based poverty reduction programs. Whether the specifics of the program involves generating additional income, improving skills, adopting new technologies for mitigating and adapting to climate change, strengthening homes against natural disasters, or building resilience,…
This blog series has traced the history of the idea that promoting entrepreneurship and innovation is the key to unlocking economic growth and reducing poverty. As we have seen, it is distinctly American in its conceptualisation: forged in an economic context of the first advanced economy to experience de-industrialisation, in a social context in which…
The prioritization of innovation, productivity, and growth over income and wealth distribution; technology as savior; government as a partner rather than a regulator of the private sector; market-based solutions to social and economic problems; and the overall emphasis on the individual initiative over collective action––this economic vision did not come from the political right as…
Left-leaning neo-liberals rose to power just as new ideas about economic development and poverty reduction emerged. Old-style New Deal democrats lost to Richard Nixon in 1968 and 1972. New-left politicians were first elected in the 1974 Democratic wave after the Watergate scandal. Their main base was the white suburban middle class, and they won with…
