I tend to have a bias against magazines, especially if I am able to find their content in a book! But one of the books I read gave me a free subscription to Fast Company, a magazine that examines business, technology, leadership, and how trends within each enterprise intersect with one another and society. After two issues, I'm hooked.
One of their recent articles looks at some work leading economists from MIT are doing to try and improve lives of those living in poverty. A second article highlights some of their results.
A couple of the big takeaways include turning upside down a couple of preconceived notions. The first thought is that charging under-resourced people for something, even if it's a small amount, (say education or a vaccine) helps the under-resourced people value it more. The article and MIT economists dispel this notion with a couple of real life scenarios. A second thought is that grassroots efforts or loose community organizations are better at combating fraud and theft of donated aid monies (you'd think this given all of the attention such scandals receive) than top down entities. The economists point out that grassroots efforts have a marginal effect, while top down organizations prove to reduce fraudlent activity by 8%.
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