Microfinance has been one of the most popular approaches to micro-level development over the last twenty years. It has grown in scope from just 13 million borrowers worldwide in 1997 to around…
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Border Crisis = Church Opportunity
(Christianity Today Online, January 8, 2015) A feeling of hopelessness and insecurity in Central America has fueled the exodus of 43,000 unaccompanied Central American children and teenagers to the US…
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Impact as Narrative
(World Bank Impact Blog, January 7, 2015) There is arguably little that makes development economists sharpen their fangs as the use of tear-jerking, heart-warming, credit-card-mobilizing anecdotes by development NGOs to…
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New Ways to Think about Christmas Giving
If you think that the jing-jing of Christmas bells is being slowly replaced by the ca-ching of the Christmas cash register, you are not hearing strange noises. December 2013 retail…
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Are Microfinance Impacts an Illusion?
Why is it that microfinance practitioners consistently argue that microfinance has large impacts on borrowers, while impact results from randomized controlled trials reveal only very small effects? In a paper…
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10 Reasons Fair Trade Coffee Doesn’t Work
(From the Huffington Post, August 7, 2014) I see you, smugly smiling over your morning cup of fair-trade coffee, gratified at the unimaginable impact your thoughtfully chosen beans must be…
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F-Bomb-onomics
In this blog the Shrewd Samaritan will occasionally wander off topic to examine an issue tangential to economic development and globalization issues. In this case, I’ve been reflecting on our…
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Will the World Economy Ever Resemble the World Cup?
(Published in the San Francisco Chronicle, Sunday, June 22, 2014.) Like many World Cup aficionados, I will allocate far too much of my time to watching soccer games on ESPN…
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Can We Trust the Poor With Cash?
What do the poor do with cash handouts? There is mounting evidence from interesting new review papers that, at least in developing countries, cash grants do not increase purchases of…
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Sinister Tips for Mission Trips
(Written for Christianity Today Online, June 18, 2014. Click for full article.) This summer many of us will head out on short-term mission trips, spending anywhere from a week to a…
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Why Shouldn’t We GiveDirectly?
(PRISM Magazine, April 2014–click to read full article at PrismMagazine.org.) One of the most exciting new ways for people to give to the poor in developing countries is through transferring cash…
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Why We Give (or Don’t)
(Christianity Today, February 2014.) This past July in Massachusetts, Eileen Taylor, a customer in a Heavenly Doughnuts drive-thru, paid not only for her own doughnuts, but for the order of…
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Should I Give a Cow or Cash for Christmas?
(Christianity Today, December 2013–click for full article at ChristianityToday.com.) What kind of Christmas present should you get for your rich uncle who has everything? Or perhaps even more importantly, what if…
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Want to Change the World? Sponsor a Child
(Christianity Today, June 2013.) “What can an ordinary person like me do for the poor in developing countries?” I have been asked this question casually at parties and social gatherings…
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The Best Ways to Help the Poor, Really
How can you say that you’re not responsible? What does it have to do with me? What is my reaction, what should it be? Confronted by this latest atrocity Driven…
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Prophets Against Profits: What Occupy Wall Street Misses
(Christianity Today, October 10, 2011.) A sign flashed at the Occupy Wall Street protest reads “People Before Profit.” It is an effective sign. Who could support Profits Before People?…
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