Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty

No economic or social policy can “brute force” a change in our hearts. But in choosing different policies, we can reward different behaviors and start to nudge our culture in different directions. We can choose a purely technocratic approach—one that sees each of us as a set of financial and material needs to be satisfied—and simply transfer enough

We are mindful of the dangers of high welfare and unemployment benefits, watching the consequences of this compassionate policy on the job-seeking habits of the unemployed. Visiting the major cities of the industrial countries, I am struck by this curious phenomena of high unemployment and yet a shortage of waiters, cab drivers, nurses and garbage

Early experiences with defined-contribution savings plans revealed that Humans could use some help on three fronts: enrolling in the plans, increasing their contribution rates, and improving their investment returns.

For the region as a whole, real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita (in constant 2010 dollars) has risen from roughly $1,300 in 1960 to over $10,000 in 2018. There are many reasons for this economic success, and there are of course differences that account for what happened in each country. That said, what tended to be common was significant po