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The legacy of microfinance: does it live up to its hype?

01.24.20

The origin story of microfinance began with Muhammad Yunus, a Professor of Economics who returned from the US to teach in his native Bangladesh. Amid high poverty rates, he found himself questioning how economic theory could address the immediate needs of the poor around him. He started experimenting with lending small sums of money to […]

Impact Investing for the Average American

03.18.14

Impact investing has become a buzz word in social enterprise circles but, even today, opportunities to invest are hardly accessible to the average American. Barriers include protective federal regulations as well as the inability to reach scale. BY CHRISSIE LONG On January 14, eBay ended its brief flirtation with impact investing. The internet giant had […]

Social Innovation and Philanthropy

Beyond Just Credit

12.10.12

BY SHLOKA NATH Driving from Rae Bareli to Amethi, two districts in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (UP), you will be hard pressed to find evidence of India’s strident economic progress. Everywhere you turn, roads are terrible, electricity is sparse and poverty and destitution run deep. With more than 200 million people, UP […]

Development and Economic Growth

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