A leading economist and researcher report from the front lines of a revolution in solving the world's most persistent problem.

When it comes to global poverty, people are passionate and polarized. At one extreme: We just need to invest more resources. At the other: We've thrown billions down a sinkhole over the last fifty years and accomplished almost nothing.

Dean Karlan and Jacob Appel present an entirely new approach that blazes an optimistic and realistic trail between these two extremes.

In this pioneering book Karlan and Appel combine behavioral economics with worldwide field research. They take readers with them into villages across Africa, India, South America, and the Philippines, where economic theory collides with real life. They show how small changes in banking, insurance, health care, and other development initiatives that take into account human irrationality can drastically improve the well-being of poor people everywhere.

We in the developed world have found ways to make our own lives profoundly better. We use new tools to spend smarter, save more, eat better, and lead lives more like the ones we imagine. These tools can do the same for the impoverished. Karlan and Appel's research, and those of some close colleagues, show exactly how.

In America alone, individual donors contribute over two hundred billion to charity annually, three times as much as corporations, foundations, and bequests combined. This book provides a new way to understand what really works to reduce poverty; in so doing, it reveals how to better invest those billions and begin transforming the well-being of the world.

著者簡介：

迪恩·卡爾蘭（Dean Karlan） 耶魯大學經濟學教授，扶貧行動創新研究會（IPA）創始人暨董事會主席，麻省理工學院阿蔔杜勒·拉蒂夫·賈米爾反貧睏行動實驗室（J-PAL）研究員，stickK.com網站創辦人、站長。2007年，卡爾蘭獲得美國青年科學傢總統奬，該奬項為美國政府授予美國獨立研究青年科學傢和工程師的最高榮譽。

雅各布·阿佩爾（Jacob Appel） 主要從事小額貸款研究，曾於哥倫比亞大學學習數學，在扶貧行動創新研究會（IPA）的加納、南非項目中做瞭兩年實地研究員。2008年起，他穿梭於拉丁美洲、非洲和亞洲之間，從事扶貧行動創新研究會以及其他發展研究組織的實地研究工作。目前居住在印度的加爾各答市，研究集市上的小微企業主如何進行職業生涯決策、如何經營生意。

譯者簡介：

傅瑞蓉 畢業於浙江工業大學經貿管理學院，譯作另有《偉大的說服》。現為教師。