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.

著者简介：

迪恩·卡尔兰（Dean Karlan） 耶鲁大学经济学教授，扶贫行动创新研究会（IPA）创始人暨董事会主席，麻省理工学院阿卜杜勒·拉蒂夫·贾米尔反贫困行动实验室（J-PAL）研究员，stickK.com网站创办人、站长。2007年，卡尔兰获得美国青年科学家总统奖，该奖项为美国政府授予美国独立研究青年科学家和工程师的最高荣誉。

雅各布·阿佩尔（Jacob Appel） 主要从事小额贷款研究，曾于哥伦比亚大学学习数学，在扶贫行动创新研究会（IPA）的加纳、南非项目中做了两年实地研究员。2008年起，他穿梭于拉丁美洲、非洲和亚洲之间，从事扶贫行动创新研究会以及其他发展研究组织的实地研究工作。目前居住在印度的加尔各答市，研究集市上的小微企业主如何进行职业生涯决策、如何经营生意。

译者简介：

傅瑞蓉 毕业于浙江工业大学经贸管理学院，译作另有《伟大的说服》。现为教师。