Poverty

$“We have a fractured society,” says MIT professor Peter Temin. “The middle class is vanishing.” His new book, “The Vanishing Middle Class: Prejudice and Power in a Dual Economy,” is being published this month by MIT Press.$

America’s two-track economy

Economist’s new book examines decline of the nation’s middle class.

March 13, 2017

MIT Professor César Hidalgo and his colleagues argue that everything else being equal, the complexity of a country’s exports also correlates with its degree of economic equality: The more complex a country’s products, the greater equality it enjoys relative to similar-sized countries with similar-sized economies.

Income inequality linked to export “complexity”

The mix of products that countries export is a good predictor of income distribution, study finds.

February 16, 2017

Christian Soura, director of the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, speaks at MIT.

Government leaders gather at MIT to advance evidence-based policymaking

State and local policymakers joined with leading researchers to share experiences overcoming challenges to evaluating government programs.

February 9, 2017

A Syrian refugee child in Jordan’s Zaatari refugee camp in June 2015

For refugee camps, a waterless toilet to improve health and safety

As camps swell, change:WATER Labs aims to bring toilets into individual homes.

January 31, 2017

“MIT has not only provided a very valuable classroom experience, but also given me all these other tools in research, technology innovations, and social entrepreneurship that I can take and [use to] help people in developing countries,” says Jiwon Park, a chemistry major, global traveler, and accomplished pianist.

Jiwon Park: Reaching out to the world

MIT senior leads diverse projects to help women and students in developing countries.

January 23, 2017

Kevin Patrick Simon (left) sets solar panels in place with villagers at a pilot site in Jharkhand, India. Simon, an MIT PhD candidate in mechanical engineering, is studying solar irrigation.

How engineering students are seeking to solve major food and water security problems

Students with a common passion for food and water security share their research at the MIT Water and Food Security Symposium.

January 9, 2017

Researchers are systematically exploring a variety of alternative packaging materials and containers to see which work best, and most cost-effectively, at reducing losses in food aid. Pictured are food aid bags in a Texas warehouse.

Reducing spoilage in food aid shipments

Large-scale tests compare damage from insects and moisture using a variety of containers.

January 6, 2017

A new study estimates that, since 2008, access to mobile-money services — which allow users to store and exchange monetary values via mobile phone — increased daily per capita consumption levels of 194,000, or roughly 2 percent, of Kenyan households, lifting them out of extreme poverty (living on less than $1.25 per day).

Study: Mobile-money services lift Kenyans out of poverty

Greater access to services raises daily spending, especially among female-headed households.

December 8, 2016

The TechCon conference, hosted by MIT and USAID's Higher Education Solutions Network from Nov. 10 - 12, convened researchers and innovators to collaborate on solving global issues.

At TechCon, science-based solutions for world issues

Innovators and researchers tackle global issues through actionable research and collaboration.

November 15, 2016

“Contrary to the conjecture that Medicaid would get people to [move] out of the emergency room and to the primary care physician, we’re seeing a persistent increase in emergency room use,” says Amy Finkelstein, the John and Jennie S. MacDonald Professor of Economics at MIT.

Study: With Medicaid, ER visits remain high for two years

Acquiring health insurance does not lead to drop in emergency room usage.

October 19, 2016

MIT D-Lab has named Bob Nanes, a veteran of international development, to the newly created position of executive director.

D-Lab appoints Bob Nanes to new position of executive director

Nanes brings to D-Lab 30 years of experience on four continents in technology, innovation, supply chains, and microfinance.

August 18, 2016

Professor Dan Frey of the Department of Mechanical Engineering is the new faculty director of D-Lab.

Dan Frey named D-Lab faculty director

Professor of mechanical engineering brings a long association with D-Lab and a commitment to design for the developing world.

July 27, 2016

2016 MIT D-Lab Scale-Ups fellow Heather Beem (second from right) co-founded the Practical Education Network (PEN) while pursuing her PhD in mechanical engineering at MIT. PEN is currently based in Ghana.

D-Lab Scale-Ups awards four fellowships totaling $80,000 to social entrepreneurs

Fellows work on low-cost microgrids, prosthetics made from cane, hands-on STEM education in Ghana, and a rechargeable headlamp for rural Indian farmers.

July 25, 2016

Andrea Campbell, the Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science and head of the MIT Department of Political Science

How political science can help us solve global health care issues

MIT political scientist Andrea Campbell discusses the impact of equity on health care innovation and outcomes.

July 12, 2016

“The idea is one simple technology can have this huge impact on someone's well-being. But today there are a lot of technologies out there such as solar lanterns or water filters, and there's no way to systematically evaluate what works and what doesn't work on the ground,” says Cauam Cardoso, a PhD student in international economic development at MIT.

Seeking simple solutions with huge impacts

PhD student Cauam Cardoso assesses technologies that aim to help the world’s poor.

July 8, 2016

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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