Economics Roundtable

Close to 75 percent of Sub-Saharan Africans, about 550 million people do not have access to electricity. Lighting Africa, an ongoing conference in Ghana ending today, is tackling ...

Just a few months after opening for business, Grameen Bank America has loaned anything between $500 and $3000 to about 175 borrowers.  About a month ago The New York Times published an article asking weather Muhummad Yunus's  scheme would work in the United States as well as ...

May 5 and 6 will see an interesting conference on small business finance here in Washington DC, covering topics from lending techniques, innovations, the impact of market structure, government interventions and alternatives to bank finance.

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Early March, Saturday afternoon. Outside temperature: -15 degrees celsius. I am sitting in my hotel room studying a manual on rescue diving. I am confident that I am the only person in ...

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation recently announced that it will increase its budget for farming projects by 50 percent this year as food prices soar around the globe.  According to its website the foundation will inject  the additional funds into existing projects designed to help farmers ...

Today is World Malaria Day, a few articles have caught my eye lately on the subject. The disease is one of the most deadly in the world, claiming the lives of over one million people ...

Nicholas Negroponte???s longtime MIT colleague Walter Bender has recently left the One Laptop per Child program. Bender was responsible for software and content for "XO" laptops including its innovative Sugar operating system. ...

To celebrate Earth Day some people join protest rallies, some others disappear into the wild, but here is a list of more conventional ideas. Feel freet to send your own.

The Financial Times and IFC announced shortlists of potential winners for the 2008 Sustainable Banking Awards. The awards recognize financial institutions that have led the way in integating their policies with social, environmental, and corporate governance objectives. Below is a sample the categories and the shortlisted candidates, ...

There's been a lot of buzz about prediction markets recently:

A McKinsey & Co. report from a roundtable on prediction markets quotes James Surowiecki: "I wouldn???t be surprised to see prediction markets used in many more companies than today, not least as a tool ...