Creating Economic Opportunity At All Levels

My interest in economics from an academic perspective is based on my interest in economic development and how technology can can better peoples lives. The following set of stories touches upon all three of these concepts.

"Professor Anirudh Krishna of the Duke Center for International Development leads this collaborative project involving multiple scholars and institutions in the United States, India, Kenya, Uganda and Peru. Our primary research focuses on pathways into and out of poverty and utilizes a specialized methodology to understand poverty from the perspective of the poor themselves. The method, developed after extensive field investigations in India and Kenya, is discussed in the 'Methodology' link in terms of the steps that are followed. On this site you will find published and working papers generated from these investigations."

His work was highlighted in an article that appeared in two new newspapers, the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune. The New York Times article headline focused on those Indians who had benefited from the Web 2.0 economy and their efforts to help others less fortunate through Professor Krishna's studies. The Tribune headline focused on the poor benefiting from the program created out of those studies by Professor Krishna Babajob.com

"Mr. Krishna found that many poor Indians in dead-end jobs remain in poverty not because there are no better jobs, but because they lack the connections to find them. Any Bangalorean could confirm the observation: the city teems with laborers desperate for work, and yet wealthy software tycoons complain endlessly about a shortage of maids and cooks."

"Mr. Blagsvedt’s epiphany? “We need village LinkedIn!” he recalled saying, alluding to the professional networking site."

Another New York Times article demonstrates the impact the rapid economic change in India has had on India's social structure in giving women new independence.