Poverty alleviation research is a huge part of ICM’s work with people living in ultra-poverty. We are committed to the rigorous measurement of our programs. We track everything that happens on the ground. Data is important so we can learn and implement the most effective ways we can achieve the greatest impact to help the ultra-poor.
Freakonomics Radio’s Stephen Dubner — a popular economics podcast based on the best-selling book Freakonomics — interviewed our CEO David Sutherland with IPA’s Dean Karlan and James Choi in December 2018 on their poverty alleviation research conducted among ICM’s Transform communities in the Philippines to gather data to prove if Protestantism created wealth.
Freakonomics revisited the interview again in their last two episodes and you can listen to them here:
The man who wants America to “think harder” has parlayed his quixotic presidential campaign into front-runner status in New York’s mayoral election. And he has some big plans. Also: in the early 20th century, Max Weber argued that Protestantism created wealth. Finally, there are data to prove if he was right. All it took were some missionary experiments in the Philippines and a clever map-matching trick that goes back to 16th-century Germany.
In the early 20th century, Max Weber argued that Protestantism created wealth. Finally, there are data to prove if he was right. All it took were some missionary experiments in the Philippines and a clever map-matching trick that goes back to 16th-century Germany. And: the human foot is an evolutionary masterpiece, far more functional than we give it credit for. So why do we encase it in “a coffin” (as one foot scholar calls it) that stymies so much of its ability — and may create more problems than it solves?