The Empowerment Lab at CID
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Inclusion into a market economy is a crucial component of economic welfare, and large portions of the populations in the U.S. and developing countries lack productive access to markets (such as banking, insurance, and healthcare), mediated by effective products and services. For most of the world, access, and thereby choice, is severely limited due to market failures that result in few, uncompetitive products. This is perhaps most apparent in the global banking sector that often has little to offer for a majority of the population.
To further global research on this subject, the Center for International Development, with support from the MPower Foundation, is launching the Empowerment Lab at CID. The Empowerment Lab will engage in research and activities to understand what limits the reach of markets, and the impact of improved access to key markets. It will engage in questions such as why/if R&D and product innovation are skewed toward more affluent segments; what are policy barriers to extending markets to excluded populations; how the availability to fundamental services such as water, electricity, and transportation affect access to markets; and how to encourage local entrepreneurship to develop appropriate products and services.
Overview | Faculty Participants | Contact
Lab Director: Ricardo Hausmann, Professor of the Practice of Economic Development and CID Director, Harvard Kennedy School
Additional participant information forthcoming
Overview | Faculty Participants | Contact
For more information about the Empowerment Lab, please contact either Marcela Escobari or Jennifer Gala.
Overview | Faculty Participants | Contact
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