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This book uses newly collected data with nearly 2000 observations across Africa and Latin America of SME owner/operators to examine if psychometric tools can distinguish the good ones from the bad ones. This book fully describes the development problem and how psychometric tools can help solve it. Moreover, it presents and develops the unique statistical methodologies to deploy psychometric tools for credit screening. This will be the single complete publication of the work to date by the entrepreneurial finance lab, created by Klinger & Khwaja. This work started as a research project at Harvard University's center for international development, with funding from Google.org. This work is very high profile, winning the G-20 SME Finance Challenge in 2010 (global open competition to identify the best scalable solutions to unlocking SME finance- winners honored at the G-20 summit in Seoul Korea and receiving significant funding from G-20 countries for the implementation of their models). -- Provided by publisher.

More Than Bread examines life in the dining room of the Tabernacle Soup Kitchen, located in Middle City in a New England state. What happens when one hundred guests, which include single mothers, drug addicts, alcoholics, the mentally ill, and the chronically unemployed, representing diverse age groups and ethnicities, come together in the dining room for several hours each day? Irene Glasser challenges the popular assumption that soup kitchens function primarily to provide food for the hungry by refocusing our attention on the social aspects of the dining room. The soup kitchen offers a model of a de-professionalized, nonclinical, nurturing setting that is in contrast to the traditional human services agency.

\"Lost Childhoods focuses on the life-course histories of 30 young men serving time in the Pennsylvania adult prison system for crimes they committed when they were minors. The narratives of these young men, their friends, and relatives reveal the invisible yet deep-seated connection between the childhood traumas they suffered and the violent criminal behavior they committed during adolescence. By living through domestic violence, poverty, the crack epidemic, and other circumstances, these men were forced to grow up fast, all while familial ties that should have sustained them were broken at each turn. The book goes on to connect large-scale social policy decisions and its effect on family dynamics and demonstrates the limits of punitive justice\"--Provided by publisher.

01 02 In contrast to previous attempts to examine adaptation to climate change in developing countries, the authors focus on how individuals and broader social groups adjust their aspirations, mental states, social values and behaviour as well as practices in response to changes in their personal and social circumstances. Employing a unique blend of cross-disciplinary work from economics, psychology, sociology and philosophy, this innovative book draws on quantitative and qualitative techniques. The three sections deal with conceptual issues, empirical studies and specific topics (gender, disability, migration) relating to adaptation in developing countries. It includes detailed case studies of adaptation in China, Ethiopia, India and South Africa and underlines the case for listening to the poor by suggesting that people who become worse off are less likely to lower their aspirations – or restrict their values – than is commonly thought by some philosophers and social scientists. 16 02 No other book focuses on adaptation in the context of developing countries. The available work on adaptation is scattered across a wide range of disciplines mostly in the form of journal papers or single chapters in edited volumes. The available empirical work either focuses on case studies of Western countries or international datasets which under-represent developing countries. The only book that deals specifically with adaptation is Adaptation Level Theory: A Symposium (H. M. Apley, Academic Press, 1971). This book is dated and is concerned with psychological theory rather than cross disciplinary work on adaptation in poor countries. The nearest competing books in psychology/ economics include works like Well-Being: The Foundations of Hedonic Psychology (Daniel Khaneman et al, 1999, Sage) Culture and Subjective Well-Being (Ed Diener et al, 2000, MIT) Happiness: Lessons from a New Science (Richard Layard, 2006, Penguin)   In political economy/philosophy and international development the nearest competing works include Sour Grapes: Studies in the Subversion of Rationality (Jon Elster, 1983, Cambridge University Press) Commodities and Capabilities (Amartya Sen, 1985, Blackwell) Women and Human Development (Martha Nussbaum, 2000, Cambridge University Press). With the exception of Elster's book (which is largely concerned with one particular form of adaptation), these volumes typically include a single chapter on adaptation. 31 02 World-leading academics investigate 'adaptation', in its various guises and forms including gender, disability and migration, in the context of economic and social development in poor countries 02 02 The first book to examine in detail the ways in which people adapt their understanding and behaviours towards poverty as a direct result to their experiences of poverty in developing countries, including world-leading academics and case studies from China, India, Ethiopia and South Africa. 19 02 Examines in detail how people adapt their understanding and behaviours towards poverty when experiencing it firsthand in developing countries Written byinternationally reputed academicsfrom the UK, Australia, Germany, and India Includes country case studies from China, India, Ethiopia, and South Africa 08 02 'Economics is venturing into a new world previously inhabited by psychologists, the extent to which people adapt in various ways to changing circumstances. Better knowledge of adaptation is fundamental to advancing our understanding of human behavior and feelings of well-being. This volume is a welcome and valuable contribution to an important and much-neglected subject.' – Richard A. Easterlin, Professor of Economics, University of Southern California, USA 'This book breaks new ground by bringing together theoretical and empirical perspectives on the problem of adaptation, using case studies in India, China and Africa. Clear, insightful and methodical, it will become essential reading for all those interested in the increasingly important question of how to interpret subjective measures of well-being, especially in a development context.' – Tania Burchardt, Deputy Director, Centre for the Analysis of Social Exclusion, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK 'Is adaptation of deprived people to their often abysmal circumstances a healthy reaction which improves the quality of their lives? Or does it inhibit action to improve the situation – by them and by others? This fascinating book explores such issues conceptually and empirically, and is especially pertinent today when 'happiness' is being promoted as the new metric of development.' - Frances Stewart, University of Oxford, UK '...covers interesting themes that are of importance to those interested in the dynamics of subjective well-being (SWB), whether from a theoretical, empirical or policymaking perspective, which is a great achievement indeed...There is no doubt that anyone can learn a lot from reading this book. The range of topics covered is so broad that even experts in the field can enhance their knowledge as they also add new insights and open up novel perspectives for future research...the editor is certainly to be lauded for having succeeded in publishing a book that may also be read by non-specialists. For all these reasons, I expect Adaptation, Poverty and Development. The Dynamics of Subjective Well-Being to be well received by its readers.' - Claudia Tello, University of Barcelona, European Journal of Development Research 13 02 DAVID A. CLARK Honorary Fellow and Research Associate at theBrooks World Poverty Institute of the University of Manchester, UK, and Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion of London School of Economics and Political Science, UK. Previous publications include The Elgar Companion to Development Studies and Visions of Development: A Study of Human Values . 04 02 Adaptation and Development – Issues, Evidence and Policy Relevance PART I: ADAPTATION AND DEVELOPMENT: CONCEPTS AND ISSUES Utilitarianism, 'Adaptation' and Paternalism; M.Qizilbash Adaptation: Implications for Development in Theory and Practice PART II: ADAPTATION AND DEVELOPMENT: THREE CASE STUDIES Aspirations, Adaptation and Subjective Well-Being of Rural-Urban Migrants in China; J.Knight & R.Gunatilaka A Multidimensional Analysis of Adaptation in a Developing Country Context; A.Barr Adaptation, Poverty and Subjective Well-Being: Evidence from South India; D.Neff PART III: ADAPTATION AND DEVELOPMENT: SPECIFIC ISSUES Subjective Well-being, Disability and Adaptation: A Case Study from Rural Ethiopia; M.Fafchamps & B.Kebede Adaptation of the Rural Working Class in India: A Case Study of Migrant Workers; B.Reddy & W.Olsen

While the negative effects of urban poverty are well documented, the everyday experiences of urban residents are often absent or secondary in urban studies research. The Cost of Being Poor rectifies this problem by examining both the noneconomic and the often-overlooked economic costs faced by residents of poor urban neighborhoods in Gary, Indiana. Using census, regional, and local data, and in-depth interviews with the residents of Gary, Sandra L. Barnes argues that many people incur costs resulting from the dual dilemma of being poor and residing in a poor urban area. She explores how factors such as race/ethnicity, neighborhood type, and location influence residents’ views, coping strategies, and unconventional approaches toward making ends meet. Well written and accessible, this study of Gary’s poor urban neighborhoods offers broad findings that apply to other similarly impoverished Rust Belt cities.

This thoughtful, compassionate book makes a major contribution to our understanding of the Southern Appalachian child -- his mental disorders and his adaptive strengths. Drawing upon his extensive fieldwork as a clinical child psychiatrist in Eastern Kentucky, Dr. Looff suggests means by which these children can be helped to bridge the gap between their subculture and the mainstream of American life today. The children described in this book, the author points out, are in a real sense not \"all children.\" Since no child grows up in a vacuum, the children of Eastern Kentucky cannot be understood apart from the historical, geographic, and socioeconomic characteristics of the area in which they grow. Knowledge of the children requires some knowledge of the lives of parent, teachers, and the many others upon whom they are dependent. That is to say, mental disorder -- or mental health -- is embedded in a social matrix. Dr. Looff therefore examines the milieu of these Southern Appalachian children, their future as adults, and how they can achieve their potential -- whether in their native or an urban setting. In viewing the children within their own cultural framework, Dr. Looff shows how they develop toward mental health or psychopathology, suggesting supportive techniques that build upon the strengths inherent in each child. These strengths, he suggests, rise out of the same culture that burdens the child with handicaps. Dr. Looff's position is one of guarded optimism, based on the successes of the techniques he has used and observed in seven years of work in Appalachian field clinics. Although he details instances of mental disorder in children, and instances of failure in family functioning, he notes at the same time family strengths and sees these strengths as sources of hope. Although this book is based on fieldwork techniques within a specific area and culture, it is paradigmatically suggestive of wider application. Dr. Looff demonstrates effectively and clearly the profound need for increased concern about what is happening to the rising generation -- the children of Eastern Kentucky, the children of the Southern Appalachian region, and the children of the rural south.

This book presents a comprehensive description of child, family, and community-level forces that modify the outcomes of youngsters experiencing conditions of poverty. Integrating a vast and complex array of research findings, the author elucidates salient underlying mechanisms via which poverty-related factors can affect poor children’s social and emotional development. In cohesive closing discussions, findings regarding major risk and protective forces are synthesized while delineating major directions for future work in research and theory development, teaching, and interventions and social policy. This timely and thorough volume is essential reading for students, researchers, and educators, as well as clinicians and policymakers concerned with understanding and promoting the positive development of children contending with family poverty.