Wheeler Institute project team contributes to the development of knowledge piece on Sustainable Investment Clusters

Demonstrating how Investment Clusters and Special Economic Zones can be used to drive sustainable and inclusive growth Wheeler Institute project team members – George Looker MBA2020, Charlie Krober MBA2020, Victoria Zhao MiM 2020 along with your author Sarah Pavlu MBA 2020 – supported the knowledge piece collaboration between, P4G, SYSTEMIQ and Savo Project Developers: How to Get Stuff Done through…

Impact of infrastructure improvements in India

Assessing reality of ‘trickle-down’ benefits of greater connectivity for rural households The challenge Increasing infrastructure investment is a key growth strategy in many developing countries; policy debates emphasise the ‘trickle-down’ benefits of such investment. However, there is a gap in our understanding of what type of infrastructure affects individuals’ ability to actualise such opportunities. It…

Entrepreneurship, ESG and venture capital

Towards a long-term research initiative at the intersection of ESG and entrepreneurship The integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in investment decisions has increased rapidly, but investing in high-growth startups through venture capital (VC) has significantly lagged behind. Evidence suggests this trend is accelerating, and that VCs tend to invest in highly disruptive…

When bulldozers loom

Informal property rights and innovation in marketing practices among emerging-market micro-entrepreneurs Micro-entrepreneurs constitute the most common type of business in the world and marketing is the primary means by which they earn their livelihoods. In emerging markets there are a significant number of micro-entrepreneurs and many live precarious lives, characterised by poverty and potentially devastating…

Measuring attitudes towards African-Americans using machine learning and textual data

Identifying determinants of cultural distance to overcome barriers The challenge Cultural distance between groups has important economic consequences. Ethno-linguistic fragmentation, for example, has been shown to reduce the provision of public goods, reduce social capital formation and increase the likelihood of conflict. This could ultimately reduce the gains to ethnic minorities of ‘moving to opportunity’…