NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Bruce Wydick is a professor of economics and international studies at the University of San Francisco, where he has been since finishing his Ph.D. at the University of California at Berkeley. He is also an affiliated researcher at the Kellogg Institute of International Studies at the University of Notre Dame. His research interests lie in the use of econometric, experimental, and game-theoretic tools to analyze the impact of development programs, especially in the areas of credit, education, and health. Some of his recent work examines the impacts of international child sponsorship (six countries), microfinance (Nepal), in-kind donations such as farm animals (Rwanda), wheelchairs for the disabled (Ethiopia), TOMS shoe donation (El Salvador), and clean-burning wood stoves (Guatemala). He is also interested in the role that hope, aspirations, perseverance, and other character traits play in escaping poverty traps.

He is also a writer for Christianity Today and tries to be a semi-regular contributor to op-ed columns for San Francisco Bay Area newspapers. His first book Games In Economic Development is published by Cambridge University Press, and his recent economics novel, The Taste of Many Mountains, about a group of graduate students investigating fair trade coffee in Guatemala, is published by Thomas Nelson (HarperCollins). He also serves as one of the co-leaders of Mayan Partners, a small faith-based non-profit organization working in the western highlands of Guatemala, and as faculty advisor for the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at USF.