[3] Karlan and Appel present their own work and draw on the research of many others in a variety of fields including economics, health, agriculture, and education.

The authors argue that small changes in banking, insurance, health care, and other development initiatives that take into account human irrationality can drastically improve the well-being of the poor.

Concluding, they present a takeaway consisting of seven ideas proven to be effective in development: Microsavings, reminders to save, prepaid fertilizer sales, deworming, remedial education in small groups, chlorine dispensers for clean water, and the use of commitment devices.

The authors draw upon economic tools, psychological insights and empirical studies in their discussion of global poverty issues.

The authors advocate for the use of randomized control trials (RCTs)—a quantitative research method—to measure the impacts of poverty alleviation programs.