For two days this September, young and established scholars confer in Helsinki on an emerging issue in development economics: Does poverty bolster departures from the standard text book theory of rational choice, and do these departures in turn foster poverty and impede development?
The forum is one of the many events organized by the United Nations University’s World Institute for Development Economics Research. Although it organizes similar gatherings in other major global cities, UNU-WIDER has often opted to hold its conferences, lectures and seminars in the Finnish capital, where it is headquartered.
In Helsinki, UNU-WIDER neighbors a number of the country’s largest consulting firms and non-governmental organizations engaged in humanitarian and development work. The city is also the base for the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the government agency that oversees the country’s overseas aid budget.