Is Capitalism Good for the Poor?听 program analyses empirical evidence to address the question of how capitalist institutions influence the well-being of the poor, whether in the context of communist China, in Brazil鈥檚 rainforest frontier, in democratic but tradition-bound India, or in the civil strife听in certain African nations. Drawing from the insights of economic historian and Nobel Laureate, Douglass North, the discourse on economic development has shifted towards a focus on institutions, often referred to as the 鈥渞ules of the game鈥� that shape a nation鈥檚 expected behavior and patterns of interaction.听