Can Online Markets Tackle Poverty?

28th Jan 2010; 13:00

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RSA Thursday

How can we use online markets more effectively to ensure we create value and opportunity for the low-paid and unemployed?

E-marketplaces have developed exponentially in the last 15 years, and financial institutions now turbo-trade billions worth of assets every day. But the benefits of these new marketplaces are primarily concentrated at the top levels of the economy, and have neglected the resources that people at the bottom of the economic pyramid could sell. A new generation of marketplace could utilise the time, potential and skills of the less well-off or unemployed – simultaneously creating value for the individuals concerned, and flooding the market with hitherto untapped products and services.

Creating ‘modern markets for all’ should now be a priority, but the private sector can’t work alone to create the marketplaces needed. Is it time for policymakers to make modern, inclusive marketplaces a priority across multiple sectors at the bottom of the economy?

Speakers: Wingham Rowan, project director, Slivers of Time Working; Jerry Fishenden, founder of the Centre for Technology Policy Research.

With a contribution by Rt Hon James Purnell MP

Chair: Matthew Taylor, chief executive, RSA

Suggested hashtag for Twitter users: #rsaemarkets

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