Matthew Kahn, a professor at the UCLA Institute of the Environment with joint appointments in economics and public policy, was quoted on July 7 in a Miller–McCune  article on the potential of bamboo houses to fight climate change, encourage economic growth and protect the poor from natural disasters.

Kahn thinks that nongovernmental organizations are an ideal vehicle for promoting bamboo homes in rural areas, but venture capitalists should build bamboo housing for a major, often-neglected demographic: the urban poor. “There are hundreds of millions of people moving to cities in Asia and Latin America, and they need new homes,” he says. “Businesspeople could get very rich by building bamboo housing developments, but there is the question of whether the new urbanites have the money to pay for the homes. Developers could build bamboo houses to rent out to day laborers.”

Matthew Kahn is also a Scholar at the Luskin Center for Innovation in the UCLA School of Public Affairs.