--- title: How a Little Bribery Could Be a Good Thing description: Can a little bribery be a good thing? Plus including small business in the fight against poverty, and more. canonical: https://time.com/3850362/bribery-good-thing/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-07T16:01:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:04:06.446Z article:section: Ideas og:title: How a Little Bribery Could Be a Good Thing og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/3850362/bribery-good-thing/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How a Little Bribery Could Be a Good Thing twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # How a Little Bribery Could Be a Good Thing by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute May 7, 2015 4:01 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute May 7, 2015 4:01 PM UTC **1\.** [**A little bribery might actually be a good thing.**](http://www.voxeu.org/article/bribery-and-firm-performance-new-evidence) By Jan Hanousek and Anna Kochanova at the Centre for Economic Policy Research **2\.** [**Remember the rover that was supposed to last three months on Mars? It just logged day 4,000.**](http://www.planetary.org/explore/space-topics/space-missions/mer-updates/2015/04-mer-update-opportunity-logs-sol-4000.html) By A. J. S. Rayl at the Planetary Society **3\.** [**What if there was a step between renting and owning?**](http://www.urban.org/urban-wire/what-if-there-were-step-between-renting-and-owning) By Brett Theodos and Rob Pitingolo at the Urban Institute **4\.** [**Here’s the unexpected reason college tuition has skyrocketed.**](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/05/opinion/sunday/the-real-reason-college-tuition-costs-so-much.html) By Paul F. Campos in the New York Times **5\.** [**Are small businesses being overlooked in the fight against poverty?**](http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2015/may/07/small-businesses-overlooked-fight-against-poverty) By Randall Kempner in the Guardian  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3850362/bribery-good-thing/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3850362/bribery-good-thing/"},"headline":"How a Little Bribery Could Be a Good Thing","datePublished":"2015-05-07T16:01:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:04:06.446Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/3850362/bribery-good-thing/","keywords":["Innovation","College","Entrepreneurs","Mars","housing","development","universities","tuition","renting","homeownership"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3850362/bribery-good-thing/","name":"How a Little Bribery Could Be a Good Thing"}}]}] ```