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Assets and Poverty Traps in Rural Bangladesh

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  • Agnes R. Quisumbing
  • Bob Baulch

Abstract

Using longitudinal survey from rural Bangladesh, this article examines the determinants of land and asset accumulation over time and explores why some households may be trapped in asset poverty. Non-parametric and parametric methods are used to discern the shape of the asset accumulation path, and whether unique or multiple equilibria exist. We find evidence for concavity of the dynamic asset frontier but no evidence for multiple equilibria. It is suggested that the existence of well-functioning factor markets in rural Bangladesh and elsewhere in South Asia explain the contrasts between our results and those for several African countries.

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  • Agnes R. Quisumbing & Bob Baulch, 2013. "Assets and Poverty Traps in Rural Bangladesh," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(7), pages 898-916, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jdevst:v:49:y:2013:i:7:p:898-916
    DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2013.785524
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    Cited by:

    1. Muntaha Rakib & Julia Anna Matz, 2016. "The Impact of Shocks on Gender-differentiated Asset Dynamics in Bangladesh," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(3), pages 377-395, March.
    2. Agnes Quisumbing & Neha Kumar, 2011. "Does social capital build women's assets? The long-term impacts of group-based and individual dissemination of agricultural technology in Bangladesh," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(2), pages 220-242.
    3. Davis, Peter, 2010. "Exploring the long-term impact of development interventions within life-history narratives in rural Bangladesh," IFPRI discussion papers 991, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    4. Arunachalam, Raj & Shenoy, Ajay, 2017. "Poverty traps, convergence, and the dynamics of household income," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 215-230.
    5. Attila N Lázár & Helen Adams & W Neil Adger & Robert J Nicholls, 2020. "Modelling household well-being and poverty trajectories: An application to coastal Bangladesh," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(9), pages 1-23, September.
    6. Janz, Teresa & Augsburg, Britta & Gassmann, Franziska & Nimeh, Zina, 2023. "Leaving no one behind: Urban poverty traps in Sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    7. Dillon, Andrew & Quiñones, Esteban J., 2010. "Asset dynamics in Northern Nigeria," IFPRI discussion papers 1049, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    8. Agnes R. Quisumbing & Neha Kumar & Julia A. Behrman, 2018. "Do shocks affect men's and women's assets differently? Evidence from Bangladesh and Uganda," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 36(1), pages 3-34, January.
    9. Hang, Yuan, 2017. "Is There a Poverty Trap of multiple Dynamic Equilibria? The Analysis on Data of Rural Fixed Observation Point from 2004 to 2012," 2017 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 1, Chicago, Illinois 257264, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    10. Giesbert, Lena & Schindler, Kati, 2012. "Assets, Shocks, and Poverty Traps in Rural Mozambique," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(8), pages 1594-1609.
    11. Katharina Lehmann-Uschner & Kati Krähnert, 2018. "When Shocks Become Persistent: Household-Level Asset Growth in the Aftermath of an Extreme Weather Event," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1759, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    12. Bapu Vaitla & Jennifer Denno Cissé & Joanna Upton & Girmay Tesfay & Nigussie Abadi & Daniel Maxwell, 2020. "How the choice of food security indicators affects the assessment of resilience—an example from northern Ethiopia," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 12(1), pages 137-150, February.
    13. Solomon Zena Walelign & Mariève Pouliot & Helle Overgaard Larsen & Carsten Smith-Hall, 2015. "A novel approach to dynamic livelihood clustering: Empirical evidence from Nepal," IFRO Working Paper 2015/09, University of Copenhagen, Department of Food and Resource Economics.
    14. Mburu, Samuel & Kaiser, Micha & Sousa-Poza, Alfonso, 2017. "Livestock asset dynamics among pastoralists in Northern Kenya," Hohenheim Discussion Papers in Business, Economics and Social Sciences 25-2017, University of Hohenheim, Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences.
    15. Haider, Hamza, "undated". "Asset Management & Coping Strategies in Burkina Faso," 2017 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 1, Chicago, Illinois 259956, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    16. Ahmed, M. & Gautam, M. & Sen, B., 2018. "Waves of Change: Understanding Ascent, Descent and Persistence of Poverty in Rural Bangladesh," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277340, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    17. Hill, Daniel, 2020. "Technology heterogeneity and poverty traps: A latent class approach to technology gap drivers of chronic poverty," 2020 Conference (64th), February 12-14, 2020, Perth, Western Australia 305253, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    18. Quisumbing, Agnes R. & Kumar, Neha & Behrman, Julia A., 2011. "Do shocks affect men's and women's assets differently?: A review of literature and new evidence from Bangladesh and Uganda," IFPRI discussion papers 1113, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    19. Quisumbing, Agnes R., 2011. "Do men and women accumulate assets in different ways?: Evidence from rural Bangladesh," IFPRI discussion papers 1096, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    20. You, Jing, 2014. "Risk, under-investment in agricultural assets and dynamic asset poverty in rural China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 27-45.
    21. Malevolti, Giulia, 2022. "Can weather shocks give rise to a poverty trap? Evidence from Nigeria," 96th Annual Conference, April 4-6, 2022, K U Leuven, Belgium 321172, Agricultural Economics Society - AES.
    22. Dylan Fitz & Shyam Gouri Suresh, 2021. "Poverty traps across levels of aggregation," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 16(4), pages 909-953, October.
    23. Soumaïla Gansonré & Ramatu M. Al‐Hassan & Idrissa M. Ouédraogo & George T. Kwadzo & Edward E. Onumah, 2023. "Sustainability and Wealth of Rural Households: Measurement and Inequality Analysis," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 69(1), pages 150-169, March.

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