The Oxford Handbook of the Economics of Poverty

Poverty is a pressing and persistent problem. While its extent varies across countries, its presence always represents the diminution of human capacity. Therefore, it seems natural to want to do something about it. Have countries made progress in mitigating poverty? How do we determine who is poor and who is not poor? What intuitions or theories guide the design of anti-poverty policy? Is overall labor market performance the key to keeping the poverty rate low? Or, does it matter how well- connected an individual is to those who know about the availability of jobs? Does being an immigrant increase the odds of being poor? Are there anti-poverty policies that work? For whom do they work? If I'm poor, will I have access to health care and housing? Am I more likely to be obese, polluted upon, incarcerated, un-banked, and without assets if I'm poor? Is poverty too hard a problem for economic analysis? These are some of the questions that a distinguished group of scholars have come together to confront in this handbook. The Handbook is written in a highly accessible style that encourages the reader to think critically about poverty. Theories are presented in a rigorous but not overly technical way; concise and straightforward empirical analyses enlighten key policy issues. The volume has six parts: Poverty in the 21st Century; Labor Market Factors; Poverty Policy; Poverty Dynamics; Dimensions of Poverty; and Trends and Issues in Anti-Poverty Policy. A goal of the handbook is to stimulate further research on poverty. To that end, several chapters challenge conventional thinking about poverty and in some cases present specific proposals for the reform of economic and social policy. Available in OSO: http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/oso/public/content/oho_economics/9780195393781/toc.html Contributors to this volume - Olugbenga Ajilore is an associate professor of economics at the University of Toledo. Susan L. Averett is the Charles A. Dana professor of economics at Lafayette College. Lisa Barrow is a research fellow at Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago. Yonatan Ben-Shalom is a researcher at Mathematica Policy Research. John P. Caskey is a professor of economics at Swarthmore College. Janet Currie is the Henry Putnam professor of economics and policy affairs at Princeton University William A. Darity, Jr. is the Arts and Sciences professor of public policy, African and African-American studies, and economics at Duke University. Brian Duncan is an associate professor of economics at the University of Colorado Denver. Dirk W. Early is a professor of economics at Southwestern University. Juliet U. Elu is a professor of economics at Spelman College. Francisco H.G. Ferreira is the lead economist of the Development Research Group at The World Bank. Gary S. Fields is a professor of labor economics and the John P. Windmuller chair of International and Comparative Labor at Cornell University. Darrell J. Gaskin is an associate professor of health economics at Johns Hopkins University. Wayne B. Gray is a professor of economics at Clark University. Judith K. Hellerstein is a professor of economics at the University of Maryland. Philip N. Jefferson is a professor of economics at Swarthmore College. Christopher K. Johnson is an associate professor of economics at the University of North Florida. Kunhee Kim is a research fellow at Stanford Law School at Stanford University. Kevin Lang is a professor of economics at Boston University. Mary Lopez is an assistant professor of economics at Occidental College. Patrick L. Mason is a professor of economics at Florida State University. Signe-Mary McKernan is a senior fellow at The Urban Institute. Bruce D. Meyer is the McCormick Foundation professor of public policy at the University of Chicago. Robert Moffitt is the Krieger-Eisenhower professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University. David Neumark is a professor of economics at the University of California - Irvine. Edgar O. Olsen is a professor of economics at the University of Virginia. Kevin S. O'Neil is a graduate student at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the Office of Population Research at Princeton University. Robert D. Plotnick is a professor of public affairs at the University of Washington. Gregory N. Price is the Charles E. Merrill professor of economics at Morehouse College. Steven Raphael is a professor of public policy at the University of California - Berkeley. Caroline Ratcliffe is a senior fellow at The Urban Institute. Martin Ravallion is the director of the Development Research Group at The World Bank. Eric T. Roberts is a Ph.D. candidate in the department of health policy and management at Johns Hopkins University. Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach is an associate professor of education and social policy at Northwestern University. John Karl Scholz is a professor of economics at the University of Wisconsin. Trina Williams Shanks is an associate professor of social work at the University of Michigan. Ronald J. Shadbegian is an economist at the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Ann Huff Stevens is a professor of economics at the University of California - Davis. James X. Sullivan is an associate professor of economics at the University of Notre Dame. Marta Tienda is the Maurice P. During professor in demographic studies and a professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University. Stephen J. Trejo is an associate professor of economics at the University of Texas. Leslie Wallace is a professor of economics at the University of Puerto Rico - Mayaguez. Ann Wolverton is an economist at the United States Environmental Protection Agency.