IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jdevst/v49y2013i7p976-990.html

The Economics of Poverty Traps and Persistent Poverty: Empirical and Policy Implications

Author

Listed:
  • Christopher B. Barrett
  • Michael R. Carter

Abstract

The moral and economic imperatives to intervene in poverty traps motivate the identification of poverty traps and their structural causes so as to inform the design of appropriate policy responses. However, empirical identification remains challenging because of poverty traps' complexity. After reviewing mechanisms that can generate poverty traps, we focus on one -- multiple financial market failures -- emphasising its heretofore underappreciated testable implications, including specific behaviours that are rational only in the presence of a poverty trap. We therefore recommend tests for these behaviours rather than more econometrically challenged efforts to directly test for poverty traps in estimated asset dynamics.

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher B. Barrett & Michael R. Carter, 2013. "The Economics of Poverty Traps and Persistent Poverty: Empirical and Policy Implications," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(7), pages 976-990, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jdevst:v:49:y:2013:i:7:p:976-990
    DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2013.785527
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00220388.2013.785527
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00220388.2013.785527?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Moya, Andrés, 2018. "Violence, psychological trauma, and risk attitudes: Evidence from victims of violence in Colombia," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 15-27.
    2. repec:wbk:wbpubs:7409 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Laajaj, Rachid, 2012. "Closing the Eyes on a Gloomy Future: Psychological Causes and Economic Consequences," 2012 Annual Meeting, August 12-14, 2012, Seattle, Washington 123933, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    4. Paulo Santos & Christopher B. Barrett, 2017. "Heterogeneous Wealth Dynamics: On the Roles of Risk and Ability," NBER Chapters, in: The Economics of Poverty Traps, pages 265-290, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Janzen, Sarah A. & Carter, Michael R. & Ikegami, Munenobu, 2012. "Valuing Asset Insurance in the Presence of Poverty Traps: A Dynamic Approach," 2012 Annual Meeting, August 12-14, 2012, Seattle, Washington 124805, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    6. Naschold, Felix, 2012. "“The Poor Stay Poor”: Household Asset Poverty Traps in Rural Semi-Arid India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(10), pages 2033-2043.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. 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).
    2. Sandeep Mohapatra, 2021. "A new approach for detecting multiple‐equilibria poverty traps," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(5), pages 894-909, July.
    3. Pierfrancesco Rolla & Patricia Justino, 2022. "The social consequences of organized crime in Italy," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2022-106, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    4. Ana María Ibá-ez, 2014. "Growth in forced displacement: cross-country, sub-national and household evidence on potential determinants," Chapters, in: Robert E.B. Lucas (ed.), International Handbook on Migration and Economic Development, chapter 13, pages 350-387, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Walelign,Solomon Zena & Wang Sonne,Soazic Elise & Seshan,Ganesh Kumar, 2022. "Livelihood Impacts of Refugees on Host Communities : Evidence from Ethiopia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10044, The World Bank.
    6. Alloush, Mo & Bloem, Jeffrey R., 2022. "Neighborhood violence, poverty, and psychological well-being," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    7. Rishi Kumar, 2022. "Household poverty dynamics in tribal Madhya Pradesh, India: A case study of 54 villages," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 14(2), pages 184-203, June.
    8. repec:uii:journl:v:9:y:2017:i:1:p:104-113 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Haile, Kaleab K. & Nillesen, Eleonora & Tirivayi, Nyasha, 2020. "Impact of formal climate risk transfer mechanisms on risk-aversion: Empirical evidence from rural Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    10. Muhammad Nasir & Marc Rockmore & Chih Ming Tan, 2015. "It's No Spring Break in Cancun: The Effects of Exposure to Violence on Risk Preferences, Pro-Social Behavior, and Mental Health," Working Paper series 15-40, Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis.
    11. Bloem,Jeffrey Richard & Damon,Amy & Francis,David C. & Mitchell,Harrison, 2023. "Herder-Related Violence, Agricultural Work, and the Informal Sector as a Safety Net," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10607, The World Bank.
    12. Mulubrhan Amare & Lucia Carrillo & Katrina Kosec & Jordan Kyle, 2024. "Conflict, Aspirations, and Women’s Empowerment: Household Survey Evidence from Farmer-Herder Conflicts in Nigeria," HiCN Working Papers 421, Households in Conflict Network.
    13. Takahashi, Kazushi & Ikegami, Munenobu & Sheahan, Megan & Barrett, Christopher B., 2014. "Quasi-experimental evidence on the drivers of index-based livestock insurance demand in Southern Ethiopia," IDE Discussion Papers 480, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    14. Buehren,Niklas & Goldstein,Markus P. & Rasul,Imran & Smurra,Andrea, 2022. "Legacies of Conflict : Experiences, Self-efficacy and the Formation of Conditional Trust," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10238, The World Bank.
    15. 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.
    16. Janzen, Sarah A. & Carter, Michael R., 2013. "The Impact of Microinsurance on Consumption Smoothing and Asset Protection: Evidence from a Drought in Kenya," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 151141, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    17. Swati Dutta, 2015. "Identifying Single or Multiple Poverty Trap: An Application to Indian Household Panel Data," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 120(1), pages 157-179, January.
    18. Pace, Noemi & Daidone, Silvio, 2024. "Impact of development interventions on individual risk preferences: Evidence from a field-lab experiment and survey data," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    19. McKenzie, David & Gibson, John & Stillman, Steven, 2013. "A land of milk and honey with streets paved with gold: Do emigrants have over-optimistic expectations about incomes abroad?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 116-127.
    20. Cheng, Lingguo & Lu, Yunfeng, 2024. "Does retirement make people more risk averse?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 224(C), pages 135-155.
    21. Felix Naschold, 2013. "Welfare Dynamics in Pakistan and Ethiopia -- Does the Estimation Method Matter?," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(7), pages 936-954, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:jdevst:v:49:y:2013:i:7:p:976-990. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/FJDS20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.