Why Poverty Persists

‘Why Poverty Persists significantly advances our understanding of the temporal dimensions of poverty. Its judicious mix of new evidence and improved methods offers new insights into why some people remain mired in poverty and the forces that keep them there. All those interested in combating poverty – academics, donors and those working in the non-governmental organizations – will learn from the carefully constructed African and Asian case studies presented.’
– John Hoddinott, International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington DC, US

‘Ten years ago Bob Baulch and John Hoddinott drew our attention to the phenomenon of “poverty dynamics” – an insight into the unpredictability of poor people’s livelihoods that had profound implications for poverty thinking and policy, forcing a rethink of static conceptualisations and measurement and raising challenges for targeting anti-poverty programmes. In this new volume, Baulch and colleagues enrich this understanding with rigorous analysis of panel datasets from six countries in Africa and Asia. Most impressively, this illuminating collection by technical microeconometricians is equally accessible to non-technical readers, which effectively communicates its important messages to development policy-makers and practitioners.’
– Stephen Devereux, University of Sussex, UK

‘This volume on poverty dynamics in developing countries, whose authors include the leaders in this field, is a must for analysts and research students. It advances the literature by addressing three important issues – measurement error, attrition, and tracking. For each of these questions, the volume leads by example, showing how they can be handled in specific cases. The results show that escape from poverty is a diverse phenomenon, and establish the importance of country and context specificity. The volume provides an analytical platform for careful policy assessment of policy alternatives.’
– Ravi Kanbur, Cornell University, US

‘At the beginning of the 2000–2010 decade, Bob Baulch (with John Hoddinott) was setting the micro-econometric agenda on poverty dynamics and chronic poverty and producing work that “non-economists” had to read if they wanted to conduct serious research on these issues. In this volume – through his analytical excellence, the pursuit and methodological rigour, extraordinary energy, and his ability to lead such a distinguished network of colleagues – Bob Baulch has set the research agenda on poverty dynamics and chronic poverty for the next ten years.’
– From the foreword by David Hulme, University of Manchester, UK

This edited book analyses what traps people in chronic poverty, and what allows them to escape from it, using long-term panel surveys from six Asian and African countries.

The distinguishing feature of these studies, which were commissioned by the Chronic Poverty Research Centre, is they span longer periods or have more survey waves than most developing country panels. This allows a detailed account of the maintainers of chronic poverty and drivers of poverty dynamics. Many of the studies (from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Nepal, Pakistan, South Africa and Vietnam) are written by leading development economists, and all pay careful attention to the difficult issues of attrition, measurement error and tracking. The book’s comparative perspective highlights the common factors which cause people to fall into chronic poverty and allow them to break-free from it. A number of promising policies and interventions for reducing chronic poverty are identified.

This up-to-date book will be an excellent resource for international development agencies, academics specialising in development economics and development studies, and researchers in international NGOs. Graduate students of development economics and development studies will also find much to interest them.

Contents:

Foreword
David Hulme

1. Overview: Poverty Dynamics and Persistence in Asia and Africa
Bob Baulch

2. Poverty Transitions, Shocks and Consumption in Rural Bangladesh, 1996–97 to 2006–07
Agnes R. Quisumbing

3. A Poor Life? Chronic Poverty and Downward Mobility in Rural Ethiopia, 1994 to 2004
Stefan Dercon and Catherine Porter

4. The Determinants and Consequences of Chronic and Transient Poverty in Nepal, 1995–96 to 2003–04
Saurav Dev Bhatta and Suman K. Sharma

5. Poverty Dynamics in Rural Sindh, Pakistan, 1987–88 to 2004–05
Hari Ram Lohano

6. Poverty Traps and Structural Poverty in South Africa: Reassessing the Evidence from KwaZulu-Natal, 1993 to 2004
Julian May, Ingrid Woolard and Bob Baulch

7. Poverty Dynamics in Vietnam, 2002 to 2006
Bob Baulch and Vu Hoang Dat

8. Chronic Poverty: What is to be Done?
Bob Baulch

Index