The Economics of Poverty
Abstract The last thirty years has seen much progress against extreme poverty in the world—a faster pace of progress than was seen over the prior 100 years or more of economic development globally. However, continuing progress is far from assured. High and rising inequality has stalled progress against poverty in many countries. We are seeing generally rising relative poverty—judged by the standards of the country and time one live in— over recent decades. There has been less progress in reaching the world’s poorest, who risk being left behind. And a great many people in the emerging middle class remain vulnerable to falling back into poverty. This book aims to support well-informed efforts to put in place effective policies to assure continuing success in the fight against poverty in all its dimensions. The book reviews critically the past and present debates on the central policy issues of economic development everywhere. How much poverty is there? Why does poverty exist? What can be done to eliminate poverty? The book provides an accessible new synthesis of current knowledge on these issues. While economics is the central discipline, the book does not assume that readers know economics already. Those new to economics get a lot of help along the way in understanding its concepts and methods. Economics lives though its relevance to real world problems, and here the problem of global poverty is both the central focus and a vehicle for learning, to help assure well infomed future policy debates and policies.