Why Poverty Persists

Book excerpt: 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 peoples 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 provide 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 - though 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