"Theories of poverty traps stand in sharp contrast to the view that anybody can make it through hard work and thrift …. However, empirical detection of poverty traps is complicated by the lack of long panels, measurement error, and attrition … dynamics and testing for the presence of poverty traps. The paper explicitly allows for individual heterogeneity in income …

workfare scheme in which the government acts as the employer of last resort. Is this a cost-effective policy against poverty … sufficient for a typical poor family to reach the poverty line would bring the annual poverty rate down from 34 percent to 25 … (three months) would bring the annual poverty rate down to 31 percent at a cost of 1.3 percent of GDP. While the gains from a …

"The authors examine the empirical evidence in support of the poverty trap view of underdevelopment. They calibrate … simple aggregate growth models in which poverty traps can arise due to either low saving or low technology at low levels of … development. They then use these models to assess the empirical relevance of poverty traps and their consequences for policy. The …

earning dynamics and related issues such as the propensity of earners to fall into poverty or vulnerability to poverty because … other measures of interest, such as an individual's vulnerability to poverty. The results show that model parameters … the model, in this case pseudo-panel measures of vulnerability to poverty, reflect closely those based on actual panel …