Poverty trap models are dynamical systems with more than one attractor. Similar dynamical systems arise in optimal growth and macroeconomic models. These systems are often studied empirically by ad hoc methods relying on intuition from deterministic systems, such as looking for multiple peaks in...

Why does patience vary across individuals and countries? We provide evidence on a widely-hypothesized mechanism, namely that higher longevity fosters patience. Using data on patience for 80,000 individuals in 76 countries, this paper relates exogenous variation in longevity across...

This article concerns the need to define poverty in a way to be relevant to the context it is to refer, to be compatible with data availability and to be useful for policy purposes. It discusses the adequacy of concepts to different socioeconomic situations and analyses the two approaches to...