"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 …

development of the African leader (Mauritius) is 1.1 percent of GDP per year in North Africa and 2.3 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa …, with most of the contribution coming from more, rather than better, infrastructure. Across Africa, infrastructure …

"This paper examines the country-level dynamics of long-run growth in Africa between 1975 and 2005. The authors examine …

Many analysts decry the level of investment in Africa, saying it is too low. But there is no evidence, in cross …-country data or in microeconomic data from Tanzania, that private and public capital is productive in Africa. In that sense …, investment in Africa may be viewed as too high …

"Prevailing measures of relative poverty put an implausibly high weight on relative deprivation, such that measured … poverty does not fall when all incomes grow at the same rate. This stems from the (implicit) assumption in past measures that … roles of certain private expenditures in poor settings and with data on national poverty lines. The authors propose a new …

explores the impact of this structural change in the rate of poverty reduction and concludes that it is far from negligible …

of per capita income has important implications for the relative roles of income growth and inequality changes in poverty … reduction. When poverty reduction is the overriding policy objective, poorer and relatively equal countries may be willing to …

for half of economic growth. Finally, institutions can affect poverty and equity, although the effects seem generally …