"When Francis of Assisi started to use his family's resources for religious purposes, his father took him to court. It was there that Francis dispossessed himself of everything and began a new life that soon inspired others to follow. Within a century, members of this Order of Friars Minor were...

This study traces the interactions between economic growth, income inequality and consumption poverty in a sample of African countries during the 1990s. It draws on the much-improved household data sets now available in the region. It finds that experiences have varied: some countries have seen...