Why do damages from changes in environmental quality differ across and within countries? Causal investigation of this question has been challenging because differences may stem from heterogeneity in cumulative exposure or differences in socioeconomic factors such as income. We revisit the...

A sound understanding of poverty traps — defined as poverty that is self-reinforcing due to the poor's equilibrium behaviors — and their underlying mechanisms is fundamentally important to the development of policies and interventions targeted to assist the poor. We review the theoretical...