The effective design and implementation of interventions that reduce vulnerability and poverty require a solid understanding of underlying poverty dynamics and associated behavioral responses. Stochastic and dynamic benefit streams can make it difficult for the poor to learn the value of such...

Estimating risk preferences is tricky because controlling for confounding factors is difficult. Omitting or imperfectly controlling for these factors can attribute too much observable behaviour to risk aversion and bias estimated preferences. Agents often modify risky decisions in response to...

Written to provide students with the critical tools and approaches used by development economists, Essentials of Development Economics represents an alternative approach to traditional textbooks on the subject. Compact and less expensive than other textbooks for undergraduate development...

What development economics is all about -- What works and what doesn't? -- Income -- Poverty -- Inequality -- Human development -- Growth -- Institutions -- Agriculture -- Structural transformation -- Information and markets -- Finance -- International trade and globalization -- Epilogue.

A growing literature on poverty traps emphasizes the links between multiple equilibria and risk avoidance. However, multiple equilibria may also foster risk taking behavior by some poor people. We illustrate this idea with a simple analytical model in which people with different wealth and...