The paper discusses some core reasons why poverty remains widespread in many developing countries: market failures combine with asset inequalities to result in poverty persistence, and often poverty traps from which the poor may not be able to emerge, even in a context of aggregate economic growth. As examples the paper discusses some theoretical implications and empirical evidence for three co...

Institutional analysis that aims to contribute to the reduction of rural poverty needs to focus first of all on the ways in which institutions influence poverty and the livelihoods of the poor. Therefore the starting point has to be poor people themselves. This means understanding their diversity and the different characteristics of people who are affected by poverty and experience it in differ...

globalization effects on social security systems and on social expenditures in different countries will be analyzed in this chapter. our consentration is yet on anglo-saxon countries . but it is assumed that many offer countries are under the same pressure of globalization on their social security expenses as the anglo-saxon countries . this will be examined later in another chapter. in previou...

Preliminary and Incomplete. Please do not cite. Introduction There is worldwide agreement on poverty reduction as a key development policy goal; however there is little agreement on the definition of poverty. The definition of poverty is critical for successful poverty eradication strategies. Traditionally poverty was approached using univariate metrics, such as income or consumption expenditur...

There is a seemingly widespread view that inequality should not be a concern in countries striving to fight absolute poverty. Although inequality may well be high or rising in some developing countries, this increase is seen as the unavoidable by-product of the economic growth needed to reduce poverty. The message for policy is that poor countries—including their poor—need not worry too much ab...