Journal ArticleDOI
Welfare dynamics in rural Kenya and Madagascar
Christopher B. Barrett,Paswel Marenya,John G. McPeak,Bart Minten,Festus Murithi,Willis Oluoch-Kosura,F. Place,Jean Claude Randrianarisoa,Jhon Rasambainarivo,Justine Wangila +9 more
TLDR
In this paper, the authors present comparative qualitative and quantitative evidence from rural Kenya and Madagascar in an attempt to untangle the causality behind persistent poverty, and suggest the existence of multiple dynamic asset and structural income equilibria, consistent with the poverty traps hypothesis.Abstract:
This paper presents comparative qualitative and quantitative evidence from rural Kenya and Madagascar in an attempt to untangle the causality behind persistent poverty. We find striking differences in welfare dynamics depending on whether one uses total income, including stochastic terms and inevitable measurement error, or the predictable, structural component of income based on a household's asset holdings. Our results suggest the existence of multiple dynamic asset and structural income equilibria, consistent with the poverty traps hypothesis. Furthermore, we find supporting evidence of locally increasing returns to assets and of risk management behaviour consistent with poor households' defence of a critical asset threshold through asset smoothing.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
The economics of poverty traps and persistent poverty: An asset-based approach
TL;DR: The authors developed an asset-based approach to poverty analysis that makes it possible to distinguish deep-rooted, persistent structural poverty from poverty that passes naturally with time due to systemic growth processes.
Journal ArticleDOI
Poverty Traps and Natural Disasters in Ethiopia and Honduras
TL;DR: Ato Mohammed, 55 and illiterate, lives in the Bati district of South Wollo Zone (Ethiopia) and heads a household of nine people with no oxen as discussed by the authors.
Journal ArticleDOI
Household-level determinants of adoption of improved natural resources management practices among smallholder farmers in western Kenya
TL;DR: In this article, the authors found that the size of the farm owned by a household, the value of its livestock, off-farm income, family labor supply, and the educational attainment and gender of the household head all had a significant positive effect on the likelihood of adoption.
Journal ArticleDOI
Vulnerability of coastal communities to key impacts of climate change on coral reef fisheries.
Joshua E. Cinner,Tim R. McClanahan,Nicholas A. J. Graham,Tim M. Daw,Joseph Maina,Selina M. Stead,Andrew Wamukota,Katrina Brown,Örjan Bodin +8 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined three dimensions of vulnerability (exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity) of 29 coastal communities across five western Indian Ocean countries to the impacts of coral bleaching on fishery returns, and developed a novel, network-based approach to examine sensitivity to changes in the fishery that incorporates linkages between fishery and non-fishery occupations.
Journal ArticleDOI
Poverty Traps and Index Based Risk Transfer Products
TL;DR: In this article, the authors review relevant threads of the poverty traps literature to motivate a description of the opportunities presented by innovative index-based risk transfer products for low-income countries.
References
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Posted Content
Productivity Growth, Convergence and Welfare: What the Long Run Data Show
TL;DR: Maddison's 1870-1979 data are analyzed, showing the historically unprecedented growth in productivity, GDP per capita and exports and the remarkable convergence of productivities of industrialized market economies, with convergence apparently shared by planned economies but not less developed countries as discussed by the authors.
Posted Content
Productivity Growth, Convergence, and Welfare: What the Long-Run Data Show
TL;DR: Maddison's 1870-1979 data are analyzed, showing the historically unprecedented growth in productivity, gross domestic product per capita and exports and the remarkable convergence of productivities of industrialized market economies, with convergence apparently shared by planned economies but not less developed countries.
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Journal ArticleDOI
The economics of poverty traps and persistent poverty: An asset-based approach
TL;DR: The authors developed an asset-based approach to poverty analysis that makes it possible to distinguish deep-rooted, persistent structural poverty from poverty that passes naturally with time due to systemic growth processes.
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