Thinking Small: A Review of Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo

2012 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark R Rosenzweig
Keyword(s):  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Scientific Understanding ◽  
Global Poverty ◽  
Policy Regime ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Fundamental Understanding ◽  
Effective Policy ◽  
Policy Prescription ◽  
Causes Of Poverty ◽  
The Way

In Poor Economics, Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo eschew grand theorizing about poverty reduction in favor of an approach in which intelligently designed and tested small interventions, based on a scientific understanding of the lives of the poor, marginally improve their welfare. In so doing, they describe the findings from the recent large literature describing the behavior and institutions of the poor and the consequences of policy and experimental interventions targeted to poverty populations. In this review, I assess whether “thinking small” with its associated policy regime of transfers, subsidies, and nudges, is both a practical and effective policy prescription for “fighting” poverty and whether the set of studies that have focused on populations that have not escaped poverty has improved our fundamental understanding of both the consequences and causes of poverty. (JEL I32, I38, O15)

The Global Poor as Agents of Justice

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monique Deveaux
Keyword(s):  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Development Theory ◽  
Political Movements ◽  
Global Poverty ◽  
Philosophical Writing ◽  
Development Organizations ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Global North

“Agent-centered” approaches to global poverty insist that effective arguments for poverty reduction must specify the concrete duties of particular duty-bearers. This article takes up a recent, influential, version of this view, Thomas Pogge’s human rights-based argument for global economic reforms to reduce chronic deprivation. While signaling a welcome shift from the diffuse allocation of responsibilities common to much philosophical writing on poverty, I argue that Pogge’s approach too readily assigns to powerful institutions in the global North the role of devising and directing anti-poverty initiatives. In so doing, he overlooks the agency—actual and potential—of the poor themselves, as evidenced by poor-led political movements and poor-centered, participatory models of poverty reduction in development theory and practice. While agent-oriented approaches are right to focus our attention on structures that cause poverty, they ought not to assume that the powerful agents responsible for these are the only—or most appropriate—agents to lead the way to poverty reduction. Just as development organizations working in the global South have come to recognize that the participation of poor communities is critical to the success of development strategies, so should normative theorists writing about global injustice acknowledge the importance of the poor as active agents in poverty reduction efforts.

scholarly journals MODEL STRATEGI BERTAHAN HIDUP RUMAH TANGGA MISKIN (SEBUAH LITERATURE REVIEW)

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 153
Author(s):  
Asyari Asyari
Keyword(s):  
Poverty Alleviation ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Public Welfare ◽  
Literature Study ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Poor Households ◽  
The Government ◽  
Policies And Programs ◽  
Multidimensional Concept ◽  
Causes Of Poverty

<em>Poverty is the enemy of the government in order to create public welfare. The policies and programs undertaken by the government for the purpose of reducing poverty. Policies and programs exist that succeed in reducing poverty but there is also spawned new poverty. The following article is a literature study on the model of survival of poor households that are not touched by the poverty alleviation program. The method used is to examine some of the results of studies that have been published in journals that describe how poor households to survive and get out of the winding poverty. The findings of this study to inform the causes of poverty are many. This is because poverty is a multidimensional concept. Forms of survival (survival) and exit (exit) on poverty conducted by the poor and poor households will vary according to the cause of poverty. Reduce poor households is not a program and policy apart from the causes of poverty. A separate program will create new poverty because the program did not aim at poverty reduction.</em> Kemiskinan adalah musuh pemerintah dalam rangka menciptakan kesejahteraan masyarakat. Berbagai kebijakan dan program dilakukan oleh pemerintah untuk tujuan mengurangi angka kemiskinan. Kebijakan dan program tersebut ada yang berhasil dalam mengurangi angka kemiskinan namun ada pula yang melahirkan kemiskinan baru. Tulisan berikut adalah studi literature tentang model bertahan hidup rumah tangga miskin yang tidak tersentuh oleh program pengentasan kemiskinan. Metode yang digunakan adalah menelaah beberapa hasil-hasil penelitian yang pernah dimuat di jurnal-jurnal yang menjelaskan bagaimana rumah tangga miskin bertahan hidup dan keluar dari lilitan kemiskinan. Temuan penelitian ini menginformasikan penyebab kemiskinan sangat banyak dan beragam. Hal ini karena kemiskinan merupakan konsep yang multidimensi. Bentuk-bentuk bertahan hidup (survival) dan keluar (exit) dari kemiskinan yang dilakukan oleh orang miskin dan rumah tangga miskin beragam sesuai dengan penyebab kemiskinan. Mengurangi rumah tangga miskin bukanlah dengan program dan kebijakan yang terpisah dari penyebab kemiskinan. Program yang terpisah tersebut akan membuat kemiskinan baru karena program tersebut tidak menyasar pengurangan kemiskinan.

scholarly journals The impacts of livestock diseases and their control on growth and development processes that are pro-poor

2009 ◽  
Vol 364 (1530) ◽  
pp. 2643-2655 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Perry ◽  
Delia Grace
Keyword(s):  
Disease Control ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Current Model ◽  
Animal Health ◽  
Global Poverty ◽  
Livestock Disease ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Livestock Diseases

Poverty is now at the heart of development discourse; we discuss how it is measured and understood. We next consider the negative and positive impacts of livestock on pro-poor development. Taking a value-chain approach that includes keepers, users and eaters of livestock, we identify diseases that are road blocks on the ‘three livestock pathways out of poverty’. We discuss livestock impacts on poverty reduction and review attempts to prioritize the livestock diseases relevant to the poor. We make suggestions for metrics that better measure disease impact and show the benefits of more rigorous evaluation before reviewing recent attempts to measure the importance of disease to the poor. High impact of a disease does not guarantee high benefits from its control; other factors must be taken into consideration, including technical feasibility and political desirability. We conclude by considering how we might better understand and exploit the roles of livestock and improved animal health by posing three speculative questions on the impact of livestock diseases and their control on global poverty: how can understanding livestock and poverty links help disease control?; if global poverty reduction was the aim of livestock disease control, how would it differ from the current model?; and how much of the impact of livestock disease on poverty is due to disease control policy rather than disease itself?

scholarly journals Poverty and Responsibility in a Globalized World

2003 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Regina Kreide
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Global Poverty ◽  
Current State ◽  
The Poor ◽  
International Regulations ◽  
Causal Approach ◽  
Asset Distribution ◽  
Globalized World ◽  
Causes Of Poverty

AbstractThis article seeks to explain some of the ramifications of globalization processes for the pressing problem of increasing global poverty. It distinguishes two competing approaches to explaining the causes of poverty-related injustice and justifying conceptions of obligations towards the poor. A first approach, the assistance approach, is mainly directed at identifying inappropriate worldwide income and asset distribution; the other, the causal approach focuses on the effects international regulations have on people’s lives. This article explains that both approaches depend on the interpretation of the current state of economic and political interdependence. It is argued that both conceptions have their pitfalls, but that from a theoretical as well as pragmatic point of view, it makes sense to defend an ‘integrated’ perspective that also takes into account the responsibility of non-state actors.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henk W. de Regt
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
History Of Science ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Scientific Understanding ◽  
Related Question ◽  
History Of ◽  
Human Desire ◽  
Exciting Project ◽  
Understanding Science ◽  
The Way

This chapter introduces the theme of the book: scientific understanding. Science is arguably the most successful product of the human desire for understanding. Reflection on the nature of scientific understanding is an important and exciting project for philosophers of science, as well as for scientists and interested laypeople. As a first illustration of this, the chapter sketches an episode from the history of science in which discussions about understanding played a crucial role: the genesis of quantum mechanics in the 1920s, and the heated debates about the intelligibility of this theory and the related question of whether it can provide understanding. This case shows that standards of intelligibility of scientists can vary strongly. Furthermore, the chapter outlines and defends the way in which this study approaches its subject, differing essentially from mainstream philosophical discussions of explanatory understanding. It concludes with an overview of the contents of the book.

Private Agricultural R&D: Do the Poor Benefit?

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jock R. Anderson ◽  
Regina Birner ◽  
Latha Najarajan ◽  
Anwar Naseem ◽  
Carl E. Pray
Keyword(s):  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Agricultural Research ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Agricultural Technologies ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The World ◽  
Agricultural Research And Development ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Private agricultural research and development can foster the growth of agricultural productivity in the diverse farming systems of the developing world comparable to the public sector. We examine the extent to which technologies developed by private entities reach smallholder and resource-poor farmers, and the impact they have on poverty reduction. We critically review cases of successfully deployed improved agricultural technologies delivered by the private sector in both large and small developing countries for instructive lessons for policy makers around the world.

The “Unspeakable Blessing”: Street Children, Reform Rhetoric, and Misery in Early Industrial Capitalism

1983 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 303-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce Bellingham
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Annual Report ◽  
Street Children ◽  
Industrial Capitalism ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Insurmountable Obstacle ◽  
The City ◽  
The Way

… surely there would be men enough, willing and glad to contribute to the regeneration of the poor outcasts of the city. It is no longer an experiment since the Children's Aid has removed of this class, in thirteen years, eleven thousand two hundred and seventy two! Who would not rejoice to aid in such an enterprise…? Money only is wanting. Shall that be an insurmountable obstacle in the way of accomplishing such an unspeakable blessing? New York Children's Aid Society, 1866 Annual Report

Assessing the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) program as a conditional income transfer: a search for a conceptual framework

2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alhassan Abdul-Wakeel Karakara ◽  
Ernest Amoabeng Ortsin
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Insurance Coverage ◽  
Implementation Strategies ◽  
Cash Transfer ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Transfer Program ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Poor

Purpose Ghana has implemented different kinds of pro-poor program and policies since its independence to reduce poverty. The Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) is one of such program. LEAP is a social cash transfer program and its implementation has been under the auspices of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection since 2008. It provides direct cash and health insurance coverage for extremely poor households across the country to alleviate short-term poverty and encourage long-term human capital development. This paper examines the LEAP program in terms of how it has achieved its aim and the opportunities for improvement.Design/methodology/approach Primary data were obtained from interviews of 110 beneficiaries of the program. The study proposes a conceptual framework that links poverty reduction and social policies to assist researchers analyze pro-poor or social cash transfer program.Findings The findings show that the program is challenged with administrative bureaucracies, irregular inflow of funds, perceived political interferences, inconsistent implementation strategies and low value of the cash transfer (which results in little or no impact on consumption). However, the data also show that LEAP has positive impacts on nonconsumption spending like children's schooling. The program' exit strategy does not impact much on beneficiaries to allow them exit without the tendency of being poor.Practical implications This paper discussed the LEAP program as a social cash transfer to the poor in Ghana. The study constructed a conceptual framework to help researchers and practitioners analyze the implementation of pro-poor interventions. This conceptualization allows for cash transfer program to empower beneficiaries and exits them to allow for other beneficiaries to enroll, ensuring reduction in poverty over time. Generally, the beneficiaries have benefited from the LEAP in the areas of consumption, education and healthcare with few beneficiaries being able to accumulate some few assets. The LEAP program has no exit plan.Originality/value This study adds to literature by offering a conceptual framework to help researchers and policy makers in dealing with social assistance policies to the poor. The study also gave an insight into how pro-poor policy strategies could be crafted.

SOCIO-ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN THROUGH MICRO CREDIT: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

2021 ◽  
pp. 58-60
Author(s):  
T. Indumathi ◽  
G. Savaraiah
Keyword(s):  
Rural Women ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Rural Poverty ◽  
Poverty Line ◽  
Economic Empowerment ◽  
Political Empowerment ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Micro Credit

The World Bank's Andhra Pradesh Rural Poverty Reduction Project supports the self helf groups of the women members. It promotes women's social, economic, legal and political empowerment to reduce poverty among the poor and the poorest of the poor. The important object of this article is to examine the impact of micronance on the socio economic empowerment of the rural women supported by the national reputed NGO- Rashtriya Seva Samithi (RASS). 184 women members of the SHGs promoted by Rasthriya Seva Samathi (RASS) an NGO which located in Tirupati town. 184 samples are selected randomly from 15 SHGs scattered throughout the Tirupati rural mandal (Taluk) from the area of the study have been considered to conduct the present research study. The study reveals that 87.71 percent of the sample women were below the poverty line before joining the SHGs. As a result of SHG, about 40 percent of the sample women crossed the poverty line. The highest intensive value indicates that more women have participated in social agitations for the welfare of the children and the society. The second highest intensity reveals that considerable numbers of women of SHGs have participated in the government sponsored schemes. The 1st point secured 3rd rank with total intensity value of 605 which status that the micro credit has resulted in increased social status and empowerment.

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