Poverty and Cognitive Function

Abstract

Economic growth has lifted billions out of poverty in the span of a few generations.Despite these positive trends, poverty remains entrenched for millions around the globe.One long-standing explanation for poverty's persistence is the possibility of poverty traps, or self-reinforcing cycles of poverty.Theoretical models of such poverty traps-often centered on nutrition in the earliest cases-have been central in the development literature for over half a century (Leibenstein 1957;Mirrlees 1975;Stiglitz 1976;Bliss and Stern 1978;Dasgupta and Ray 1986).This literature has expanded in many directions to consider the varying potential underlying forces such as geographic characteristics, pecuniary externalities, and even cultural forces, as well as both theoretical and policy implications of such traps, ranging from intergenerational transmission of poverty to equilibrium unemployment (Jalan and Ravallion 2002;Sachs 2005;