Chronic Poverty Research Centre

CPRC Research Theme 2: Empirical approaches to the study of poverty dynamics and economic mobility

• Introduction to the theme
• Key CPRC publications
• Contacts

Introduction to the theme

Longitudinal studies typically distinguish between poverty dynamics in the short term, and economic and social mobility in the longer-term.  

• Poverty dynamics relates to intra- or inter-annual changes in welfare, that cause individuals or households to cross a fixed but essentially arbitrary poverty line from one time period to the next.
• Economic mobility refers to the longer-term process, usually taking decades, via which individuals or households change their relative positions in the entire welfare distribution.

The Poverty Dynamics research programme focuses on the exploration of these concepts, and those of chronic poverty developed by the Centre, through empirical studies. The theme’s twin aims are to:

• To better understand the economic and social process that shape poverty dynamics (in both monetary and non-monetary terms) and their implications for anti-poverty policy
• To develop new approaches to the study of poverty dynamics using integrated and sequenced qualitative and quantitative methods

This work involves both the analysis of panel data, and the use of sociological and anthropological approaches, notably life histories. In particular, we want to push the boundaries of “Q2” research by developing an integrated and sequenced approach which merges large N quantitative resurveys with medium N qualitative methods. We hope this approach will push the analysis of poverty dynamics beyond correlates and characteristics to deeper understandings of the economic, social and political processes that shape patterns of deprivation and well-being.

The research strategy involves developing and field testing an integrated Q2 approach: work on this has been undertaken in Bangladesh. We will also exploit existing long-term panel datasets to study chronic poverty, paying careful attention to problems of tracking and attrition, and issues of social difference and non-monetary welfare indicators. The theme's key question are:

• what causes households to become poor, stay poor or escape poverty?
• What impact have particular policy interventions (e.g. microcredit in Bangladesh) had on poverty dynamics and long-term welfare in the countries studied?

Results should yield important insights into questions of interest to policymakers, academics and others.

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Key CPRC publications

Working papers - general

McKay, A. and Lawson, D. (2003) Chronic poverty: a review of current quantitative evidence, CPRC Working Paper 15

McKay, A. Baulch, B., with Hisarciklilar, M. and Lawson, D. (2004) 'How many chronically poor people are there in the world? Some preliminary estimates’  CPRC Working Paper 45.

Davis, P. (2007) ‘Discussions with the poor: exploring poverty dynamics with focus group discussion in Bangladesh’, CPRC Working Paper No. 84

Osmani, S. R. (2007) When endowments and opportunities don’t match: Understanding chronic poverty, CPRC Working Paper 78.

Panel data - working papers

Badiani, R., Dercon, S., Krishnan, P. and Rao, K. P. C. (2007) Changes in living standards in villages in India 1975-2004. Revisiting the ICRISAT village level studies, CPRC Working Paper 85.

Bhatta, S. and Sharma, S. (2006) ‘The determinants and consequences of chronic and transitory poverty in Nepal’, CPRC Working Paper No. 66

Baulch, B. and Massett, E. (2003) Do Monetary and Non-Monetary Indicators tell the same story about chronic poverty?  A study of Vietnam in the 1990s, CPRC Working Paper 17.

May, J. and Ingrid Woolard, I. (2007) ‘Poverty traps and structural poverty in South Africa; reassessing the evidence from Kwazulu-Natal’ CPRC Working Paper No 82

Bhide, S. and Mehta, A. K. (2006) Tackling Poverty through Panel Data: Rural Poverty in India 1970-1998, CPRC-IIPA Working Paper 28.

Okidi, J. and McKay, A. (2004) Poverty Dynamics in Uganda: 1992-2000, CPRC Working Paper 27.

Zulfiqar, A., Begum, S., Shahabuddin, Q. and Khan, M. (2006) Rural Poverty Dynamics 2005/2006: Evidence from 64-Village Census Plus, PRCPB Working Paper 17.

Panel data - conference papers

Grimm, M. and Gräb, J. (2006) Robust Multi-Period Comparisons, paper presented to the conference “Concepts and methods for analysing poverty dynamics and chronic poverty”, Manchester, October 2006.

Baulch, B. and Davis, P. (2007)  ‘Poverty dynamics and life trajectories in rural Bangladesh’, paper presented to “Wellbeing in Development” Conference at Bath University, June 2007, and “Q2 in Policy” Conference in Hanoi, July 2007.

Q2 - working paper

Lawson, D., McKay, A. and Okidi, J. (2003) Poverty Persistence and Transitions in Uganda: A Combined Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis, CPRC Working Paper 38.

Life histories - working papers

Hulme, D. (2003) Thinking ‘small’ and the understanding of poverty: Maymana and Mofizul’s story, CPRC Working Paper 22.

Bird, K. and Shinyekwa, I. (2003) Multiple shocks and downward mobility: learning from the life histories of rural Ugandans, CPRC Working Paper 36.

Davis, P. (2006) Poverty in time: Exploring poverty dynamics from life history interviews in Bangladesh, CPRC Working Paper 69.

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Contacts

Bob Baulch, Theme Coordinator,
Empirical approaches to the study of poverty dynamics and economic mobility

Tel 44 (0)1273 678774

Institute of Development Studies
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9RE
UNITED KINGDOM

44 (0)1273 621202 (Fax)
44 (0)1273 691647 (Fax)
44 (0)1273 678774 (Tel)

 www.ids.ac.uk

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