New working paper with @AmolRaswan and Chris Udry: "The Sisyphean Pursuit of Evidence for Poverty Traps."

A central idea in development economics is that poverty can trap people. We went looking for the cleanest evidence. Here's what we found – and didn't. The "poverty trap" idea: there's some level of wealth where, below it, you keep sliding back; above it, you keep rising. A tipping point. Push someone over it, and life changes. Stay below, and you're stuck no matter how hard you work.