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We estimate the effect of spending on festivities on various economic outcomes in an IV framework. The estimates show that ceremonial spending causes reduction in food expenditure. Households with higher spending on festivities are more likely to borrow money. Moreover, children are more likely to miss school in such households. One possible explanation for ceremonial expenditure despite its high economic cost is reliance on informal networks. Using the control function approach, we show that ceremonial spending is the means to maintain these networks. Moreover, ceremonial spending reduces the household's income variation. This suggests that these networks may serve the role of informal insurance. We also distinguish between events that are intertemporarily flexible (such as weddings) and intertemporarily inflexible (such as funerals). Intertemporarily inflexible ceremonial spending is less income elastic and thus may present the biggest financial stress to households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As Indonesia enters the post-pandemic world, it faces high uncertainty, especially in terms of access to basic education. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS), the education sector grew by 0.42%, the second-lowest of all sectors. However, its contribution to economic growth was the highest at 3.02%, surpassing six other sectors with higher growth. Despite this potential, access to education remains low. This research aimed to examine the role of access to basic education in alleviating poverty in Indonesia with the social progress perspective. The analytical framework for this research was based on the approach of Amartya Sen, who view poverty as capability deprivation. This research used educational data from BPS in 2022 from 34 provinces in Indonesia. The data were used to construct a social progress index, which measures access to basic education. The index was developed using nine indicators, namely primary school enrolment, secondary school attainment, population with no schooling, gender parity in secondary attainment, teacher-student ratio, teacher qualification, school proportion, classroom condition, and availability of water and sanitation. The index of access to basic education was then regressed along with other variables that are relevant to capability deprivation, as proposed by Hick. These variables include the Happiness Index, Democracy Index, Level of Health Inequality, and Crime Rate. The results indicated that all these variables had a significant impact on the poverty level. Among all the variables, access to basic education demonstrated the greatest influence compared to the other four variables. This suggests that access to basic education plays a critical role in poverty reduction. The research findings highlight the potential of using the Social Progress Index as a comprehensive metric for development, which offers a more inclusive understanding of progress. This index encompasses a broad framework comprising 60 indicators, and does not rely solely on GDP measurements.

In this study, we introduce an experimental approach to study the causal impact of trust on economic performance. We ask if trust can serve as a coordination device to help poor economies escape a poverty trap and, if so, whether such an impact is universal regardless of their initial levels of development. We follow Lei and Noussair (2002, 2007) and design a decentralized market economy that has the structure of an optimal growth model where output is allocated between consumption and saving over a sequence of periods. As in Lei and Noussair (2007), a threshold externality is introduced to generate two equilibria where the Pareto-inferior equilibrium is considered as a poverty trap. We find that trust matters in that it is more likely for high-trust economies, generated with an endogenous matching procedure, to escape the poverty trap. But we also find that the likelihood to escape depends partially on the initial endowment condition. Trust has a much weaker impact on the economies whose initial capital and output are below the Pareto-inferior equilibrium, suggesting that formal institutions and/or policy measures may be needed to engineer a "big push" for these least developed economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Informacion Comercial Espanola Revista de Economia is the property of S.G.E.E.I.P.C., Secretaria de Estado de Comercio, Ministerio de Industria, Comercio y Turismo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

China's approach to addressing rural poverty has evolved from a thorough resolution of absolute poverty to a focus on providing essential support for vulnerable individuals and improving the income and welfare conditions of those who are relatively poor, taking into account multiple dimensions. This study utilizes a dataset consisting of 526 research sets collected from the central region of Shaanxi Province. The research employs structural equation modeling to examine the fractal multidimensional relative poverty trap experienced by farm households. Additionally, the study investigates the behavior motivation mechanism that can potentially alleviate the multidimensional relative poverty trap at the farm household level. The study found that (1) farm households in the central Shaanxi region are caught in a multidimensional relative poverty trap, with education poverty and health poverty having a conduction and amplification effect; health poverty and education poverty amplify employment poverty; and consumption poverty amplifies education poverty and health poverty, and education poverty further amplifies information poverty. (2) Multidimensional relative poverty in farming households creates a self-reinforcing poverty trap, and community relative poverty amplifies the multidimensional poverty trap in farming households. (3) Farmers can overcome the multidimensional relative poverty trap through the behavior motivation mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Breaking the "poverty trap" has gradually become the core topic of economic research. The transformation and upgrading of industrial structure is considered an essential means to break the "poverty trap". How to use the digital economy effect to change the allocation of capital and labor factors and realize the transformation and upgrading of industrial structure is a significant issue in this paper. The study focuses on examining the development of China's digital economy between 2013 and 2021, uses the entropy method to measure it, and conducts an empirical study through a fixed-effects model and an intermediary-effect model to investigate the influence and mechanism of the digital economy on industrial structure transformation and upgrading. The results indicate the following: Firstly, the digital economy plays a crucial role in facilitating the transformation and upgrading of industrial structure, and this conclusion was still robust even after controlling for a series of factors affecting the transformation and upgrading of industrial structure and correcting the endogenous estimation deviation by using instrumental variables. Secondly, through the heterogeneity analysis of regions with different economic development levels, it was found that compared with economically developed regions, economically backward regions need to pay more attention to the development of the digital economy. Thirdly, the examination of the mechanism revealed that the digital economy has realized the transformation and upgrading of industrial structure by optimizing the allocation of capital and labor. In this paper, Schumpeter's innovation theory is regarded as a new perspective to break the "poverty trap" and realize the transformation and upgrading of industrial structure, filling the gap in related research in this field. This study provides a suggestion for economically backward areas to break the "poverty trap" and provides theoretical support and practical guidance for the sustained economic growth of the whole country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the nexus between foreign aid (in both forms: grant and loan), poverty trap, and economic development in a recipient country by using a Solow model with two new ingredients: a development loan and a fixed cost in the production process. The presence of this fixed cost generates a poverty trap. We show that foreign aid may help the country to escape from the poverty trap and converge to a stable steady state in the long run, but only if (i) the country's characteristics, such as saving rate, initial capital, governance quality, and productivity are good enough, (ii) the fixed cost is relatively low, and (iii) the loan rule is generous enough. We also show that our model with foreign aid has room for endogenous cycles, unlike the standard Solow model. • We investigate the effects of foreign aid (in both forms: grant and loan) on the recipient country's economic dynamics by using a model à la Solow (with two new ingredients: a fixed cost and a foreign aid). • A fixed cost in the production process may generate a poverty trap. • Foreign aid may help the country to escape from the poverty trap and converge to a stable steady state, but only if (i) the country's characteristics are good enough, (ii) the fixed cost is relatively low, and (iii) the loans rule is generous enough. • Unlike the standard Solow model, there is room for endogenous cycles in our model with foreign aid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The infection rate of COVID-19 has forced many households into economic hardship when poverty strikes, women are the most affected. In rural areas, the beginning of the poverty trap is economic difficulties in addition to reduced arable land. The research was conducted in Girikerto Kapanewon Turi District, women in the research areas experience increasingly complicated poverty traps. This study aims to find out the social conditions and economic conditions of women during COVID-19, the second objective is to find out the efforts made by women to escape from household poverty during the COVID-19 pandemic, and third to find out how women find alternative social and economic activities during COVID-19. To examine primary and secondary data related to demographics, descriptive quantitative data analysis is essential. Frequency tables are utilized to describe the distribution and pattern of features of particular variables. The demographic characteristics of women in the research region are dominated by their productive age, high school/vocational education, their status as housewives, and their employment in agriculture. The result show women can still meet their food needs from their limited agricultural land. The poverty trap experienced by women is the difficulty in fulfilling household needs other than food such as the cost of educating children, the health of household members, and transportation. Women manage household finances by tightening the fulfillment of household needs, even women have to sacrifice setting aside the fulfillment of their own needs in order to meet the minimum household needs. Women to get out of the poverty trap take advantage of social relations, family ties, and government assistance, even when women have access to look for alternative income, women try to find additional income by working modestly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Economic Science / Jingji Kexue is the property of Economic Science Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Conservation agriculture-based sustainable intensification (CASI) is gaining prominence as an agricultural pathway to poverty reduction and enhancement of sustainable food systems among government and development actors in the Eastern Gangetic Plains (EGP) of South Asia. Despite substantial investment in research and extension programs and a growing understanding of the agronomic, economic and labor-saving benefits of CASI, uptake remains limited. This study explores farmer experiences and perspectives to establish why farmers choose not to implement CASI systems despite a strong body of recent scientific evidence establishing the benefits of them doing so. Through thematic coding of semi-structured interviews, key constraints are identified, which establishes a narrative that current households' resources are insufficient to enable practice change, alongside limited supporting structures for resource supplementation. Such issues create a dependency on subsidies and outside support, a situation that is likely to impact any farming system change given the low-risk profiles of farmers and their limited resource base. This paper hence sets out broad implications for creating change in smallholder farming systems in order to promote the adoption of sustainable agricultural technologies in resource-poor smallholder contexts, especially with regard to breaking the profound poverty cycles that smallholder farmers find themselves in and which are unlikely to be broken by the current set of technologies promoted to them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China’s approach to addressing rural poverty has evolved from a thorough resolution of absolute poverty to a focus on providing essential support for vulnerable individuals and improving the income and welfare conditions of those who are relatively poor, taking into account multiple dimensions. This study utilizes a dataset consisting of 526 research sets collected from the central region of Shaanxi Province. The research employs structural equation modeling to examine the fractal multidimensional relative poverty trap experienced by farm households. Additionally, the study investigates the behavior motivation mechanism that can potentially alleviate the multidimensional relative poverty trap at the farm household level. The study found that (1) farm households in the central Shaanxi region are caught in a multidimensional relative poverty trap, with education poverty and health poverty having a conduction and amplification effect; health poverty and education poverty amplify employment poverty; and consumption poverty amplifies education poverty and health poverty, and education poverty further amplifies information poverty. (2) Multidimensional relative poverty in farming households creates a self-reinforcing poverty trap, and community relative poverty amplifies the multidimensional poverty trap in farming households. (3) Farmers can overcome the multidimensional relative poverty trap through the behavior motivation mechanism.

Urban livelihoods in Zimbabwe were heavily impacted by the emergence of COVID-19 which was accompanied by several lockdown measures which suffocated the livelihood strategies among the low-income group of the economy. This situation is more pronounced in the high-density suburbs where most female breadwinners are employed in the informal sector. COVID-19-induced lockdowns aggravated the potential of small-scale female entrepreneurial projects to cushion the affected families, forcing them to skip meals, default on rental and user fees payment to the city council as well as fail to meet medical bills among other livelihood outcomes. Using the sustainable livelihood framework, this study foregrounds that the advent of COVID-19 in Marondera urban stifled the sustainability of female entrepreneurial projects. Amongst the 12 respondents who were purposively selected to participate in this study, findings reveal that 80% of the projects collapsed due COVID-19 restrictions. The study therefore recommends that the government and other non-state actors should introduce safety net measures to enable the affected entrepreneurs to recover their lost income.

This study investigates the effect of parental aspirations gap on children's educational attainment between 2007 and 2014, using two waves of Indonesian Family Life Survey data. The aspirations gap is measured by the difference between one's future reference point and his or her current life evaluation reported by each household head and spouse. The results show that boys whose fathers report a moderate level of the aspirations gap achieve substantially longer schooling years than the mean level of their same age cohort. Furthermore, the relationship is found to be inversely U-shaped, implying that an excessive aspirations gap discourages investment in children's human capital. An increasing aspirations gap of parents is also found to impede the educational attainment of children in poor families, which are more vulnerable to shocks that are found to increase the gap. Overall, the results of this paper shed light on the role of parental aspirations gap in the link between socioeconomic status of family and educational outcomes of children in Indonesia, where the gap of the poor is found to increase faster than the rich. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Modern Economic Science is the property of Modern Economic Science Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper investigates how the presence of social capital affects the externality arising from status‐seeking preference as a parable for inefficient antagonistic behavior. It is assumed that the stock of social capital accumulates through the strategic interaction among a finite number of rational, infinitely‐lived individuals. Using a differential game, we show that there are two types of Markov perfect equilibrium strategy, of which one leads a society to zero social capital, while the other leads to the satiation level of social capital. When there is an unstable interior steady state, there is a threshold: with any initial stock of social capital above (below) that, society is able to build social capital (get stuck in a poverty trap of null social capital). In the latter case, the intervention of governments is called upon, because social welfare in the poverty trap is less than that in the social capital‐rich society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes a multi-level approach to gain a better understanding of (tourism) gentrification and tourism excesses in three popular tourist neighbourhoods in Valencia, Spain. This city radically changed tourism policies in 2015, from a top-down approach that was focused on economic growth, towards one in which localhood and community development are stimulated. However, the change has done little to mitigate issues related to high levels of gentrification and touristification. This issue has been investigated using adaptive cycles and panarchy as a framework. Using these concepts has helped clarify how current policies mainly stimulate bottom-up innovations to overcome the lack of creative capacity at the local level (in other words, the 'poverty trap'). Yet they insufficiently address processes that relate to the worldviews and higher governance levels that contribute to maintaining the current economic growth-oriented tourism ecosystem (the 'rigidity trap'). The implications of our findings and ways forward conclude the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electricity access and affordability are critical for sustainable development. A significant global population without access to electricity is in the rural communities of developing countries. Rural grid investments are unattractive to investors due to low electricity demand and poverty of rural consumers. This paper assessed the financial capacity of rural dwellers to pay for electricity installation. The results reveal that rural consumers can barely pay for electricity. We propose a paradigm shift and alternative grid design models that recognize the various economic and social status of rural consumers. One suggested model proposes using agricultural production to drive social inclusion and economic sustainability of microgrid investments. • Rural electricity access was studied in developing economies. • Economic sustainability of rural grids was assessed. • Rural grid investments are unattractive to investors due to low electricity demand poverty on the part of rural consumers. • Alternative models were proposed for social inclusion and economic sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay reviews the concept of, and the evidence pertaining to poverty traps and the 'big push'. Poverty traps have been a part of developmental literature for a considerable amount of time. They have also inspired researchers to investigate their existence through empirical work. However, policy discussions seem quite divorced from these developments. A common argument made in the essay is that poverty traps are not as simple and easy to solve due to conflicting evidence and importance of contextualization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After decades of rapid economic growth and massive rural-to-urban migration, rural poverty in China has been largely alleviated. Existing literature has highlighted the crucial role played by non-farm employment in the rural population's escape from poverty. However, despite some engagement in non-farm employment, a huge population in rural China remains poor. Why rural households remain poor in spite of non-farm employment has not been sufficiently explored by scholars. To fill the research gap, this paper explores the underlying mechanisms of poverty among the poor rural population, based on a recent questionnaire survey (n = 2,822) conducted in rural North Jiangsu in China. Our multinomial logistic regression model and OLS regression model show that education is positively associated with the likelihood of engaging in non-farm sectors. Relatively low education attainment of working-age household members (secondary education and below) restricted the earnings from non-farm activities, reducing the likelihood of escaping poverty. Supporting higher education for their children is often a heavy burden for poor non-agricultural rural households, driving them into the poverty trap. The results also show that significant family events, such as severe illness and children's college enrollment, have kept rural households poor, even if some household members have participated in non-farm activities through migration or working in the local non-rural sector. In addition, instead of being looked after, some apparently dependent family members (the elderly) undertake agricultural activities and domestic work to support the out-migration of the labor force in poor rural households to enable household wealth accumulation. The findings suggest that policymakers should implement a series of reforms, especially regarding improvement in health insurance and education and the economic development in the local areas (incl. rural areas and nearby towns) to deal with rural poverty. • Identify features of poor rural households who choose to escape the poverty trap through non-agricultural work. • Education investment may be insufficient for escaping the poverty trap if the education of the household workforce remains low. • Dependent family members at home contribute to improving the discretionary incomes of poor rural households. • Illness and college study prohibite poor rural households from taking non-agricultural work to escape poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban livelihoods in Zimbabwe were heavily impacted by the emergence of COVID-19 which was accompanied by several lockdown measures which suffocated the livelihood strategies among the low-income group of the economy. This situation is more pronounced in the high-density suburbs where most female breadwinners are employed in the informal sector. COVID-19-induced lockdowns aggravated the potential of small-scale female entrepreneurial projects to cushion the affected families, forcing them to skip meals, default on rental and user fees payment to the city council as well as fail to meet medical bills among other livelihood outcomes. Using the sustainable livelihood framework, this study foregrounds that the advent of COVID-19 in Marondera urban stifled the sustainability of female entrepreneurial projects. Amongst the 12 respondents who were purposively selected to participate in this study, findings reveal that 80% of the projects collapsed due COVID-19 restrictions. The study therefore recommends that the government and other non-state actors should introduce safety net measures to enable the affected entrepreneurs to recover their lost income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the extent to which child labor perpetuates the cycle of household poverty, as well as food insecurity using the sixth round of the Ghana Living Standards Survey. The study employs a counterfactual framework and an endogenous treatment effect econometric technique to accurately examine the causal link between child labor and long-term household poverty and food security. Results suggest a positive relationship between early paid work and long-term poverty and food insecurity. This finding provides empirical evidence to indicate that child labor has the potential to create and perpetuate poverty traps. From a policy perspective, findings from this study also contribute to the modern policy debates surrounding the achievement of the sustainable development goals on reducing poverty and hunger in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Performing a dramatic act of religious devotion, creating an art exhibit, or releasing a new product are all examples of public acts that signal quality and contribute to building a reputation. Signalling theory predicts that these public displays can reliably reveal quality. However, data from ethnographic work in South India suggests that more prominent individuals gain more from reputation-building religious acts than more marginalized individuals. To understand this phenomenon, we extend signalling theory to include variation in people's social prominence or social capital, first with an analytical model and then with an agent-based model. We consider two ways in which social prominence/capital may alter signalling: (i) it impacts observers' priors, and (ii) it alters the signallers' pay-offs. These two mechanisms can result in both a 'reputational shield,' where low quality individuals are able to 'pass' as high quality thanks to their greater social prominence/capital, and a 'reputational poverty trap,' where high quality individuals are unable to improve their standing owing to a lack of social prominence/capital. These findings bridge the signalling theory tradition prominent in behavioural ecology, anthropology and economics with the work on status hierarchies in sociology, and shed light on the complex ways in which individuals make inferences about others. This article is part of the theme issue 'The language of cooperation: reputation and honest signalling'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the impact of health human capital on the poverty trap in Sub-Saharan Africa by autoregressive distribution lag model. In the long run, there is no evidence that health human capital can help the Sahara out of the poverty trap. While health human capital has a significant effect on poverty reduction in the short term. There is a threshold effect in the poverty reduction model of healthy human capital. When the economic development level reaches the threshold, the effect of poverty reduction is more obvious and deeper. The extended Solow economic growth model also proved that if the external human capital breaks through the threshold, it can make developing countries get rid of the poverty trap. Therefore, the economic development brought about by health care expenditure must benefit the poor in Sub-Saharan Africa and allow them to enjoy the welfare of social security.

Globally, 152 million children are involved in economic activities. Poverty is the main cause of child labor, and the lack of social norms and inadequate legal systems are contributing factors. In order to understand the cause of child labor and provide appropriate assistance, this paper focuses on the accumulation of human capital and social capital. The first part of the paper shows that, historically, child labor has been highly dependent on the initial endowments of human capital and social capital. We also show that the condition of bifurcation from an identical initial condition depends on the productivity derived from social capital. The second part of the paper examines the effect of development aid in recipient countries, particularly the effect of two types of programs that attempt to eliminate child labor and provide support to strengthen social capital. We show that both programs are effective at making the economy better off. However, large amounts of development aid for the program that strengthens social capital can make the economy of middle‐income countries worse off. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a simple theoretical dual economy model to study the dynamics of an economy in which individuals move out of a poverty trap. These dynamics are characterized by growth acceleration. This model implies that poverty reduction could, under some circumstances, cause growth, rather than the other way around. We define a measurement of the growth impulse that could be triggered by independent exits from poverty and correlate it with observed growth ccelerations. This correlation is both positive and significant, and it passes various robustness checks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a large literature, empirical evidence on multiple‐equilibria poverty traps remains elusive. Current empirical methods estimate average welfare‐dynamics, which masks inherent heterogeneity across households. We develop an alternative approach that allows welfare‐dynamics to differ across the household wealth distribution. Drawing on the literature on regression discontinuity designs, we propose a new statistical test for detecting multiple‐equilibria and poverty traps. We demonstrate the approach using panel data on over 6000 rural households in India. Our application contributes to the economic development literature by examining poverty within caste, the main source of social stratification in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Pretexto is the property of Revista Pretexto and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Ecological vulnerability and poverty are interrelated and must be addressed together. The resolution of this issue will help us to meet the challenges during the process of implementing concrete actions for realizing the 2030 UN sustainable development goals (SDGs). Ecological restoration projects (ERPs) can enhance ecosystem services (ESs) while providing policy support for improving people's livelihoods. However, processes and mechanisms of ERPs on the ecological environment and socioeconomic development in poverty-stricken and ecologically fragile areas have rarely been studied. To address these issues, we conducted a comparative analysis on the changes of land use and land cover (LULC), ecosystem services (ESs), and socioeconomic development in Bijie City, a karst rocky desertification area in southwest China, before and after the implementation of ERPs in 2000, as well as the complex relationship between these factors. ERPs have affected LULCs, ESs, socioeconomics, and poverty reduction significantly since 2000. Specifically, the total ecosystem service value (ESV) in the study area has increased by more than 3 times in the past 30 years, with the ESV of tourism services and carbon storage increasing the most, from CNY 0.001 and 337.07 billion in 1990 to CNY 11.07 and 108.97 billion in 2019, respectively. The correlation between ESs is mainly synergistic, while the tradeoff between carbon storage and water yield is in a fluctuating upward trend. LULC conversion of cropland to green, and cropland to water, wetland and shrubs has positive effects on carbon storage and water yield, respectively. During study period, GDP, urbanization increased by over 70 times, 5 times, respectively, whereas poverty population, poverty incidence, and employment rate of various sectors (i.e., agriculture, forest, animal, and fishery, or AFAF) decreased by 96.4%, 97.7%, and 18.24%, respectively. Our findings emphasized that ERPs can effectively help poor and ecologically fragile areas to get out of the poverty trap and achieve the "win-win" goals of ecological and socio-economic sustainable development. These results have profound environmental management references to China and other developing countries around the world in realizing ecological restoration, poverty reduction, and the SDGs. [Display omitted] • Ecological restoration projects (ERPs) break the regional "Poverty Trap". • ESs increased by 90% since 2000 with ecotourism income increased the most from 0.12 to 110.7 billion. • Poverty population and incidence rate of poverty dropped by more than 90%. • The correlation between ESs in the study area are mainly synergistic. • ERP and economic factors significantly affect ES changes and poverty reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty is a challenge faced by all countries across the world. How to effectively reduce poverty has always been an issue of scholars and governments, and understanding poverty traps and the causes is the basis for understanding poverty governance. Current research has no longer only attributed poverty to "lack of capital formation," but put more emphasis on the significance of spatial factors. By using China's county‐level large sample panel data, this paper identifies poverty traps in rural China from three dimensions: aggregation, persistence and reinforcement. Research in this paper shows that from 2006 to 2015, there was nearly no change in spatial pattern of poverty in rural China, and the spatial distribution of poverty is not synchronised with economic growth. Distribution of poverty‐stricken counties is mainly related to topographic factors (slope and elevation). In addition, rural poverty in China is persistent, and there is not only a low‐level equilibrium of income in poverty‐stricken counties, but also a "club convergence" of income between poverty‐stricken and non‐poverty counties. Further research has also found that income in poverty‐stricken counties has a "spatial spillover" effect, so poverty also manifests itself as spatial self‐reinforcement. Research in this paper reveals the relationship between spatial externalities and rural poverty. It not only provides empirical evidence for correctly assessing the relationship between development and poverty, it also offers support for reasonably formulating a regional anti‐poverty targeting mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background In countries with out-of-pocket (OOP) payment systems for healthcare, the combination of chronic disease and poverty can have damaging socio-economic and health impacts for affected households. Using a life course perspective, this article aims to explore how Nepalese people struggle with, experience and adapt to chronic disease, poverty and their consequences, and how chronic diseases and poverty reinforce each other. Methods In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 chronically ill Nepalese people with one or more chronic diseases and/or their caretakers. Data were transcribed and analysed thematically. Results The adaptation strategies for the consequences of the huge OOP costs make patients and their households financially disadvantaged. The impoverishment has major social impacts and often persists across generations. The situation forces people to choose between avoiding medical treatment or further impoverishing their families. Conclusions This study explored how chronically ill Nepalese people struggle with socio-economic and health consequences of OOP payments for their disease. The article sheds light on circumstances and adaptation strategies that obstruct every attempt to escape from the vicious cycle of the poverty trap. Hence poverty and health adversities accumulate across generations and contribute to greater health expenditures, worse health outcomes and severely compromised social life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty alleviation for smallholders must consider the increasingly varied and intertwined impacts of climate change and globalization. This calls for a resilience perspective that includes eradication of poverty and resilience enhancement under extreme events and shocks. Applying the framework of development resilience, we constructed an agent-based model based on small farming households in the Amazon Delta region in Brazil, and we used it to identify pathways out of poverty and sources for resilience among these households. The model allows us to explore the nonlinearity and heterogeneous nature of the smallholder livelihood systems, including how different household characteristics and livelihood strategies contribute to divergent livelihood outcomes. Using a unique yet simple tracking method, we were able to show the stochastic dynamics of individual household livelihoods in the face of various shocks, and how these households move in and out of different states of poverty over time (i.e., extremely poor, chronic poor, and nonpoor). By comparing traits of households that ended up in different states, we showed the need for targeted interventions for alternative livelihood strategies and key resources improvement. Different from conventional poverty alleviation programs, our findings emphasize empowering smallholders with different livelihood options. This has practical implications in terms of identifying leverage points in smallholder livelihood systems (e.g., livelihood strategy, land resources) that government and other agencies can use to intervene more effectively for households to become prosperous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Most farmers reveal risk and loss aversion regarding technology uptake. • Risk aversion lowers insured technology adoption while loss aversion enhances uptake of insured technology options. • Poorer farmers under-invest in insured loan options. • Index insurance does't sufficiently counter the poverty constraints and risk preferences that inhibit farm technology uptake. • Cumulative experimental income and being above the median group real income level lead to higher insured credit uptake. We use a series of framed experimental games to test the role of access to credit and insurance on farm technology uptake with small-scale farmers in South Africa. Using Cumulative Prospect Theory 'CPT', we assess how insurance impacts technology uptake given risk preferences. Our findings suggest that risk aversion is linked to lower uptake of the uninsured and insured technology, while loss averse farmers are more likely to adopt technology bundled with insurance. In line with literature on poverty traps we further find that wealth is critical in uptake of technology, with cumulative experimental income and being below the mean income in terms of real-life income stifling investment in insured and uninsured technology options. Overall, we find that insurance is not sufficient to counter the behavioural factors linked to asset constraints and risk preferences that suppress modern farm technology uptake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]