International Food Policy Research Institute
sustainable solutions for ending hunger and poverty
Streaming video
Humans do not live in isolation. Observed microeconomic behavior depends on people’s identities and on the formal and informal social relations that shape their world. These behaviors subsequently affect individual and group identity and relationships, and thereby consumption, production and exchange behaviors, creating a system with dynamic feedback. Such systems commonly lead to low-level, stable states characteristic of poverty traps. Economists are just beginning to explore the consequences of such phenomena, asking critical questions such as why does poverty persist in a world of abundant resources? Why are some people excluded from growth processes while others are not? Why do some people enjoy access to scarce resources or the efficiency enhancements associated with cooperation while others do not?
This seminar will summarize findings from a major new book edited by the presenter, The Social Economics of Poverty: On Identities, Groups, Communities and Networks (London: Routledge, 2005), and from related special issues of the Journal of Economic Inequality and the Journal of Development Economics that he is guest editing. In addition to outlining the conceptual innovations of this line of research and some of the key insights that result – in terms of phenomena of social exclusion, social isolation, discrimination, socially-mediated capital accumulation, etc. – the presentation will illustrate some of these phenomena using data from ongoing field research in east Africa.