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Poverty Is Good for Development

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Book cover Economic Ideas You Should Forget

Abstract

There are two prominent versions of the idea that poverty promotes economic development. One version argues that poverty incentivizes workers, thus creating a strong, globally competitive economy. Another version postulates that higher marginal products of capital in poorer (capital-scarce) countries entail that they enjoy higher growth rates, such that they automatically catch up to rich countries in due course. Both versions should be rejected.

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Ravallion, M. (2017). Poverty Is Good for Development. In: Frey, B., Iselin, D. (eds) Economic Ideas You Should Forget. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47458-8_45

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