The Economics of Poverty: History, Measurement, and Policy

The book reviews past and present debates on the challenges faced in attaining equitable economic development. The book aims to provide an introduction to economics where the application to poverty is central and guides learning. And it aims to help those who already know some economics learn more about poverty and inequality.

Martin Ravallion holds the inaugural Edmond D. Villani Chair of Economics at Georgetown University, prior to which he was the Director of the World Bank's research department. He has advised numerous governments and international agencies on poverty and policies for fighting it, and he has written extensively on this and other subjects in economics, including four books and 200 papers in scholarly journals and edited volumes. He is President of the Society for the Study of Economic Inequality. Amongst various prizes and awards, in 2012 he was awarded the John Kenneth Galbraith Prize from the American Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.