Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction and overview / Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee ... [et al.] -- Measuring poverty / Angus Deaton -- PART I. THE CAUSES OF POVERTY -- Understanding prosperity and poverty: geography, institutions, and the reversal of fortune / Daron Acemoglu ... [et al.] -- Colonialism, inequality, and long-run paths of development / Stanley L. Engerman, Kenneth L. Sokoloff -- The Kuznets curve: yesterday and tomorrow / Thomas Piketty -- New growth approach to poverty alleviation / Philippe Aghion, Beatriz Armendáriz de Aghion -- Globalization and all that / Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee -- The global economy and the poor / Pranab Bardhan -- The role of agriculture in development / Mukesh Eswaran, Ashok Kotwal -- Fertility and income / T. Paul Schultz -- Fertility in developing countries / Mukesh Eswaran -- Corruption and development / Jean-Jacques Laffont -- Ethnic diversity and poverty reduction / Edward Miguel -- PART II. HOW SHOULD WE GO ABOUT FIGHTING POVERTY? -- Redistribution toward low incomes in richer countries / Emmanuel Saez -- Transfers and safety nets in poor countries: revisiting the trade-offs and policy options / Martin Ravallion -- Poverty persistence and design of antipoverty policies / Dilip Mookherjee -- Child labor / Christopher Udry -- Policy dilemmas for controlling child labor / Kaushik Basu -- The primacy of education / Anne Case -- Public goods and economic development / Timothy Besley, Maitreesh Ghatak -- Intellectual property and health in developing countries / Jean Tirole -- Public policies to stimulate development of vaccines for neglected diseases / Michael Kremer -- Microinsurance: the next revolution? / Jonathan Morduch -- Credit, intermediation, and overty reduction / Robert M. Townsend -- PART III. NEW WAYS OF THINKING ABOUT POVERTY -- Poor but rational? / Esther Duflo -- Better choices to reduce poverty / Sendhil Mullainathan -- Nonmarket institutions / Kaivan Munshi -- Racial stigma: toward a new paradigm for discrimination theory / Glenn C. Loury -- Aspirations, poverty, and economic change / Debraj Ray.