Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Overview : poverty dynamics and persistence in Asia and Africa / Bob Baulch -- 2. Poverty transitions, shocks and consumption in rural Bangladesh, 1996-97 to 2006-07 / Agnes R. Quisumbing -- 3. A poor life? : chronic poverty and downward mobility in rural Ethiopia, 1994 to 2004 / Stefan Dercon and Catherine Porter -- 4. The determinants and consequences of chronic and transient poverty in Nepal, 1995-96 to 2003-04 / Saurav Dev Bhatta and Suman K. Sharma -- 5. Poverty dynamics in rural Sindh, Pakistan, 1987-88 to 2004-05 / Hari Ram Lohano -- 6. Poverty traps and structural poverty in South Africa : reassessing the evidence from KwaZulu-Natal, 1993 to 2004 / Julian May, Ingrid Woolard and Bob Baulch -- 7. Poverty dynamics in Vietnam, 2002 to 2006 / Bob Baulch and Vu Hoang Dat -- 8. Chronic poverty : what is to be done? / Bob Baulch.

This edited book analyses what traps people in chronic poverty, and what allows them to escape from it, using long-term panel surveys from six Asian and African countries. The distinguishing feature of these studies, which were commissioned by the Chronic Poverty Research Centre, is they span longer periods or have more survey waves than most developing country panels. This allows a detailed account of the maintainers of chronic poverty and drivers of poverty dynamics. Many of the studies (from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Nepal, Pakistan, South Africa and Vietnam) are written by leading development economists, and all pay careful attention to the difficult issues of attrition, measurement error and tracking. The book's comparative perspective highlights the common factors which cause people to fall into chronic poverty and allow them to break-free from it. A number of promising policies and interventions for reducing chronic poverty are identified.