Why poor people stay poor *

Abstract

Rural people, while much more numerous than urban people, are also much more dispersed, poor, inarticulate and unorganized. The natural operation of personal and group self-interest has led in almost all developing countries to far wider disparities between urban living standards – themselves highly unequal – and rural living standards than prevailed in Northwest Europe, Japan, or the USA during their periods of early modern development. One major reason why India’s agricultural investment share has risen so slowly is the decision to use extra food output only to replace imported foodgrains and to build up stocks, rather than to add significantly to the inadequate intake of large sections of the population.

Topics & Concepts