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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Economics

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

Series

2010

Inequality

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Poverty, Inequality And Cost Of Living Differences, Enrico Moretti Aug 2010

Poverty, Inequality And Cost Of Living Differences, Enrico Moretti

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

Metropolitan areas in the US are characterized by enormous differences in average income, earnings, and factor productivity. The income of individuals located in metropolitan areas at the top of the income distribution is more than double the income of observationally similar individuals located in metropolitan areas at the bottom of the distribution. These differences reflect, at least in part, variation in local productivity.


Notes On Poverty Traps And Appalachia, Steven Durlauf Jan 2010

Notes On Poverty Traps And Appalachia, Steven Durlauf

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

In these notes, I provide some general ideas on how to conceptualize poverty traps and speculate on their applicability to understanding Appalachian poverty. My goal is to stimulate thinking on Appalachia that exploits contemporary perspectives in economics on the sources of persistent poverty and inequality. To do this, I focus on both the theory of poverty traps as well as issues in the econometric assessment of their empirical salience.