Global poverty amid global plenty: Getting globalization right by Dani Rodrik (05/2012), published by Americas Quarterly. “The proximate cause of poverty is low productivity. Poor people are poor because their labor produces too little to adequately feed and house them, let alone provide adequately for other needs such as health care and education. Low productivity, in turn, has diverse and multiple causes. It may be the result of lack of credit, lack of access to new and better technologies, or lack of skills, knowledge or job opportunities. It may be the consequence of small market size – or exploitative elites, in cahoots with the government, who block any improvement in economic conditions that would threaten their power.”
