The Persistence Of Poverty
Why is it that, in certain parts of the world, poverty and insecurity persist? That's a question that Melissa Dell, the most recent winner of the John Bates Clark Medal, has explored throughout her career. The medal is awarded annually by the American Economics Association to the best economist working in the U.S. under the age of 40.
Dell has studied a variety of countries and topics—labor markets in Mexico, bombing campaigns in Vietnam, the relationship between temperature and development—in her research. Today we talk to her about one of her most famous papers, which looks at living conditions in parts of modern Peru and Boliva. The paper explains why even the distant past can determine how ordinary people live their lives in the present.
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