Chronic Poverty Research Centre

CPRC Research Theme 3: Empirical approaches to the study of intergenerational transmission of poverty

• Introduction to IGT Poverty theme
• Key IGT events
• Key CPRC publications on IGT Poverty
• Contact the IGT Poverty team

Introduction to IGT Poverty theme

Research Focus

Chronic poverty is severe, multidimensional poverty experienced for a long period, perhaps extending over a whole lifecourse. Some poverty is transmitted from one generation to another. Research by the CPRC into the intergenerational transmission of poverty (IGT poverty) will attempt to identify the range of factors that increase the likelihood that poverty is passed from one generation to the another.

Initial endowments and the characteristics of both households and individuals have been found to influence the long-term and compound impacts of key idiosyncratic events, as do individual decisions and contextual and structural factors. However, are the determinants and correlates of intergenerational poverty different to those linked with persistent and chronic poverty? This research will draw on a range of methods from sociology, anthropology, micro-economics and social psychology, to explore whether the drivers, maintainers and interrupters of intergenerationally transmitted poverty differ from those for persistent and chronic poverty.

What drives the intergenerational transmission of poverty?

An individual’s assets, capabilities and agency come together to shape life-, family- and household histories. Our work explores the interaction between these factors and the key moments and decision-making points in a life course. They may combine to affect the likelihood that an individual moves into poverty in the future, lives in poverty for the rest of their lives, or escapes poverty. Falling below a particular threshold of well-being may, in some cases, create irreversibilities – those effects that are impossible or extremely difficult to change. For example, in utero and early childhood malnutrition can create life-long cognitive impairments. Outcomes may also affect the rest of an individual’s household and their future life chances. It is clear that disadvantage experienced by an individual can negatively affect their children, subsequently increasing their risk of being poor. It may also limit the assistance an affected adult can provide the older generation.

What interrupts the intergenerational transmission of poverty?

We know some of the ways that chronic poverty can be reduced (building people’s assets through education and health care; increasing real opportunities for employment and livelihoods through improving the functioning of key labour markets; reducing risk, protecting consumption and supporting investment through social protection), and all of these processes can be central to the interruption of parent-to-child IGT poverty processes. But it is less clear which interventions are the most likely to facilitate children of poor parents to escape poverty and thus prevent poverty from passing between generations.

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Our work…

Poverty is not simply transferred as a ‘package’ from one generation to the next. Instead a complex set of factors contribute to the likelihood of a person being poor at some point in their life, and influence the likelihood of that they will become chronically poor, or experience ‘irreversabilities’. The CPRC has developed frameworks to examine IGT poverty in developing countries (Moore, 2001; Harper et al., 2003; Moore 2004 & 2005; Bird 2006 – see below) to disentangle this complexity, and identify priorities for policy and intervention.

Several of the questions set out in Karen Moore’s 2001 Working Paper remain essential for the work we will do over the next 4 years:

• What are the benefits of an approach which focuses on intergenerational factors rather than on individuals?
• Could a focus on IGT poverty encourage a more holistic approach to development policy?
• Do policies to limit IGT poverty risk undermining human rights?
• Are the drivers of IGT poverty different to those of persistent and chronic poverty?

Jere Behrman (University of Pennsylvania) has produced a Methodological Note on how micro data may provide information the factors which drive and maintain poverty across generations. Micro datasets can include: panel data, parent-child studies, life histories, family histories, cohort studies using time series of cross-sectional data, experimental and “quasi-experimental” data. Given data limitations in many developing countries, the paper focuses on what this range of data options and related analytical techniques have to offer. Read more...

Stephen Jenkins and Thomas Siedler (ISER, University of Essex) have produced a Methodological Note focusing on the analysis of panel data in researching IGT poverty. Their paper outlines the data requirements and the advantages and disadvantages of panel data and they review estimation methods, before identifying developing country panels which meet the data requirements for meaningful IGT-related research.

This series will be extended with Notes on the collection and use of recall data, life histories and family histories in the study of intergenerational transmission of poverty.

Jenkins and Siedler have also recently produced a paper reviewing research into IGT poverty in OECD countries. They found that there is strong evidence that growing up poor has a negative impact on future life chances but the degree of impact depends on the variables that are explored and the analytical approach. The authors suggest that work in the US may be useful for generating hypotheses for work elsewhere, but that local specificity is important so care needs to be taken in transferring findings from the US to other contexts.

We are currently launching several new research projects. Themes include the importance of physical assets, human capital assets and conflict as drivers in the intergenerational transmission of poverty. Specific projects are being launched in Bangladesh and Uganda – and we will report on progress later this year.

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Key IGT Events

PUBLIC MEETING: Youth and Development: Learning the Lessons of the World Development Report 2007

House of Commons, London, 5 December 2006
More about the public meeting...

ROUNDTABLE: 1.3 Billion Youth: Is the Research and Policy Community Prepared?

Overseas Development Institute, London, 21 November 2006
More about the roundtable ...

ODI Seminar series: Social protection – making child poverty history

CPRC, the Overseas Development Institute and Plan International co-hosted a four-part seminar series in June and July 2005 at ODI:
June 8, 2005 – Can low income countries effectively deliver cash transfers which impact on child poverty?
June 15, 2005 – How can the abolition of user fees and the provision of in-kind support impact on child poverty?
June 22, 2005 – Rights and social protection for children: addressing inequality
July 8, 2005 – What is the role of the community in the effective delivery of social protection for children?

Find out more ... (opens link in new window)

See CPRC Events for more ...

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Key CPRC Publications on IGT Poverty

January 2008 Intergenerational Transmission of Poverty Research Brief

July 2007 Intergenerational Transmission of Poverty Research Brief (pdf, opens in new window)

January 2007 Intergenerational Transmission of Poverty Research Brief (pdf, opens in new window)

Bird, K. (2007) The intergenerational transmission of poverty: an overview. CPRC Working Paper 99.

Jenkins, S. P. and Siedler, T. (2007) The intergenerational transmission of poverty in OECD countries, CPRC Working Paper 75.

Jenkins, S. P. and Siedler, T. (2007) Methodological Note: Using household panel data to understand the intergenerational transmission of poverty,CPRC Working Paper 74. 

Boyden, J., with Cooper, E. (2007) Questioning the Power of Resilience: Are Children Up To the Task of Disrupting the Transmission of Poverty? CPRC Working Paper 73. 

Hobcraft, J. (2007) Child development, the life course, and social exclusion: Are the frameworks used in the UK relevant for developing countries? CPRC Working Paper 72. 

Orero, M. B., Heime, C., Cutler, S. J., and Mohaupt, S. (2007) A select annotated bibliography for the examination of the impact of conflict on the intergenerational transmission of chronic poverty  CPRC Working Paper 71 / Annotated Bibliography 4.

Quisumbing, A. (2007) Investments, bequests, and public policy: intergenerational asset transfers and the escape from poverty, CPRC Working Paper 98.

Behrman, J. R. (2006) Methodological Note: Using Micro Data to Understand Better the Intergenerational Transmission of Poverty in Low Income Developing Countries, CPRC Working Paper 68. 

Smith, S., and Moore, K., (2006) Intergenerational transmission of poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. CPRC Annotated Bibliography 3 / CPRC Working Paper 59. 

Moore, K. (2005) Thinking about youth poverty through the lenses of chronic poverty, life-course poverty and intergenerational poverty, CPRC Working Paper 57. 

Moore, K. (2005) Chronic, life-course and intergenerational poverty. Chapter 3 of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) Programme on Youth's World Youth Report 2005 - Young people today, and in 2015.

Moore, K. (2004) Chronic, life-course and intergenerational poverty, and South-East Asian youth. Paper presented to the UN Workshop on Youth Poverty in South-East Asia, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, August 2004. 

Harper, C., Marcus, R., and Moore, K. (2003) Enduring poverty and the conditions of childhood: lifecourse and intergenerational poverty transmissions. World Development. 31(3), 535-554.

Moore, K. (2001) Frameworks for understanding the intergenerational transmission of poverty and well-being in developing countries, CPRC Working Paper 8. 

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Contact the IGT Poverty Team

The CPRC's IGT Poverty team is led by Kate Bird (ODI), and includes Caroline Harper (ODI), Karen Moore (IDPM) and David Neves (PLAAS).

To contact us, join the CPRC’s mailing list or to receive an IGT Research Briefing by email or post, email Karen Moore AT manchester.ac.uk

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