Interesting summary of what we know (and don’t) about how poor people make decisions. Poor people are people! So they behave like people under resource constraints; when it comes to healthcare, that also includes information constraints (not really knowing much about vaccination, for example, including often lacking trustworthy sources of information). Some self-protective measures can also limit the upside of taking risks that might pay off—like people who spend money as it comes in so that they don’t get pressured to give it to needy family and friends. The research also suggests that microcredit has a limit—most businesses that poor people work in inherently don’t scale well, so expecting entrepreneurship to save poor people is a mistake. Given that poor people have to take way too many risks, it’s understandable that their ambitions for their children often are stable (ideally government) employment rather than entrepreneurship. ( )

This book is excellent. Most of us in countries like India claim to know about poverty. It is impossible for us to appreciate poor people's concerns, aspirations, and dreams. We don't live their lives nor interact with them, save at a superficial level. Experts who remain aloof from the problem of poverty have written most books on poverty.

This book fills a void and discusses the aspects of poverty and "poor economics." Each section covers a different aspect of poverty and contains enough anecdotal information and research findings. Each chapter also discusses the main theses of different authors.

I don't know why they referenced C. K. Prahalad's book on fortune at the bottom of the pyramid. That book is superficial.

There is a good concluding chapter.

The book is readable. Over the last few years, I saw many people troll the authors. This behaviour has been tragic because the trolls have not read this excellent book.

There is no simple solution to poverty. This is the tragic lesson of the book. But, I hope we come away with a greater appreciation of what needs to be done and don't treat the poor as useless. If we do this, then the authors have been successful. ( )

This book begins with acknowledging that some might call it patriarchal to enforce and/or influence the poor to act in ways that WE think are in their best interest... but then kind of lets that sentence peter out and doesn't say why it isn't patriarchal. LMAO. Still a nice collection of research done on developing communities. ( )

One of the most well-written and informative books I've ever read. ( )

I don't recall where I picked this book up but I definitely didn't read the back of the book properly. I had thought it was about the economic decisions faced by people living in the UK and more specifically on council estates. I made that assumption based on the picture of the front cover and I thought that it would have some interesting way that money is saved.

I should have read the cover properly because as it turns out I was incorrect. It is based on the economic activities and decisions faced by the very poorest people in the world with the focus being on India. The main focus is on the bare economics and the way aid can both be helpful and unhelpful at the same time depending on how it is implemented. There is also a look at the psychology behind some of the seemingly bizarre decisions that these people make. One example that stood out for me was the fact that when researchers paid off the debts of groups of traders they would inevitably get back into debt before too long. It wasn't that these people had to get into debt from a financial people of view but that they were so used to being in debt they didn't see it as an issue to get into debt again.

Government agencies were looked at from the point of view of corruption. They point out that the big problem with corruption is that it is everywhere and a normal part of life for many. There is no point in investing millions on improving a road when the truck drivers can pay a small bribe to be allowed to drive an over weight truck on them and ruin them.

This is quite an interesting book but I found it a little dry and repetitive in places. ( )