Poor.si
The AI guide to the economics and history of poverty
Understand how poverty is measured, why it persists, and what evidence shows has actually worked to reduce it - from the World Bank's international poverty line to microfinance, cash transfers, and universal basic income pilots. Balanced, evidence-based, and non-partisan.
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What you get
Everything Poor.si gives you
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How poverty is measured
Absolute lines, relative poverty, and multidimensional indexes explained.
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What reduces poverty
Evidence-based interventions, from cash transfers to microfinance.
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Global & historical view
How poverty rates have shifted across regions and centuries.
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Poverty Economics Library
A non-partisan, evidence-based reference on the economics and history of poverty.
Measuring Poverty
- International poverty line — The World Bank's benchmark, set at $2.15 per day in 2017 purchasing-power terms.
- Relative poverty — Common in the EU: households earning below 50-60 percent of national median income.
- Multidimensional Poverty Index — UNDP measure covering health, education, and living standards, not just income.
- Gini coefficient — A standard statistic measuring income inequality within a country.
Historical Milestones
- US War on Poverty (1964) — A major federal push under President Johnson, creating programs like Head Start and Medicaid.
- China's poverty reduction — Over 800 million people lifted above the national poverty line since market reforms began in 1978.
- Bretton Woods (1944) — Founded the World Bank and IMF, reshaping global development finance.
- Industrial Revolution wage growth — Long-run rising real wages in industrializing nations, alongside severe early hardship.
Interventions & Evidence
- Bolsa Familia (Brazil) — A conditional cash transfer program credited with reducing extreme poverty and boosting school attendance.
- Grameen Bank microfinance — Muhammad Yunus's Bangladesh model of small loans to those excluded from traditional banking.
- GiveDirectly and UBI pilots — Studies of unconditional cash transfers in Kenya and universal basic income trials in Finland.
- Earned Income Tax Credit — A US wage subsidy for low-income workers, widely studied for its poverty-reduction effects.
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