This paper studies the causal mechanisms behind poverty traps, building on evidence of nonlinear wealth dynamics among a poor pastoralist population, the Boran from southern Ethiopia. In particular, it explores the roles of adverse weather shocks and individual ability to cope with such shocks...

This chapter explores these issues in the Hurri Hills area of Marsabit District, where externally imposed changes in governance have combined with a World Bank Global Environmental Facility (GEF) project to alter local patterns of natural resource management. In particular, in the process of...