Can We End Extreme Poverty? Food, Aid & Innovation in the Global South | Prof. Christopher Barrett

What does it really take to break a poverty trap? In this episode of Beating Sisyphus, Cornell development economist Professor Christopher Barrett joins Thomas Riveros and Lourdes Casanova to explore one of the world's most pressing challenges: why extreme poverty persists in some places even as others — like China and Vietnam — have achieved miraculous growth.

We go deep on the economics of poverty traps, why satellite-indexed livestock insurance is changing lives in East Africa, how mobile money is shifting power to women, and why cutting agricultural R&D budgets is a bet against the future.

Topics covered:→ Why poverty is increasingly concentrated in conflict, climate, and disease-prone regions→ How poverty traps work — and what actually breaks them→ The satellite-based livestock insurance product now covering 4M+ policy holders→ Mobile money as a game-changer for rural Africa→ The case for redirecting foreign aid toward high-return global public goods→ Why Brazil and China are lapping the US in agricultural R&D→ Kenya and Vietnam as emerging markets to watch

Guest: Prof. Christopher Barrett — Stefan B. and Janice G. Ashley Professor of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University; affiliate of the Atkinson Center for Sustainability. https://www.atkinson.cornell.edu/profile/christopher-b-barrett/

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro

01:33 - Conquering Extreme Poverty: The China & Vietnam Miracles

05:41 - The "New" Poverty Trap: Climate, Conflict & Disease

12:59 - Why Banks Won't Lend to the Global South

15:24 - Transferring African Drought Risk to Swiss Capital Markets

19:15 - How Mobile Money is Empowering Women in Rural Markets

23:50 - The Foreign Aid Crisis & Reprioritizing Global Public Goods

30:05 - The 75% Food Inflation Problem & The R&D Deficit

35:10 - US Farm Subsidies vs. China & Brazil's Ag-Tech Dominance

46:15 - Emerging Markets to Watch: Kenya & Vietnam#EmergingMarkets #DevelopmentEconomics #PovertyTrap #FoodSecurity #Africa #Kenya #Vietnam #ForeignAid #AgricultureInnovation #MobileMoney #Cornell #BeatingSisyphus

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