In 1981, an estimated 44 percent of the global population lived in extreme poverty. In 2019, that number shrank to just 9 percent. We often think of poverty as a trap, but recent research shows it doesn’t have to be. The economist and co-founder of GiveDirectly, Paul Niehaus, explains how extreme poverty fell over the past 40 years and how it could be eliminated for good. 

Further reading: 
“<a href="https://econweb.ucsd.edu/~pniehaus/papers/how_poverty_fell.pdf">How Poverty Fell</a>,” by Vincent Armentano, Paul Niehaus, and Tom Vogl 
“<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/03/american-geographic-social-mobility/681439/">How Progressives Froze the American Dream</a>,” by Yoni Appelbaum
<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/one-illness-away-9780199693191?cc=us&lang=en&">One Illness Away: Why People Become Poor and How They Escape Poverty</a>, by Anirudh Krishna

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