Much popular belief--and public policy--rests on the idea that those born into poverty have it in their power to escape. But the persistence of poverty and ever-growing economic inequality around the world have led many economists to seriously question the model of individual economic self-determination when it comes to the poor. In Poverty Traps , Samuel Bowles, Steven Durlauf, Karla Hoff, and the book's other contributors argue that there are many...