Persistent poverty and path dependency - Agrarian reform: Lessons from theUnited Sates and India

The historical experience of the United States, where aggregate wealth mult iplied in abundance but persistent poverty is glaring, offers concrete illu stration that growth is not a sufficient condition for poverty alleviation in the transition from agrarian society In contrast, the State of Kerala in South India abolished an agrarian system based on agrestic serfdom and sla very in a compressed time period and has been notably successful in reducin g the incidence of poverty despite income and growth rates well below the I ndian mean. Though sometimes romanticised, the 'Kerala model' offers both p ositive and negative lessons from its thorough agrarian reform; Though less prominent in public discourse after the end of the Cold War, agrarian refo rm still offers significant poverty reduction advantages in comparison with alternatives.