In the past decade, the focus of international development policy has shifted from promoting macroeconomic stability to direct poverty reduction and pro-poor growth strategies. The Macro-Micro Dynamics of Poverty cluster examines the impact of these policy reforms on the dynamics of poverty. Current research includes investigation of health, education interventions in Indonesia and Burkina Faso, programmes to reduce child labour in Thailand, the Philippines, Bangladesh and India, and unemployment benefit programmes in Argentina. Other areas of study include the impact of trade on wage inequality, the effectiveness of poverty reduction strategies in Latin America, and improved macroeconomic policy preparation in Uganda. Recently, MMDP researchers have taken part in evaluations of the impact of smaller scale policy interventions.

The cluster has a strong emphasis on empirical analysis. How to measure the dynamics of poverty is an ongoing theme in research. Although the focus is on economic approaches to development, the cluster’s members explicitly integrate insights from demography, political science, sociology and other related disciplines. They complement this broad perspective by working with a large number of external partners around the world.