The process by which poor parents pass on their poverty and disadvantage occurs primarily during their children?s earliest years of life, perpetuating an underclass, and in so doing impairing the basis for a fair and stable society. This intergenerational transmission of poverty (ITP) is a particularly powerful force in today?s Latin America, where economies are in crisis and unequal distribution of income emblematic.Escaping the Poverty Trap examines and proposes early childhood investment policies that could decisively change the prospects for the next generation of the poor in Latin America. Contributing authors include Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen and Gro Harlem Brundtland, director-general of the World Health Organization. In examining the effects of family background on ITP in 16 Latin American countries, the study emphasizes that conception through preschool is the period when vulnerability to lifetime damage is greatest, but also when there is the most potential...
