“Moving out of poverty: Growth and Freedom from the Bottom-Up”

The basic idea of this research – to learn from those who have escaped poverty – is very interesting and potentially very valuable. The question is how to ensure that this potential is fully realized. There are of course many aspects to this. In these comments, I focus on two broad points. The first has to do with the balance between retaining the richness and insight of qualitative research and achieving the rigor and robustness of quantitative research. And the second has to do with the importance of focusing on factors that both lead to sustainable reductions in poverty and are subject to public action.