The Persistence of Poverty: It’s Complicated (Part 7)

If Karelis fails to explain the persistence of poverty, what does?  Let’s return to his six competing theories: (1) apathy, (2) fragmentation of the self (which economists might call “hyperbolic preferences”), (3) akrasia (self-control problems), (4) restricted opportunity, (5) unusual preferences, and (6) perverse policies.  How do they really hold up?

(1) apathy.  I don’t see this as a conceptually independent explanation.  Outright apathy is a special case of either (a) hyperbolic prefere...