astronomy

Martin Ravallion

Martin Ravallion is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Martin Ravallion rather than just read about it. In short: Martin Ravallion (19 March 1952 – 24 December 2022) was an Australian economist. He was the inaugural Edmond D.

Key takeaways

Martin Ravallion belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Martin Ravallion to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Martin Ravallion from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Martin Ravallion (19 March 1952 – 24 December 2022) was an Australian economist. He was the inaugural Edmond D. Villani Professor of Economics at Georgetown University, and had previously been director of the research department at the World Bank. He held a PhD in economics from the London School of Economics.

Life and career Ravallion researched extensively on poverty in developing countries and on policies for fighting poverty. In 1990 he proposed what has come to be known as the "$1 a day" poverty line, and since then he and his colleagues at the World Bank monitored progress against global poverty by this and other measures. A paper he wrote in 2012 became the basis of the World Bank, and subsequently United Nations, development goal of eliminating extreme poverty in the world by 2030. He advised numerous governments and international agencies, and wrote five books and 250 papers in scholarly journals, as well as editing several volumes. His book The Economics of Poverty: History, Measurement, and Policy was published by Oxford University Press in January 2016. Based on publications and citations, Ravallion is regularly ranked in the top 10 development economists in the world and was ranked number 1 globally in the field of Development Economics by RePEc/IDEAS. He is ranked in the top 100 economists in all fields. He was a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, a senior fellow of the Bureau for Research in Economic Analysis of Development, a non-resident fellow of the Center for Global Development, and ex-president of the society for the Study of Economic Inequality. In 2011 he received the John Kenneth Galbraith Award from the American Agricultural and Applied Economics Association. He won the 2015 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Development Cooperation for his groundbreaking work on defining the extreme poverty threshold with internationally applicable standards that facilitate the establishment of specific development cooperation goals. In 2018 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in economics from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. Ravallion died on 24 December 2022, at the age of 70.

Selected bibliography

Books Ravallion, Martin (1987). Markets and Famines. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198287275. Ravallion, Martin (1994). Poverty Comparisons. Chur, Switzerland Langhorne, Pennsylvania: Harwood Academic Publishers. ISBN 9783718654024. Ravallion, Martin; van de Walle, Dominique (2008). Land in transition: Reform and poverty in rural Vietnam. Washington D.C.: World Bank. ISBN 9780821372746. Ravallion, Martin; van de Walle, Dominique; Murgai, Rinku; Dutta, Puja (2014). Right to Work? Assessing India's Employment Guarantee Scheme in Bihar. Washington D.C.: World Bank. ISBN 9781464801303. Ravallion, Martin (2016). Economics of poverty: History, measurement and policy. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780190212766.

Chapters in books Ravallion, Martin (2008), "Evaluating Antipoverty Policies.", in Schultz, Paul; Strauss, John (eds.), Handbook of Development Economics Volume 4, North-Holland Ravallion, Martin (2009), "On the welfarist rationale for relative poverty lines", in Kanbur, Ravi; Basu, Kaushik (eds.), Arguments for a better world: essays in honor of Amartya Sen | Volume I: Ethics, welfare, and measurement, Oxford New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 375–396, ISBN 9780199239115 Ravallion, Martin (2010), "Poverty and Inequality: The Global Context.", in Salverda, Wiemer; Nolan, Brian; Smeeding, Timothy (eds.), Oxford Handbook of the Economics of Inequality, Oxford University Press Ravallion, Martin (2013), "Poverty Lines across the World.", in Jefferson, Philip N. (ed.), Oxford Handbook of the Economics of Poverty, Oxford University Press Ravallion, Martin (2014), "Poor or Just Feeling Poor? On Using Subjective Data in Measuring Poverty.", in Clark, Andrew; Senik, Claudia (eds.), Happiness and Economic Growth, Oxford University Press Ravallion, Martin (2017), "Poverty is Good for Development", in Frey, Bruno; Iselin, David (eds.), Economic Ideas you should Forget, Springer

References

External links Georgetown University profile Economics & Poverty - Martin Ravallion's Website on the Economics of Poverty

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Martin Ravallion

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Martin Ravallion claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Martin Ravallion before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Martin Ravallion ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Martin Ravallion

In research: Martin Ravallion appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Martin Ravallion in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Martin Ravallion is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1952 births, 2022 deaths, 20th-century Australian economists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Martin Ravallion outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Martin Ravallion in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Martin Ravallion means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Martin Ravallion out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Martin Ravallion in simple terms?

Martin Ravallion (19 March 1952 – 24 December 2022) was an Australian economist. He was the inaugural Edmond D.

Why does Martin Ravallion matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Martin Ravallion?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Martin Ravallion.