Poverty Traps in the Municipalities of Ecuador: Empirical Evidence

Abstract

The objective of this research is to identify from a spatial and temporal perspective the territories that are located in a “poverty trap” scenario. This is a scenario that does not allow overcoming the conditions and determinants that gave rise to this precarious situation, creating a vicious circle where the conditions of poverty endure through time. The methodology applied is an exploratory analysis of spatial dependence through Moran’s scatterplot and local indicators of spatial association (LISA) maps to visualize the spatial clusters of poverty. The database used is that of the population and housing censuses of 1990, 2001, and 2010 at the cantonal level. The results determine that 73 cantons were in a poverty trap over the period 1990–2001, while from 2001–2010, there were 75 cantons in this situation, which were located mainly in the provinces of Esmeraldas, Manabí, and Loja.