How to escape from a poverty trap: The case of Bangladesh

Since the achievement of its independence in 1971, Bangladesh has attracted the attention of generations of scholars who studied the country from several perspectives. Building on different strands of literature, this paper aims to provide a concise but consistent narrative illustrating the peculiar path of development followed by the country over the last four decades. The study argues that the development of Bangladesh can be explained by referring to four distinct drivers (the increase of agricultural yields, the rapid decline of fertility rate, the surge of migrants’ remittances and the development of the garments industry) which, emerging at different times, triggered growth and allowed the country to escape the poverty trap. The first part of the article explores in detail the emergence of the development drivers whereas the second one estimates their contribution to the growth of per capita income over the 1974–2011 period.