Is poverty static? Anti-poverty programmes often assume so. Recent studies suggest, however, that poor households move in and out of poverty a great deal. Research from the UK Institute of Development Studies shows that poverty has two parts: a chronic part and a transitory part. The researchers therefore examined the impact of two different types of policy – those designed to smooth out incomes and those designed to promote income growth – on the extent of transitory and chronic poverty in rural Pakistan. The study suggests that policies which help households to smooth income can dramatically reduce transitory poverty. But in the long-term, only large and sustained growth in household incomes will reduce chronic poverty.