it is well established that the endowments of the area explain a substantial proportion of the poverty of people living in it controlling for individual and household characteristics such as age household composition or ethnolinguistic group jalan and ravallion regional imbalances in poverty rates are often persistent as internal migration processes tend to be selective with poorest people facing higher migration costs the regional income distribution and poverty indicators discussed in this paper send the clear message that national averages mask important intracountry variance in poverty and inequality