Inequality and the impact of growth on poverty: Comparative evidence for Sub-Saharan Africa

Arbeitspapier

This study explores the extent to which inequality affects the impact of income growth on the rates of poverty changes in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) comparatively with non-SSA, based on a global sample of 1977-2004 unbalanced panel data. For both regions and all three measures of poverty - headcount, gap, and squared gap - the paper finds the impact of GDP growth on poverty reduction as a decreasing function of initial inequality. The impacts are similar in direction for SSA and non-SSA, so that within both regions there are considerable disparities in the responsiveness of poverty to income growth, depending on inequality. Nevertheless, the income-growth elasticity is substantially less for SSA, implying relatively small poverty-reduction sensitiveness to growth compared with the rest of the developing world. Furthermore, the paper finds a considerable variation in the predicted values of the income-growth elasticity across a large number of SSA countries, implying the need for understanding country-specific inequality attributes for effective poverty-reduction strategies.

Angaben zum Objekt

• ISBN: 978-92-9230-163-7
• Sprache: Englisch

Verweise und Beziehungen

• Erschienen in: Series: WIDER Research Paper ; No. 2008/107

Klassifikation und Themen

• Klassifikation: Wirtschaft ; Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions ; Measurement and Analysis of Poverty ; Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity: Other
• Thema: inequality ; income growth ; poverty ; sub-Saharan Africa ; Einkommensverteilung ; Armut ; Sozialprodukt ; Afrika südlich der Sahara

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Ereignis: Geistige Schöpfung
• (wer): Fosu, Augustin Kwasi
• Ereignis: Veröffentlichung
• (wer): The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER)
• (wo): Helsinki
• (wann): 2008

Weitere Informationen

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/45114
• Letzte Aktualisierung: 10.03.2025, 11:42 MEZ