POVERTY REDUCTION THROUGH ECONOMIC GROWTH: SOME ISSUES

✍ Scribed by ANDREW MCKAY

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 138 KB
• Volume: 9
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0954-1748
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1328(199706)9:4<665::aid-jid475>3.0.co;2-p

✦ Synopsis

In broad terms, reduction in poverty can come about through redistributions among households at an existing level of average income, or through growth in average incomes, or through a combination of the two. However, both theoretical and empirical considerations suggest that growth of average household incomes is likely to be necessary to achieve sustained long-term poverty reductions. But the pattern of this growth is important; clearly a growth pattern where the bene®ts accrue disproportionately to the richest in a society will have less poverty impact than one where the bene®ts are equally distributed or biased towards the poor. This is likely to be particularly important in countries where growth is likely to be slow. This paper re¯ects on the relationship between growth in household incomes, inequality and poverty.