Accelerating Poverty Reduction in a Less Poor World : The Roles of Growth and Inequality

Olinto, Pedro ; Lara Ibarra, Gabriel ; Saavedra-Chanduvi, Jaime

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ABSOLUTE TERMS;    ABSOLUTE VALUE;    AVERAGE INCOME;    AVERAGE INCOMES;    CHANGES IN POVERTY;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-6855
RP-ID  :  WPS6855

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This paper re-examines the roles ofchanges in income and inequality in poverty reduction. Thestudy provides estimates of the relative effects ofinequality reduction versus growth promotion in reducingpoverty for countries with different levels of initialpoverty. The analysis uses country panel-data for 1980-2010.The results indicate that, as countries become less poor,inequality-reducing policies are likely to become relativelymore effective for poverty reduction than growth-promotingpolicies. The results indicate that the growth elasticity ofpoverty reduction either increases or remains constant withthe level of initial poverty.Nevertheless, the resultsalso strongly indicate that, as poverty declines, theinequality elasticity of poverty reduction increases faster.Therefore, if the marginal cost of reducing inequalityrelative to the marginal cost of increasing growth does notincrease with lower poverty levels, to accelerate povertyreduction, greater emphasis should be given to equity ratherthan growth as countries attain higher levels of development.