Why Has Poverty Increased in Zimbabwe?

Alwang, Jeffrey ; Mills, Bradford F. ; Taruvinga, Nelson

Washington, DC:World Bank

关键词: AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION;    CLIMATE;    CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURES;    COST RECOVERY;    DEBT;   

DOI  :  10.1596/0-8213-5033-1
RP-ID  :  24052

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Poverty in Zimbabwe increasedsignificantly during the 1990s, and it increased in allsectors of the economy. In the middle of the decade, morethan 60 percent of Zimbabwean households fell below thenational poverty line. There are competing reasons for this:some say it was the result of the government instituting theEconomic Structural Adjustment Program (ESAP), and otherssay that ESAP's effectiveness was hampered by recurringdrought. This document sheds light on the sources of theincrease in Zimbabwean poverty, with the use ofnon-parametric, and parametric statistical methods. Thesetechniques support the conclusion that the drought, thoughharmful, does not entirely explain the increase in poverty.The deteriorating economic environment, reducing the returnsto both human, and physical assets, also had profoundeffects on household well-being. What are the prospects forimprovement in the near future? Only serious structuralchanges to the economy can create labor market conditions,conducive to long-term, broad-based growth.