Macroeconomic Performance And Poverty Reduction

This paper investigates the link between macroeconomic performance and the change in the poverty rate among 47 episodes of growth and 52 episodes of economic downturn in developing and transition economies. We show that, on average, (i) the greater the inequality, the lower the elasticity of poverty to growth, and the higher the mean income, the higher the elasticity; (ii) the country-specific elasticity is identical for episodes of economic growth and for episodes of economic downturn; and (iii) higher growth does not bring diminishing returns to poverty reduction. Moreover, we show that very high inflation is associated with a higher elasticity of the poverty rate to economic downturn, but at lower inflation, there is no relationship between inflation and the elasticity of the poverty rate to growth or recession. Trade openness and changes in the terms of trade explain part of the elasticity of the poverty rate to economic downturn.

This book focuses on the provision of basic social services - in particular, access to education, health and water supplies - as the central building blocks of any human development strategy. The authors concentrate on how these basic social services can be financed and delivered more effectively to achieve the internationally agreed Millennium Development Goals. Their analysis, which departs from the dominant macro-economic paradigm, deploys the results of broad-ranging research they led at UNICEF and UNDP, investigating the record on basic social services of some 30 developing countries. In seeking to learn from these new data, they develop an analytical argument around two potential synergies: at the macro level, between poverty reduction, human development and economic growth, and at the micro level, between interventions to provide basic social services. Policymakers, they argue, can integrate macro-economic and social policy. Fiscal, monetary, and other macro-economic policies can be compatible with social sector requirements. They make the case that policymakers have more flexibility than is usually presented by orthodox writers and international financial institutions, and that if policymakers engaged in alternative macro-economic and growth-oriented policies, this could lead to the expansion of human capabilities and the fulfillment of human rights. This book explores some of these policy options. The book also argues that more than just additional aid is needed. Specific strategic shifts in the areas of aid policy, decentralized governance, health and education policy and the private-public mix in service provision are a prerequisite to achieve the goals of human development. The combination of governance reforms and fiscal and macro-economic policies outlined in this book can eliminate human poverty in the span of a generation.

Provides an understanding of economic policies for poverty reduction in developing countries. The policy areas include the various roles of government in ensuring the effective operation of a market economy, conducting fiscal policy, and influencing the money supply, exchange rates, and the financial sector.

This pamphlet excerpts a chapter on macroeconomic policy from the Poverty Reduction Policy Source book, a guide prepared by the World Bank and IMF to assist countries in developing and strengthening their poverty reduction strategies. It probes the relationship between macroeconomic policy matters, such as growth and inflation, and the fight against poverty, and explains how sound monetary and fiscal policies-key tools of the macroeconomist-can help to spur growth and ease poverty.

In this volume, world-renowned contributors, including Martin Ravallion, Michael Kremer and Robert Townsend, deal with the institutional characteristics of poverty resulting from the time pattern of aid, the nature of financial systems and the political economy of budgetary decisions. Going beyond the traditional literature on poverty, this original book deals with themes of broad interest to both scholars and policymakers in a clear yet technically sophisticated manner. Departing from conventional methods employed in poverty studies, these innovative essays enquire into the institutional characteristics of poverty, and using current case studies, they examine the crucial idea that periods of crises seriously affect poverty.

This Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper on Uganda discusses that the National Development Plan (NDP), Uganda’s current Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, was introduced in 2010/11 and originally intended to cover five fiscal years, until 2014/15. The NDP emphasises the need to accelerate economic growth to create jobs, increase average income and provide the financial resources required to expand public investment and service delivery. However, several macroeconomic and implementation challenges have reduced infrastructure investment, economic growth and job creation below the levels targeted by the plan. The key strategic objectives of the plan will be maintained over the next two years, with focus placed on strengthening public investment management, creating fiscal space for infrastructure projects and enhancing the development of practical skills among the labour force. The recalibrated macroeconomic framework outlined in Section IV will help guide fiscal policy and economic management as the next National Development Plan is being finalised. NDP II will be launched before the 2016/17 fiscal year and will guide budgetary priorities and programmes over the medium term.

To reach the "Millennium Development Goal" of halving poverty by 2015 in developing countries requires first and foremost higher economic growth. This can hardly succeed when policies continue to adhere to the traditional neo-liberal strategies of the "Washington Consensus". In this study, different growth and stagnation "regimes" are explored. To enter a growth path, more emphasis has to be put on prudent macroeconomic policies striving for sound money, less external debt, balance of payment equilibrium, containment of dollarisation, more stable exchange rates and on deepening the domestic financial sector. Fostering capital accumulation is more important than perfecting the competitive allocation of resources through pervasive liberalisation. The economic performance of most East and South Asian countries which did not follow the strategy of the "Washington Consensus" contrasts sharply with a stagnation trend in Africa and Latin America in the last decades. Country case studies on China, Vietnam, Belarus and Uganda are presented. The analysis follows a modern Keynesian line of thought.

This paper focuses on Nicaragua’s Fifth and Sixth Reviews Under the Three-Year Arrangement Under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility, Request for Waiver and Modification of Performance Criteria. The macroeconomic performance has been broadly satisfactory. Economic growth is accelerating; inflation, albeit somewhat higher owing to increased oil prices, remains under control; and official reserves are above program targets. The performance criterion on public savings and all indicative fiscal targets were missed in late 2003, but the March 2004 targets were met and measures have been taken to keep the program on track.