Pro Growth Pro Poor

"Is a pro-growth strategy always the best pro-poor strategy? To address this issue, Lopez provides an empirical evaluation of the impact of a series of pro-growth policies on inequality and headcount poverty. He relies on a large macroeconomic data set and estimate dynamic panel models that allows him to differentiate between the short- and long-run impacts of the policies under consideration on growth, inequality, and poverty. The author's findings indicate that regardless of their impact on inequality, pro-growth policies lead to lower poverty levels in the long run. However, he also finds evidence indicating that some of these policies may lead to higher inequality and, under plausible assumptions for the distribution of income, to higher poverty levels in the short run. These findings would justify the adoption of a pro-growth policy package as the center of any poverty reduction strategy, together with pro-poor measures that complement such a package by offsetting potential short-run increases in poverty. This paper-- a product of the Poverty Reduction Group, Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network-- is part of a larger effort in the network to understand how to increase the impact of growth on poverty reduction"-- World Bank web site.

Is a pro-growth strategy always the best pro-poor strategy? To address this issue, Lopez provides an empirical evaluation of the impact of a series of pro-growth policies on inequality and headcount poverty. He relies on a large macroeconomic data set and estimate dynamic panel models that allows him to differentiate between the short- and long-run impacts of the policies under consideration on growth, inequality, and poverty. The author's findings indicate that regardless of their impact on inequality, pro-growth policies lead to lower poverty levels in the long run. However, he also finds evidence indicating that some of these policies may lead to higher inequality and, under plausible assumptions for the distribution of income, to higher poverty levels in the short run. These findings would justify the adoption of a pro-growth policy package as the center of any poverty reduction strategy, together with pro-poor measures that complement such a package by offsetting potential short-run increases in poverty.This paper - a product of the Poverty Reduction Group, Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network - is part of a larger effort in the network to understand how to increase the impact of growth on poverty reduction.

This is a collection of papers examining the pressing issue of increasing inequality in the distribution of income in developing countries. While economic growth is a prerequisite for a sustained reduction in poverty, policies aimed at raising growth rates are often associated with a range of adverse short term effects, including rising unemployment, greater economic insecurity, environmental degradation and the weakening of traditional social safety nets. Pro-poor growth strategiesattempt to address these short term problems. But the ideal mix of policies, and their impact on the prospects for poverty reduction in the longer run, remain controversial topics. Growth, Inequality and Poverty comprises many of the most important contributions to the current debate.

Is a pro-growth strategy always the best pro-poor strategy? To address this issue, the author provides an empirical evaluation of the impact of a series of pro-growth policies on inequality and headcount poverty. He relies on a large macroeconomic data set and estimate dynamic panel models that allows him to differentiate between the short- and long-run impacts of the policies under consideration on growth, inequality, and poverty. The author's findings indicate that regardless of their impact on inequality, pro-growth policies lead to lower poverty levels in the long run. However, he also finds evidence indicating that some of these policies may lead to higher inequality and, under plausible assumptions for the distribution of income, to higher poverty levels in the short run. These findings would justify the adoption of a pro-growth policy package as the center of any poverty reduction strategy, together with pro-poor measures that complement such a package by offsetting potential short-run increases in poverty.

Economic growth is the most important determinant of poverty reduction. But countries with similar rates of growth can experience different poverty reduction rates.

Growth is pro-poor if the poverty measure of interest falls. This implies three potential sources of pro-poor growth: (a) a high rate of growth of average incomes; (b) a high sensitivity of poverty to growth in average incomes; and (c) a poverty-reducing pattern of growth in relative incomes. I empirically decompose changes in poverty in a large sample of developing countries into these components. In the medium run, most of the variation in changes in poverty is due to growth, suggesting that policies and institutions that promote broad-based growth should be central to pro-poor growth. Most of the remainder is due to poverty-reducing patterns of growth in relative incomes, rather than differences in the sensitivity of poverty to growth in average incomes. Cross-country evidence provides little guidance on policies and institutions that promote these other sources of pro-poor growth.

The embarrassing living conditions of more than one billion poor people in developing countries in combination with the increasing gap of living standards between the poor and the rich, has provided a strong motivation for development policy to change this situation. From its beginning, policy has aimed for stimulating economic growth in order to improve living conditions for everyone. The endurance of poverty, however, has motivated to extend the traditional »growth is good for the poor« by a more targeted policy that combines growth with a particular emphasis on improving the situation of the poor. This is exactly the objective of »pro-poor growth«, a term that became popular during the late 1990s and which seemed to dominate the stage with the propagation of the Millennium Development Goals, including its goal to halve poverty by 2015. This volume contains six papers that address various core issues of pro-poor growth policies. These papers were presented at the annual meeting of the Research Committee Development Economics (Ausschuss Entwicklungsländer des Vereins für Socialpolitik) in 2005. Papers were lively discussed at the meeting and later on improved by comments from anonymous referees. All authors have done extensive research in the field of pro-poor growth, including field studies. Accordingly, their contributions - reflecting this knowledge and proficiency - pick up recent developments in the field. The discussion of most appropriate pro-poor growth policies is an ongoing process which has been documented by a growing literature. The value added of the present volume is obviously not to be more comprehensive than others but rather to continue the line of work by bringing some recent research findings - with a focus on policy relevance and empirical substantiation - to a broader audience.

The embarrassing living conditions of more than one billion poor people in developing countries in combination with the increasing gap of living standards between the poor and the rich, has provided a strong motivation for development policy to change this situation. From its beginning, policy has aimed for stimulating economic growth in order to improve living conditions for everyone. The endurance of poverty, however, has motivated to extend the traditional »growth is good for the poor« by a more targeted policy that combines growth with a particular emphasis on improving the situation of the poor. This is exactly the objective of »pro-poor growth«, a term that became popular during the late 1990s and which seemed to dominate the stage with the propagation of the Millennium Development Goals, including its goal to halve poverty by 2015.This volume contains six papers that address various core issues of pro-poor growth policies. These papers were presented at the annual meeting of the Research Committee Development Economics (Ausschuss Entwicklungsländer des Vereins für Socialpolitik) in 2005. Papers were lively discussed at the meeting and later on improved by comments from anonymous referees.All authors have done extensive research in the field of pro-poor growth, including field studies. Accordingly, their contributions - reflecting this knowledge and proficiency - pick up recent developments in the field. The discussion of most appropriate pro-poor growth policies is an ongoing process which has been documented by a growing literature. The value added of the present volume is obviously not to be more comprehensive than others but rather to continue the line of work by bringing some recent research findings - with a focus on policy relevance and empirical substantiation - to a broader audience.