Revisiting Growth And Poverty Reduction In Indonesia

Indonesia has an impressive record of economic growth and poverty reduction over the past 2 decades. The growth-poverty nexus appears strong at the aggregate level. Newly constructed panel data on the country's 285 districts, however, reveal huge differences in poverty changes, subnational economic growth, and local attributes. Results of econometric analysis show that besides growth, other factors directly influence the welfare of the poor, apart from their impact on growth itself. Among the critical ones are infrastructure, human capital, ag. price incentives, and access to technology. Thus, while fostering economic growth is evidently crucial, a more complete poverty reduction strategy should take into account these relevant factors.

Indonesia has an impressive record of economic growth and poverty reduction over the past 2 decades. The growth-poverty nexus appears strong at the aggregate level. Newly constructed panel data on the country's 285 districts, however, reveal huge differences in poverty changes, subnational economic growth, and local attributes. Results of econometric analysis show that besides growth, other factors directly influence the welfare of the poor, apart from their impact on growth itself. Among the critical ones are infrastructure, human capital, ag. price incentives, and access to technology. Thus, while fostering economic growth is evidently crucial, a more complete poverty reduction strategy should take into account these relevant factors.

Despite the rapid economic growth and poverty reduction, inequality in Asia worsened during last two decades. We focus on the determinants of growth inclusiveness and suggest options for reform. A cross cross-country empirical analysis suggests that fiscal redistribution, monetary policy aimed at macro stability, and structural reforms to stimulate trade, reduce unemployment and increase productivity are important determinants of inclusive growth. The main policy implication of our analysis is that there is still room to strengthen such policies in Asia to better achieve growth with shared prosperity. In particular, scenario simulations based on our results suggests that the effect of expanding fiscal redistribution on inclusive growth could be sizeable in emerging Asia, since the estimated improvement in our proxy of inclusive growth – a measure of growth in average income “corrected” for the equity impact—ranges from about 1 to about 8 percentage points.

Viet Nam's dramatic transition and growth in the 1990s have been attributed to a series of reforms, known as "doi moi," which began in the late 1980s. Economic growth of nearly 8% yearly benefited the poor and reduced poverty from 61% in 1993 to 37% in 1998. The proportionate increases in the incomes of the poorest quintile were appreciably larger than those of the top 20 or 40% of the population. This result is at variance with typical findings for other countries, which indicate that welfare gains from growth are smallest for the lowest quintile and rise with income group. The results for Viet Nam suggest that the faster the growth rate, the lesser becomes the role of distributive factors that directly influence the poor's well-being. A print on demand report.

The theme of this book is that economic growth is key, but institutions and other national and subnational attributes matter as well. They are critical to explaining differences in social development and poverty reduction across countries and subnational areas that cannot be accounted for by growth alone. The book concludes that a more complete strategy needs to consider various institutional factors at the national and subnational levels to achieve rapid and sustained poverty reduction. Indeed, paying attention to these factors will benefit both growth and poverty reduction.

Evaluates the role of infrastructure in promoting economic growth and poverty reduction in Africa. Examines complementary physical infrastructure: telecommunications, power, transport (roads, railways, ports and airports) and water supply. Explores Africa's infrastructure endowment and financing options.