Pro-poor growth and the lognormal income distribution

Peter Lambert ()
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Peter Lambert: University of Oregon

No 130, Working Papers from ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality

Abstract: A widely accepted criterion for pro-poorness of an income growth pattern is that it should reduce a (chosen) measure of poverty by more than if all incomes were growing equiproportionately. Inequality reduction is not generally seen as either necessary or sufficient for pro-poorness. Because empirical income distributions fit well to the lognormal form, lognormality has sometimes been assumed in order to determine analytically the poverty effects of income growth. We show that in a lognormal world, growth is pro-poor in the above sense if and only if it is inequality-reducing. It follows that lognormality may not be a good paradigm by means of which to examine pro-poorness issues.

Keywords: poverty; growth; pro-poorness; lognormal distribution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I32 D63 D31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mic
Date: 2009

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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2009-130

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