Has Economic Growth in Mozambique been Pro-Poor?

Channing Arndt, Robert C. James and Kenneth Simler

Journal of African Economies, 2006, vol. 15, issue 4, 571-602

Abstract: Using the 1996--7 and 2002--3 nationally representative household surveys, we examine the extent to which growth in Mozambique has been pro-poor. Although all segments of the income distribution experienced a rapid increase in consumption between the sample periods, the rate of growth in consumption was slightly higher for richer households. This has led to a moderate increase in inequality at the national level, as demonstrated by the rise in the Gini coefficient from 0.40 to 0.42. However, this slight increase in inequality at the national level is not statistically significant, and its impact on poverty reduction efforts is small: the poverty headcount would have been 53.0% in 2002--3 if all sections of society had enjoyed the mean growth rate in consumption, compared with the 54.1% at which it actually stood. Interestingly, static decompositions of the generalised entropy class of inequality measures indicate that inequality in real consumption between provinces and regions has diminished over time, in contrast to popular claims. Maputo City continues to have the highest rates of inequality in the country and witnessed a significant increase in inequality between 1996--7 and 2002--3 (the Gini coefficient rose from 0.44 to 0.52). Copyright 2006, Oxford University Press.

Date: 2006
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:jafrec:v:15:y:2006:i:4:p:571-602

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of African Economies is currently edited by Francis Teal

More articles in Journal of African Economies from Centre for the Study of African Economies Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().