Pro-Poor Growth in Pakistan

Muhammad Omer and Sarah Jafri
Additional contact information
Sarah Jafri: Sarah Jafri is an Economic Analyst at Arif Habib Investments Management Ltd, 2/1, R.Y. 16, Old Queens Road, Karachi-74400. Email: sarah.jafri@gmail.com

South Asia Economic Journal, 2008, vol. 9, issue 1, 51-68

Abstract: This study assesses the impact of economic growth on absolute poverty in Pakistan over the last four decades. The article attempts to answer the relatively ignored basic question: is economic growth in Pakistan pro-poor? In addition, an attempt has been made to evaluate the distribution of income within poor, a step necessary to determine the sensitivity of different income groups, below poverty line, to the economic growth. These assessments are conducted through Growth Incidence Curves—a superior poverty measure—and calculation of the Rate of Pro-Poor Growth (RPPG) and the Ordinary Rate of Growth (ORG). This study finds that economic growth in Pakistan is not intrinsically pro-poor. Although it was pro-poor in the seventies and is also the same in the current decade, and strongly pro-poor in the eighties, a positive growth in the nineties was, however, anti-poor. The analysis shows that the first decile is most sensitive to economic growth and most vulnerable to economic shocks.

Keywords: JEL: D3; JEL: I32; JEL: I38; JEL: O4; JEL: O5; Growth Incidence Curve; Pakistan; Poverty; Pro-Poor Growth; South Asia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/139156140700900102 (text/html)

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:sae:soueco:v:9:y:2008:i:1:p:51-68

DOI: 10.1177/139156140700900102

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in South Asia Economic Journal from Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().