 Productivity Growth, Poverty Reduction and Income Inequality: New Empirical EvidenceMahamat Hamit-Haggar () and Malick Souare Post-Print from HAL Abstract: There is a long-standing view that economic growth is the most powerful instrument for reducing poverty. In dynamic economies most economic growth comes from productivity growth, and yet the literature concerning the relationship between productivity changes and poverty is sparse. Against this backdrop, this paper examines the impact of productivity growth on income and human poverty, and assesses the role played by the income distribution in that relationship. Using cross-country data to conduct a regional comparative analysis, we find that productivity growth is more relevant for poverty reduction than the more commonly used indicator economic growth – a finding that is robust across regions. We also find that the poverty-reducing impact of productivity growth is stronger in countries with relatively low income inequality. These findings suggest that countries attempting to reach their objectives of eradicating poverty should pursue policies that foster productivity growth; and that productivity growth that is accompanied by progressive distributional change is even better for alleviating poverty. Keywords: Productivity Growth; Economic Growth; Poverty; Inequality; Regional Analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers) Published in Productivity and Inequality, Springer, pp.229-254, 2016, 978-3-319-68677-6 There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it. Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01875987 Access Statistics for this paper More papers in Post-Print from HAL |
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