The Poverty Elasticity of Growth

Rasmus Heltberg

No DP2002-21, WIDER Working Paper Series from World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER)

Abstract: How much does economic growth contribute to poverty reduction? I discuss analytical and empirical approaches to assess the poverty elasticity of growth, and emphasize that the relationship between growth and poverty change is non-constant. For a given poverty measure, it depends on initial inequality and on the location of the poverty line relative to mean income. In most cases, growth is more important for poverty reduction than changes in inequality, but this does not tender inequality unimportant.

Keywords: Economic development; Equality and inequality; Poverty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2002
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

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