Did Rapid Smallholder-Led Agricultural Growth Fail to Reduce Rural Poverty?: Making Sense of Malawi's Poverty Puzzle

Karl Pauw, Ulrik Beck and Richard Mussa

No wp-2014-123, WIDER Working Paper Series from World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER)

Abstract: Disappointment was widespread when rapid economic growth since 2005, coupled with a smallholder-targeted fertilizer subsidy program, failed to significantly reduce poverty in Malawi. Official estimates for 2011 showed a 1.7 percentage point decline in national poverty between 2005 and 2011, while rural poverty increased marginally. In this study we estimate an alternative set of regional poverty lines using a cost of basic needs method that allows the consumption bundle to vary spatially and temporally while ensuring utility consistency.

Keywords: Equality and inequality; Poverty measurement; Rural development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

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