ON THE “PRO‐POORNESS” OF GROWTH IN A MULTIDIMENSIONAL CONTEXT

This paper represents a first attempt to bring together the issues of multidimensional poverty and growth “pro‐poorness” assessments. More specifically, we suggest the use of sequential dominance procedures to test the “pro‐poorness” of observed growth spells when poverty is measured on the basis of income and another discrete well‐being attribute. Sequential procedures are also used to obtain graphical tools that are consistent with the spirit of Ravallion and Chen's growth incidence curve and Son's poverty growth curve. Contrary to traditional unidimensional tests, our method makes it possible to take into account the importance of deprivation correlations at the individual level and thus may reverse results observed with the traditional tools used to check the “pro‐poorness” of growth. An illustration of our approach is given using Turkish data for the period 2003–05.     

The Pro‐Poorness,Growth and Inequality Nexus: Some Findings From a Simulation Study

An income growth pattern is pro‐poor if it reduces a (chosen) measure of poverty by more than if all incomes were growing equiproportionately. Inequality reduction is not sufficient for pro‐poorness. In this paper, we explore the nexus between pro‐poorness, growth, and inequality in some detail using simulations involving the displaced lognormal, Singh–Maddala, and Dagum distributions. For empirically relevant parameter estimates, distributional change preserving the functional form of each of these three‐parameter distributions is often either pro‐poor and inequality reducing, or pro‐rich and inequality exacerbating, but it is also possible for pro‐rich growth to be inequality reducing. There is some capacity for each of these distributions to show trickle effects (weak pro‐richness) along with inequality‐reducing growth, but virtually no possibility of pro‐poorness for growth which increases overall inequality. Implications are considered.     

Parametric Lorenz Curves and the Modality of the Income Density Function

Similar looking Lorenz curves can imply very different income density functions and potentially lead to wrong policy implications regarding inequality. This paper derives a relation between a Lorenz curve and the modality of its underlying income density: given a parametric Lorenz curve, it is the sign of its third derivative which indicates whether the density is unimodal or zeromodal (i.e., downward‐sloping). The density modality of several important Lorenz curves such as the Pareto, Weibull, Singh–Maddala parametrizations and hierarchical families of Lorenz curves are discussed. A Lorenz curve performance comparison with Monte Carlo simulations and data from the UNU–WIDER World Income Inequality Database underlines the relevance of the theoretical result: curve‐fitting based on criteria such as mean squared error or the Gini difference might lead to a Lorenz curve implying an incorrectly‐shaped density function. It is therefore important to take into account the modality when selecting a parametric Lorenz curve.     

Multi‐asset Deprivation and Pro‐poor Growth in Cameroon

This article analyzes pro‐poor growth of multiple dimensions of household well‐being by sector of activity in Cameroon. It uses (1) a polychoric principal component analysis to construct indicators of household asset endowments, (2) the growth incidence curve to analyze the pro‐poorness of the different assets, and (3) a Shapley value framework decomposition to account for changes in deprivation in terms of within‐sector growth and changes in within‐sector inequality. Data is sourced from the second and third Cameroon household consumption surveys. Results show that: (a) pro‐poor growth is not observed for all assets and households at the bottom of the distribution of the different assets experienced an increase in inequality; (b) for all asset endowments, overall deprivation worsened between 2001 and 2007; (c) whereas the growth component mitigated the worsening incidence, depth and severity of human asset deprivation, both growth and redistribution components accounted for the worsening physical, financial and social asset deprivations; (d) while the tertiary sectors of activity benefited some human asset poverty reduction, all sectors suffered from worsening financial and social asset deprivation. These results have implications for promoting growth and improving the allocation of household assets.     

经济增长、收入分配与贫困规模变动相关性研究--来自北京市城市居民的经验数据

文章详细讨论了经济增长、不平等与贫困规模变动的相互关系,在确立三者关系基本框架的基础上,构造了应用Lorenz曲线及其相应弹性分析三者关系的理论模型,并提出了亲贫困增长指数的概念。在对北京城市居民的经验数据进行分析的基础之上得到的结论是:政府制定扶贫政策的选择应该使收入增长效应与收入不平等效应之和最大化,这为制定扶贫政策提供了决策依据。     

The Lorenz curve as an archetype: A historico-epistemological study

In 1905, Max O. Lorenz suggested a simple method of measuring the concentration of wealth, based on the visual representation of income distribution. The Lorenz curve is now very popular and can be considered as canonical. However, the path leading from Lorenz's original work to contemporary interpretations of his graph has been anything but simple. We thus propose to trace the origin, the evolution and the various subsequent interpretations of the Lorenz graph. We argue that the original Lorenz curve has been shifted in epistemological status as well as inverted in graphic appearance.     

An alternative functional form for estimating the Lorenz curve

We propose a simple single parameter functional form for the Lorenz curve. The new specification is fitted to existing data sets and is shown to provide a better fit than existing single parameter Lorenz curves for the given data.     

POVERTY EQUIVALENT GROWTH RATE

This paper proposes a new type of growth rate, called the “poverty equivalent growth rate” (PEGR), which takes into account both the growth rate in mean income and how the benefits of growth are distributed between the poor and the non‐poor. The proposed measure satisfies a basic requirement that the proportional reduction in poverty is a monotonically increasing function of the PEGR. Thus, maximizing the PEGR implies a maximum reduction in poverty. The paper demonstrates that the magnitude of PEGR determines the pattern of growth: whether growth is pro‐poor in relative or absolute sense or is “poverty reducing” pro‐poor. The pattern of growth has been analyzed for Brazil using the National Household Survey (PNAD) covering the period 1995–2005.     

The eye of the beholder. Reconsidering the notions of pro‐poor growth and progressivity,with an application to Vietnam

Both policymakers and economists have tried to find criteria to assess whether economic growth is pro‐poor. In this paper we reconsider the inequality‐oriented approach originally proposed by Jenkins and Van Kerm. They look at the changes in the whole income distribution, and decompose the change in income inequality, measured by the Gini coefficient, into a progressivity and a reranking component. They define a pro‐poor (or progressive) change as one where the changes in income are more to the benefit of those who are initially poor than to the benefit of those who are initially rich. We challenge this assumption, and maintain that also the point of view of the finally poor and the finally rich should be taken into account when evaluating whether growth is pro‐poor. We suggest a new decomposition method, based on an inequality index of the generalized entropy family, which allows the change in income inequality to be decomposed exactly into a forward‐looking and a backward‐looking progressivity component. Our empirical illustration, using data from household surveys in Vietnam, shows that economic growth in Vietnam has been pro‐poor from a forward‐looking perspective, but not from a backward‐looking perspective.     

Growth and Wage Inequality in a Dual Economy

Who benefits from economic growth? This paper analyses the distributional impact of different types of growth within a two‐sector model. The paper first presents necessary and sufficient conditions for unambiguous changes in wage inequality in a dual economy, based on analysis of the entire Lorenz curve. These conditions are then applied to the Harris–Todaro model with an urban non‐agricultural sector and rural agriculture. It is shown that capital accumulation or technical progress in agriculture can shift the Lorenz curve inwards and reduce wage inequality, while the effects of development in non‐agriculture are typically ambiguous.     

经济增长、收入分配与贫困——对新疆农村居民贫困变动的实证分析

通过运用FGT贫困指数和在Lorenz曲线基础上的贫困指示增长曲线对新疆农村最近几年的贫困变动进行研究。研究结果表明,从2003年到2007年,经济增长减缓了新疆农村的贫困状况,但收入分配状况的恶化在一定程度上抵消了经济增长减缓贫困的积极作用。除2003～2004年以外,其余时期的经济增长都不是亲贫式的增长,新疆农村的贫困人口在经济增长中获得的利益少于非贫困人口。因此,为了有效地减少贫困,新疆不仅要注重通过经济增长减少贫困规模,同时也要重视缩小收入分配差距,并且把减少收入分配不均等的重点要放在提高最贫困人口的收入水平上。     

Calculating Poverty Measures from the Generalised Beta Income Distribution

Data for measuring poverty are frequently available in a summary form that describes the proportion of income or expenditure for each of a number of population proportions. While various discrete poverty measures can be applied directly to data in this limited form, they typically require an arbitrary approach to within‐group interpolation. This problem can be overcome by fitting either a parametric income distribution or a Lorenz curve to the grouped data and computing the required quantities from estimated parameters. The Lorenz curve approach is widely used by the World Bank, but can encounter problems. As an alternative, in this article we show how to calculate several poverty measures from parameters of the generalized beta income distribution, and its popular special cases. An analysis of poverty changes in countries from South and Southeast Asia is used to illustrate the methodology.     

我国农村低收入群体贫困变动及其影响因素——基于福建省农村居民收入分组数据的分析

旨在考察一个较长的时间序列内农村低收入人口贫困状况的动态变化,探明经济增长和收入分配等宏观层面影响因素与贫困指数之间的定量关系与内在联系。基于GQ模型和（模型,选取具备可分解性的FGT指数,采用1990—2006年福建省农村居民收入分组面板数据,分别运用4条低收入标准线对低收入群体的H指数、PG指数、SPG指数和贫困弹性进行模拟。实证结果表明,福建省的经济增长有效减少了绝对低收入人口数量,而收入分配差距的扩大却降低了低收入群体的潜在福利,从而影响农村相对贫困的减少效果。     

A GENERAL METHOD FOR CREATING LORENZ CURVES

A general method to construct parametric Lorenz models of the weighted‐product form is offered in this paper. Initially, a general result to describe the conditions for the weighted‐product model to be a Lorenz curve, created by using several component parametric Lorenz models, is given. We show that the key property for an ideal component model is that the ratio between its second derivative and its first derivative is increasing. Then, a set of Lorenz models, consisting of a basic group of models, along with their convex combinations, is proposed, and it is shown that any model in the set possesses this key property. We introduce the concept of balanced fit, which provides a means of assigning weights, according to the preferences of the practitioner, to two alternative objectives for developing Lorenz curves in practice. These objectives are generating an acceptable Lorenz curve and improving the accuracy of the density estimation. We apply the balanced fit approach to income survey data from China to illustrate the performance of our models. We first show that our models outperform other popular traditional Lorenz models in the literature. Second, we compare the results generated by the balanced fit approach applied to one of the Lorenz models that we develop with those generated by the kernel method to show that the approach proposed in the paper generates plausible density estimates.     

Note

Functional classes of Lorenz curves are derived from a generalization of a relative poverty notion. All these Lorenz curves compare individual income to the average of all larger or all smaller incomes. The parameters of the Lorenz curves are effectively computed from empirical income data by least square regressions. Best fits are analyzed and resulting functional Gini indices are compared to empirical Gini indices.First version received: September 2002/Final version received: April 2003     

Redistribution in the age of austerity: evidence from Europe 2006–2013

We examine the relationship between changes in a country’s public sector fiscal position on inequality at the top and bottom of the income distribution during the age of austerity from 2006 to 2013. We use a parametric Lorenz curve model and Gini-like indices of inequality as our measures to assess distributional changes. Based on Statistics of Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) and IMF data for 12 European countries, we find that more severe adjustments to the cyclically adjusted primary balance (i.e., more austerity) are associated with a more unequal distribution of income driven by rising inequality at the top. The data also weakly suggests a decrease in inequality at the bottom. The distributional impact of austerity measures reflects the reliance on regressive policies and likely produces increased incentives for rent-seeking while reducing incentives for workers to increase productivity.     

Economic,structural and socio‐psychological determinants of protests in Russia during 2011–2012

This empirical analysis is based on the latent variable framework to identify key determinants of protests in Russia during 2011–2012. We derive logistic regressions from the revolution constraints based on economic (the political Kuznets Curve) and socio‐psychological (grievance) theories of protest. Our findings suggest a positive linear relationship between income and income inequality, contradicting the Kuznets curve. Our estimations show that inequality, share of the poor, the relation of the governor's family income to the average family income, distance to Moscow and accumulated human capital increase the risk of protest, whereas transfers and subsidies decrease these risks.     

IS ECONOMIC GROWTH IN COTE D'IVOIRE PRO‐POOR? EVIDENCE FROM LSMS DATA: A NOTE

This paper analyses the impact of the economic growth in Cote d'Ivoire on the poor people. We use household data from two LSMS (1992 and 2002) led by the National Statistical Office of Côte d'Ivoire. We show that the situation in this country is characterized by a trickle‐down growth: the poverty growth curve and the growth incidence curve computed show that growth reduces poverty but the poor people receive proportionally fewer benefits than the non‐poor.     

The Trojan-Horse Principle in Development Assistance: A Reading of Uganda's Experience with Aid

The World Bank recommends “ideas, not money” as a guiding principle to donors for dealing with badly governed countries. This paper challenges that principle on the basis of a study of the evolution in Uganda of pro‐growth policies in the early to mid 1990s and pro‐poor policies in the late 1990s. The analysis of Uganda’s experience with aid is accommodated within the theoretical framework of a principal–agent conditionality game, in which policy objectives of the recipient (the agent) evolve over time. The key finding of the paper is that the apparent conditionality failure of the period 1987–91 has paved the way for later reform. Financial aid given during this period suspended the necessity of reforms and bought donor proximity to recipient policy deliberations, as a result of both of which the policy learning could take place that led to later successful reform measures.