Poverty, Inequality and Growth in Selected Middle East and North Africa Countries, 1980–2000

This paper uses crosscountry data and country-case studies to analyze trends in poverty, inequality and economic growth in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Compared to other regions, the MENA region has a low incidence of poverty and income inequality. Two factors account for this situation: international migration/remittances and public sector (government) employment. Since the early 1980s international migration to the Persian Gulf and Europe has helped boost the incomes of the poor in the Middle East. At the same time, many MENA countries have used government employment as a means of keeping people employed and out of poverty. Regression analysis of crosscountry data shows that both of these factors have a statistically significant impact on reducing the level and depth of poverty in the MENA region.     

Growth,Poverty, and Inequality under Jokowi

SUMMARY

The political authority of President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) was bolstered in the third quarter of 2015 by a cabinet reshuffle, his coalition's gaining a parliamentary majority, and several foreign-policy developments. Indonesia's request to rejoin OPEC, for example, after having left in 2008, seemed more about international relations than oil prices, while official visits to the Middle East and the United States allowed Jokowi to project his presidency on the international stage. He still faces resistance from within his own party, however.

Jokowi's politically bold reshuffle of economic ministers in August soon yielded a range of policy announcements. In September and October, his government introduced its first substantial set of reforms—a number of economic policy packages intended, among other things, to attract investment and stimulate domestic demand. If even half of these policies are put in place, the impact on Indonesia's economy should be tangible.

Few countries have escaped the effects of falling global commodity prices and China's growth slowdown. At 4.7%, year on year, in the third quarter Indonesia's rate of economic growth again fell short of the government's target. Slowing growth and a negative outlook have lowered market expectations and weakened the rupiah, which is also burdened by the large outstanding external debt held by corporate borrowers. Indonesia's real effective exchange rate has recently begun to depreciate, however, which may stimulate exports. Growth prospects will also improve if the substantial increase in capital and infrastructure spending allocated in the state budget is realised.

Against this backdrop, we focus on what has happened to poverty and inequality in Indonesia since Jokowi took office. The distributional impacts of the current macroeconomic climate are likely to be hardest felt by the poor. Indonesia is well known for its record on poverty reduction, but between September 2014 and March 2015 the share of the population in poverty increased, even though economic growth was close to 5.0%. Slowing growth, rising food prices, the falling real wages of farmers, and the delayed disbursement of fuel-price compensation all had an effect. Such impacts may be mitigated in the medium term by Jokowi's budget reallocations to infrastructure, if realised, and his expansion of social spending.     

Growth,Inequality and Poverty: Looking Beyond Averages

The available evidence suggests that the poor in developing countries typically do share in the gains from rising aggregate affluence, and in the losses from aggregate contraction. But there are large differences between countries in how much poor people share in growth, and there are diverse impacts among the poor in a given country. Crosscountry correlations are clouded in data problems, and undoubtedly hide welfare impacts; they can be deceptive for development policy. There is a need for deeper micro empirical work on growth and distributional change. Only then will we have a firm basis for identifying the specific policies and programs that are needed to complement growth-oriented policies.     

异质性、经济增长与收入不平等

本文构建了一个劳动供给可变的内生增长模型,在不同消费者之问引入资本拥有量和劳动技能的双重异质性,并导出将这两种异质性与收入不平等联系起来的公式。分析表明,它们对收入不平等的作用方向是相反的;只有在以资本与技能异质性的相对量为条件时,才能得到确定的增长．不平等关系。男外,拓展的模型则考虑了劳动市场不完全性对增长和收入不均等的影响。     

Inequality and Economic Growth in the UK

Open Economies Review - This paper analyses the effect of wealth inequality on UK economic growth in recent decades with a heterogeneous-agent growth model where agents can enhance individual...     

Economic Growth and Electricity Consumption in GCC and MENA Countries

This study estimates the causal relationship between oil rents, electricity consumption and economic growth at aggregate levels with annual data from between 1972 and 2011 for the Arab states of the Gulf and some Middle East and North African countries. An autoregressive distributed lag bounds test shows that oil rents, economic growth and electricity consumption are cointegrated for these countries in a stable manner over this whole period. Granger causality tests indicate that directions of causalities differ for the countries according to their natural resource levels. Thus, these countries can be classified according to their oil rent levels for implementing energy policies such as energy conservation.     

Decomposing Poverty Changes in Zambia: Growth,Inequality and Population Dynamics

Abstract: During the 1990s, the Zambian economy underwent major structural adjustments. This paper presents an application of a recently proposed poverty decomposition that attributes changes in poverty to income growth, changes in inequality and population dynamics. Our results confirm earlier findings that the existence of a severe urban bias in the economy effectively shielded large parts of the rural population from the economic slump caused by the structural adjustments. In addition, we find that the exodus from urban centres that followed the adjustments contributed significantly to the increase in national poverty. The latter finding highlights the importance of considering population movements when studying poverty, especially in situations where policy changes affect migrant labour, as was the case for the Zambian copper industry.     

经济增长与收入分布对新疆城市居民贫困变动的影响

本文采用相对贫困线方法研究新疆城市居民2000年与2003年的贫困变化程度,利用FGT(Foster-Greer-Thorbecke)贫困指数分析了新疆城市居民的贫困率、贫困差距、贫困深度的变化,通过贫困指数FGT变化的分解分析,说明经济增长提高可支配收入有助于减少贫困,收入分布差距的减少也是减少贫困程度的重要因素之一。     

持续性不平等的动态演化和经济增长

本论文分别在外生技术进步和内生经济增长的经济中，讨论了持续性不平等的动态演化、稳定状态下持续性不平等的决定以及初始财富分配对持续性不平等的影响。论文研究表明，当经济中存在经济增长时，从长期来看，持续性不平等总会趋于收敛。但是，初始财富分配是否影响长期的持续性不平等取决于财富积累率和经济增长率之间的关系：如果财富积累率大干经济增长率，初始不平等对长期不平等没有持续性影响，反之则相反。另外，论文研究还表明，经济增长率越大，稳定不平等状态的不平等程度会越大。因此，从长期动态的角度来看，存在另一种形式的公平和效率的冲突——经济增长和不平等之间的冲突。     

Labor Market Reform, Income Inequality and Economic Growth in China

The year 1996 was a turning point both in terms of Chinese labor market reform aria m China＇s economic growth pattern. Before 1996, labor market reform was mainly implemented through adjustment of people＇s occupation and income structure. Since 1996, employment restructuring has led to differentiation in terms of employment status. Labor market reform in the former stage resulted in slow growth in wages, whereas reform in the latter stage enhanced economic efficiency. Both stages have enabled the Chinese economy to apply its comparative advantage of low labor cost. Labor market reform has also increased income disparity and, therefore, new challenges are posed in sustaining economic growth. China needs to adjust its development strategies and introduce labor market reform that can improve income equality, so as to achieve sustainable economic development.     

户籍制度与经济增长中的贫困陷阱

户籍制度对经济增长的不同阶段有不同的影响,在经济增长的第一个阶段,增长主要靠物质资本推动,人力资本与物质资本可以相互替代,户籍制度促进了物质资本积累,促进了经济增长.第二阶段,人力资本逐渐取代物质资本成为经济增长的引擎,人力资本与物质资本更多体现了互补性,而户籍制度阻碍了农民的人力资本积累,使人力资本成为经济增长的瓶颈.