Growth Elasticities of Poverty Reduction / Martin Ravallion.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ravallion, Martin.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w30401.

NBER working paper series no. w30401

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2022.

Summary:

Thirty years ago, Nanak Kakwani provided elegant nonparametric formulae for the point elasticities of measures of poverty with respect to changes in the mean of the distribution of income, thus analytically linking the poverty measures to key macroeconomic aggregates. Numerous insights are found in Kakwani's elasticities. However, the literature on poverty and growth since then has revealed that the impacts of economic growth on poverty, as observed in practice, can be substantially lower than suggested by Kakwani's elasticities; the reasons include rising inequality, measurement errors, discrepancies between surveys and national accounts, and changing ideas about what "poverty" means in specific contexts. Nor should Kakwani's elasticities be treated as structural parameters. Rather, they can vary over time and place, and in systematic ways that merit closer attention.

Notes:

Print version record

August 2022.