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• Conceptual and empirical framework for the impact of sectoral productivity and structural change on poverty reduction. • Poverty reduction is closely linked to aggregate labor productivity growth with a semi-elasticity of approximately −0.22. • Productivity growth in the manufacturing sector helps reduce poverty, which is more pronounced in developing Asia than in sub-Saharan Africa. • Agricultural productivity growth plays a substantial role in reducing poverty in both developing Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. • Worker reallocation to productive sectors of the economy relates to poverty reduction in both developing Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. This paper presents an empirical framework that explores the relationship between poverty reduction and changes in the production structure of developing countries. We use the new GGDC/UNU-WIDER Economic Transformation Database to measure productivity growth within sectors and structural change – the reallocation of workers across sectors – for 42 developing countries from 1990 to 2018. Regression analysis indicates that poverty reduction significantly relates to productivity growth, particularly within manufacturing, and to structural change. An attribution analysis suggests that structural change and increased agricultural productivity contributed to reducing poverty in developing countries of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The contribution of productivity growth in manufacturing appears to be a prominent factor in poverty reduction in developing Asia but less so in sub-Saharan Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The paper examines the extent to which emerging social transfer programs in developing countries can improve the productive capacity of households in poverty and contribute to micro-level growth. It introduces a basic framework linking transfers to growth mediating processes and productive capacity outcomes. This is then used to organize and assess relevant findings from program evaluation studies. The paper concludes that social transfer programs can have positive effects on the productive capacity of poor and poorest groups; but further research is needed to identify and measure the size and significance of these effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • We study a large-scale expansion of integrated center-based care in Colombia. • We find large positive effects on receptive vocabulary that persist after 5 years. • The impact implies a reduction of 35% in the cognitive socioeconomic gap. • We report positive but less robust effects on children's nutritional status. • Integrated early childhood care can be effective and sustainable at large-scale. Abstract The focus in developing countries is shifting from increasing access to early childhood care services to improving its quality. In light of the inclusion of early childhood development in the UN Sustainable Development Goals, there has emerged a global call for early childhood programs that integrate nutrition, health and development components. However, large-scale studies of integrated early childhood interventions are scarce in developing countries, and thus, little is known about its effectiveness and sustainability. In this paper we study the immediate and medium-run effects of a large-scale expansion of an integrated package of services including care, education, health and nutrition on child growth and development, by analyzing the expansion of the Colombian national early childhood strategy known as " From Zero to Forever " between 2011 and 2013. The results indicate that the increased access to integrated center-based care had a large immediate effect on vocabulary that persists five years into the intervention, and less robust effects on nutritional status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper assesses the effect of the steadily growing remittance flows to sub-Saharan Africa. Though the region receives only a small portion of the total recorded remittances to developing countries, and the volume of aid flows to sub-Saharan Africa swamps remittances, this paper finds that remittances, which are a stable, private transfer, have a direct poverty-mitigating effect, and promote financial development. These findings hold even after factoring in the reverse causality between remittances, poverty, and financial development. The paper posits that formalizing such flows can serve as an effective access point for “unbanked” individuals, and households. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: What causes developing countries to receive different levels of international remittances? This paper addresses this question by using new data on such variables as the skill composition of migrants, poverty, and interest and exchange rates to examine the determinants of remittances. The paper finds that the skill composition of migrants does matter in remittance determination. Countries which export a larger share of high-skilled (educated) migrants receive less per capita remittances than countries which export a larger proportion of low-skilled migrants. It also finds that the level of poverty in a labor-sending country does not have a positive impact on the level of remittances received. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: This paper is an introduction to eight papers included in this special issue on the impact of globalization on the world’s poor, arising out of the first conceptual and methodological workshop for the UNU-WIDER project in Helsinki, October 2004. The authors of the papers in this issue focus on the different channels and transmission mechanisms through which the process of globalization affects different aspects and dimensions of poverty in the developing world. These numerous channels interact and the net effects on poverty depend on the relative strength of the positive and negative forces of globalization. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The paper aims to provide a perspective on old age poverty. It reviews the available evidence on the incidence of old age poverty emerging from survey data analysis and from qualitative participatory studies, which indicate that old age poverty is a significant issue in developing countries. It also consideres other components of poverty in later life: access to markets, basic services, and social networks. The paper argues that understanding poverty in later life, and developing appropriate policy, requires acknowledging the contribution of older people to their households, communities, and the development process. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary This paper examines the implications of productivity improvements in agriculture, industry, and services for global poverty. We find that, in poor countries, increases in agricultural productivity generally have a larger poverty-reduction effect than increases in industry or services. This differential declines as average incomes rise, partly because agriculture becomes smaller as a share of the economy, and partly because agricultural productivity growth becomes less effective in reducing poverty. The source of the poverty-reduction benefits from agricultural productivity growth changes as innovations are more widely adopted—moving from increases in producer returns to reductions in consumer prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary This paper explains the processes behind the framing of drip irrigation as a promising technology to address current poverty and environmental challenges in the developing world. I draw from critical development and science and technology studies and highlight that this imagery has been actively performed. Insiders elaborated a compelling narrative calling upon a will to improve through technology and the moral legitimacy of social entrepreneurship in development; they worked hard to establish a supportive coalition in an ever wider network. This story hinges on several assumptions, which upon closer scrutiny appear to be problematic: the unicity of smallholder farming, the attribution of inherent technical characteristics to a specific object—the “drip kit”—regardless of the context in which it is used, and the framing of social entrepreneurship and market-based approaches as alternative models even though these rather constitute a re-working of existing arrangements within the international development community. Nonetheless, the pro-poor and environmentally friendly smallholder drip irrigation narrative still continues to be successful in harnessing the support of the international development community, despite the little capacity drip irrigation has had to transform smallholder farming, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Unpacking the origins, actors, and building blocks of the discursive success of smallholder drip irrigation provides fresh perspectives on the practices of development in the sector and is the first step toward more meaningful engagement with smallholder farmers in the developing world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We investigate the link from poverty to growth using data from 129 developing countries, including 44 in Sub Saharan Africa, during 1981–2018. • Faster poverty reduction leads to faster growth in the developing world as a whole (LDCs); but especially in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). • Initial poverty has no direct impact on growth in both regions. But it weakens the effectiveness of growth in reducing poverty; more in LDCs than in SSA. • Faster growth brings about faster poverty reduction in the developing world as a whole; but not so much within SSA. • For faster poverty reduction, LDCs especially SSA need pro-growth reduction strategies besides the conventional pro-poor growth strategies. The positive impact of growth on poverty reduction has been well documented and confirmed. In contrast, the impact of poverty reduction on subsequent growth has not been systematically investigated. The main objective of this paper is to explore empirically the reverse causality between poverty and growth. Using data from 129 developing countries (44 in SSA) during 1981–2018, this study finds that faster poverty reduction is linked to faster growth in the developing world and especially the SSA region; while faster growth contributes to faster poverty reduction more in the developing world outside of SSA than within SSA. These findings suggest that for faster poverty reduction in the entire developing world but especially in SSA, we need a pro-growth poverty reduction strategy, where interventions directly target poverty reduction, and through that also contribute to faster growth; as a complement to the more conventional pro-poor growth strategy, where interventions directly target growth and only reduce poverty through growth. The main conclusion is that the combined effects of growth on poverty and of the latter on subsequent growth can lead to a virtuous spiral. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlight: [•] This paper analyzes the impact of internal remittances (from Ghana) and international remittances (from African or other countries) on investment and poverty in Ghana. The study has three main findings. First, when compared to what they would have spent without the receipt of remittances, households receiving remittances spend less at the margin on one key consumption good: food. Second, households receiving remittances spend more at the margin on three important investment goods: education, housing, and health. Third, the receipt of remittances greatly reduces the likelihood of household poverty. These findings support the growing view that remittances can reduce poverty and increase human and physical capital investment in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: About 15% of the world population lives with some form of disability. Yet little is known about the economic lives of persons with disabilities, especially in developing countries. This paper uses for the first time internationally comparable data to draw an economic profile of persons with disabilities in 15 developing countries. In most countries, disability is found to be significantly associated with higher multidimensional poverty as well as lower educational attainment, lower employment rates, and higher medical expenditures. Among persons with disabilities, persons aged 40 and above and persons with multiple disabilities were more likely to be multi-dimensionally poor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: When agricultural commodities in developing countries experience an economic boom, they offer potential pathways out of poverty while creating environmental and social problems. While recent research provides insights into the governance of international supply chains, it provides less analysis of the local production networks creating critical problems. Indonesia is now the world’s largest exporter of crude palm oil. This paper analyses processes of oil palm development in three oil palm districts. It considers how policy models, regime interests, and agribusiness strategies shape local production networks, generate local outcomes, and affect the possibilities of tackling issues associated with this boom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: To reduce the burden of health expenditures in developing countries, health-insurance schemes have become popular and now feature prominently in poverty-reduction strategies. There is, however, limited empirical evidence on the effect of such schemes on the livelihoods of clients, especially regarding household strategies to finance medical expenditures. This paper explores the relationship between health insurance and other risk-coping strategies used to finance medical expenditures in Uganda. Insurance is associated with a lower frequency of asset sales but not with lower incidences of borrowing. The amount of money borrowed or generated through the sales of assets is lower for insured households. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: The larger part of the economy in most developing countries is outside the regulative control of the state. When defined in this way, it has two types of expression: first, self-employment (with some wage-work) in unregistered or unincorporated small enterprises; second, unregistered and unregulated activity and workers inside and around large registered organizations such as firms, public sector enterprises, and the state itself. This paper reviews the literature, mainly but not exclusively from India, with three objectives. First, it questions what brings order to such economic activity and how economic and social insecurity is instituted. Second, it examines the counter intuitive proposition that social security rights are de facto, if not de jure, dependent upon work rights. Third, it explores the dynamics of, and responses to, informalization. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: Households in developing countries are frequently hit by severe idiosyncratic and covariate shocks leading to high consumption volatility. A household’s currently observed poverty status might therefore not be a good indicator of the household’s general vulnerability to poverty. In the recent years, there has been an emerging literature on the concept and empirical analysis of vulnerability. But because of strong data requirements for vulnerability analysis and limited availability of panel and shock data for developing countries, static poverty analysis still dominates empirical vulnerability studies. In this paper, we propose a simple method to empirically assess the impact of idiosyncratic and covariate shocks on households’ vulnerability, which can be applied in a wide context as it relies on more commonly available cross-sectional or short panel data. We empirically illustrate our approach for Madagascar. We show that covariate shocks have a relatively higher impact on rural households, whereas idiosyncratic shocks have a relatively higher impact on urban households’ vulnerability. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: More than half of those who emigrate from developing countries move to other developing countries, yet there have been few studies of the impact of this South–South migration. In this paper, we examine the impact of migration from one developing country, Nicaragua, on the labor market in another developing country, Costa Rica. We find little evidence to support the hypothesis that Nicaraguan migration to Costa Rica was an important factor contributing to falling earnings, increased inequality or stagnating poverty in Costa Rica. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: In this paper, we provide an analytical account of the mechanisms through which globalization, in the sense of increased foreign trade and long-term capital flows, affects the lives of the rural poor in developing countries (in their capacity as workers, consumers, recipients of public services, or users of common property resources). Globalization can not only cause many hardships for the rural poor, but it can also open up some opportunities which some countries can utilize and others do not, largely depending on their domestic political and economic institutions, and the net outcome is often quite complex and almost always context dependent, belying the glib pronouncements for or against globalization made in the opposing camps. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: There has been much debate about how much poor people in developing countries gain from trade openness, as one aspect of “globalization.” The paper views the issue through both “macro” and “micro” empirical lenses. The macro lens uses cross-country comparisons and aggregate time series data; the micro lens uses household-level data combined with structural modeling of the impacts of specific trade reforms. Case studies are presented for China and Morocco. Both the macro and micro approaches cast doubt on some widely heard generalizations from both sides of the globalization debate. Additionally, the micro lens indicates considerable heterogeneity in the welfare impacts of trade reforms, with both gainers and losers among the poor. A number of covariates of the individual gains are identified. The results point to the importance of combining trade reforms with well-designed social protection policies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: Few studies have examined the impact of international migration and remittances on poverty in the developing world. This paper fills this lacuna by constructing and analyzing a new data set on international migration, remittances, inequality, and poverty from 71 developing countries. The results show that both international migration and remittances significantly reduce the level, depth, and severity of poverty in the developing world. After instrumenting for the possible endogeneity of international migration, and controlling for various factors, results suggest that, on average, a 10% increase in the share of international migrants in a country’s population will lead to a 2.1% decline in the share of people living on less than $1.00 per person per day. After instrumenting for the possible endogeneity of international remittances, a similar 10% increase in per capita official international remittances will lead to a 3.5% decline in the share of people living in poverty. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: The relationship between energy and poverty is obvious and goes both ways. Recognizing this, this paper provides a short overview of different approaches to measuring energy poverty. It then presents a novel two-dimensional measure of energy poverty and energy distribution that combines the elements of access to different energy types and quantity of energy consumed. An assessment of the extent of energy poverty and changes in energy distribution pattern are analyzed by applying this measure to Indian household survey data for 1983–2000. The analysis shows a significant reduction in the level of energy poverty and a rapidly developing subcontinent. The new measure is a good complement to conventional monetary measures and is general enough to be applied to other developing countries. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: This paper uses a new data set of 126 intervals from 60 developing countries to analyze the growth elasticity of poverty, that is, how much does poverty decline in percentage terms with a given percentage rise in economic growth. The data set is both broader in coverage and more selective in terms of quality controls than those used in the past. The study finds that while economic growth does reduce poverty in developing countries, the rate of poverty reduction depends very much on how economic growth is defined. Controlling for changes in income inequality, when economic growth is measured by changes in survey mean income (consumption), the growth elasticity of poverty (excluding Eastern Europe and Central Asia) is −2.79; that is, a 10% increase in the survey mean will reduce poverty ($1.00/person/day) by 27.9%. But, when growth is measured by changes in GDP per capita, the growth elasticity of poverty is a statistically insignificant −2.27, which is lower than has previously been estimated. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this paper, we first look retrospectively at the perceptions embraced by academics, international agencies and practitioners of the relation between fisheries and poverty in developing countries and we try to identify the underlying paradigms which have structured these perceptions. The review reveals how the debate has focused on the economic (low income) and biological (overexploitation) aspects of the problem. We then revisit these perceptions in the light of the recent conclusions drawn from other sectors and in particular from the new “consensus” on poverty proposed by the international community. Incorporation of the recent research on poverty helps to show how socio-institutional mechanisms governing people’s access to fisheries resources––rather than the resources themselves––play such a critical role in vulnerability to poverty. Finally, a typology identifying four different categories of intrasectoral exclusion mechanisms is developed and illustrated through empirical studies derived from African and Asian fisheries. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper develops a framework to measure the impact of agricultural research on urban poverty. Increased investments in agricultural R&D can lower food prices by increasing food production, and lower food prices benefit the urban poor because they often spend more than 60% of their income on food. Application of the framework to China shows that these food price effects are large and that the benefits for the urban poor have been about as large as the benefits for the rural poor. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article argues that the exclusion of disabled people from international development organizations and research reflects and reinforces the disproportionately high representation of disabled people among the poorest of the poor. The paper commences with a brief exploration of the links between impairment, disability, poverty, and chronic poverty, followed by a discussion of ways in which disability is excluded from development policy. Evidence of the incidence and distribution of disability is then presented. In the final section, the ways in which different institutions challenge poverty and exclusion among disabled people is reviewed. Survey evidence of the limited inclusion of disabled people within development institutions and policies is presented. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Vietnam's tradition of subnational policy experimenting has contributed to provincial variation in private sector development. • Provinces with larger increases in the formal private employment share saw bigger falls in the poverty rate. • We find no evidence that growth in number of formal private domestic firms alleviated poverty in the 2000s. • Multinational enterprises emerge as drivers of poverty-reducing effect of growing private employment share. Private sector development and the relationship between private firms and the state-owned sector continue to figure prominently in the debate about poverty reduction. Growth of private firms may generate economic opportunities, but changes of the role of the state in the economy may also carry social risks. The subnational dimension of the link between the private sector's weight in the economy and poverty remains underexplored. How do changing regional patterns of private sector development shape the geography of poverty? Especially in transition economies, reforms altering conditions for private enterprises and foreign direct investment do not always proceed at the same speed in all regions. This paper examines the link between province-level changes in private firms' formal employment share and poverty reduction in Vietnam's provinces during 1999–2009. Particularly since 2000, Vietnam has taken large steps towards an equal administrative treatment of all firms irrespective of ownership. Provincial governments often enjoyed considerable freedom in their interpretation of reforms, contributing to differential province-level patterns of progress in private sector development. The empirical analysis combines data from Vietnam's enterprise survey, independent poverty estimates, and two rounds of population censuses. Instrumental variable regressions reveal that larger increases of private firms' employment share are associated with larger reductions in poverty. This finding demonstrates that allowing some regions to move faster or slower than others regarding reforms changing the conditions for private firms and foreign direct investment is likely to leave an imprint on the country's geography of development. Multinational enterprises, rather than domestic private firms, emerge as drivers of the association identified in our analysis. The Vietnamese case therefore illustrates the poverty reduction potential of export-oriented activities of multinational enterprises, while simultaneously casting doubt on the contribution of small and medium sized enterprises to poverty alleviation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]