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The increasing wave of protectionism in various corners of the world with the use of seemingly attractive but economically misleading slogans (shortening supply chains, onshoring, reshoring, nearshoring, friend-shoring, reindustrialization, and ending/correcting 'hyperglobalization', etc.) creates a serious challenge to the global trading system and global economic development. Trade and financial transactions have also become victims of the increasing number of geopolitical conflicts and tensions, both 'hot' and 'cold'. Before it becomes too late, i.e., before the current trade tensions go too far and create the hardly reversible spiral of trade and financial wars, retaliations, etc., it is desirable to reflect on what can be lost due to protectionism. This essay analyzes four areas that have benefited from global economic integration since the 1980s (economic growth, poverty eradication, reduction in global economic inequalities, and disinflation) and may suffer from its reversal. It also discusses potential remedies that may help stop a protectionist drift. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes several modifications to improve a simple measure of vulnerability as expected poverty. Firstly, in order to model income, we apply distributional regression relating potentially each parameter of the conditional income distribution to the covariates. Secondly, we determine the vulnerability cutoff endogenously instead of defining a household as vulnerable if its probability of being poor in the next period is larger than 0.5. For this purpose, we employ the receiver operating characteristic curve that is able to consider prerequisites according to a particular targeting mechanism. Using long-term panel data from Germany, we build both mean and distributional regression models with the established 0.5 probability cutoff and our vulnerability cutoff. We find that our new cutoff considerably increases predictive performance. Placing the income regression model into the distributional regression framework does not improve predictions further but has the advantage of a coherent model where parameters are estimated simultaneously replacing the original three step estimation approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are economic growth and social expenditure effective in decreasing poverty and income inequality in the European Union? We try to provide an answer to this question by using a Panel VAR model for the period from 2010 to 2019, using a sample of 28 European member states plus Norway and Iceland. We find that although both economic growth and social expenditure decrease poverty, economic growth is more effective at decreasing poverty than social expenditure. However, when it comes to income inequality, economic growth seems to increase it, while social expenditure seems to lower it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we evaluate income distributions in four European countries (Austria, Italy, Spain and Hungary) using two complementary approaches: a standard approach based on reported incomes in survey data, and a microsimulation approach, where taxes and benefits are simulated. These two approaches may be expected to generate slightly different results, particularly in respect of individuals on lower incomes, because benefit receipts tend to be under-reported in survey data, and over-estimated in microsimulation procedures. However, we find that the two approaches do in fact produce reasonably consistent results, in terms of both inequality measures and poverty rates. To the extent that the results differ, we explore the reasons why these differences arise, and suggest directions for future research, in which each approach may inform improvements in the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the relationship between the following indicators: income inequality, gross domestic product, risk of poverty threshold and median equivalized net income for a panel of 28 countries of European Union (EU) over the period 2005-2016. Two theoretical regression models, a linear and a quadratic one, are used to estimate the influence on income inequality of the other three indicators. Empirical estimations, using panel data techniques on three different data panels, confirm the Kuznets hypothesis that income inequality tends to increase with early economic development and tends to decrease when a country reaches a certain level of development. We found that for emerging EU countries, income inequality has a growing tendency with a positive economic growth and maybe reduced by increasing risk of poverty threshold or median equivalized net income. For highly developed EU countries the situation is completely opposite. At EU level, the influence of gross domestic product on income inequality is strongly determined by its trend in the highly developed EU countries, while the influence of risk of poverty threshold and median equivalized net income on income inequality is strongly determined by their trend in the emerging EU countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Papers in Regional Science is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper shows that in Tanzania, economic growth contributes to job creation and employment opportunities, however, it does very little to curb income inequality. Using official data from various local sources compiled by the National Bureau of Statistics and international the paper provides an explanation for why the creation of wealth and employment opportunities in Tanzania fails to bring the level of poverty to a level roughly comparable to what is found in the region to reduce inequality between the richer and the poorer segments of society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the relationships between extreme poverty, economic growth, and inequality, assesses if changes in inequality dampen the impact of income on extreme poverty, and determines the magnitude of the inequality growth trade-off index in Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and Honduras. A country-specific ARDL bound regression was conducted. The findings indicate the presence of direct and indirect dampening impacts of changes in inequality on income growth and extreme poverty reduction. The magnitude of the inequality growth trade-off- index indicates whether to prioritize growth and/or inequality reducing policies. This means that the higher the inequality, as in Honduras, the higher the economic or average income growth rate required to compensate for the increase in inequality to achieve a given level of extreme poverty reduction. Accordingly, there is no one-size-fits-all policy approach to tackling extreme poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - It is now widely recognized that human development (HD) and economic growth (EG) are intertwined in two-way feedback processes either leading to an upward spiral of development or a poverty trap. This concept is used to overcome one of the limitations of a previous study by Qureshi which assumes exogenous gross domestic product (GDP). With endogenous GDP formulation, the impact of public expenditure on HD and EG in Pakistan is examined. Design/methodology/approach - System dynamics approach is used to model, identify and help manage the development path of HD and EG in Pakistan given alternative policies for public expenditure on HD and EG. For this purpose the model endogenously determines path of population cohorts, and education, health and economic indicators. Findings - The simulation results suggest that the current level of public expenditure on HD is extremely low and any further decrease will have irreversible negative impact on HD and economic indicators, even if the resources so saved are effectively invested in EG. Further, higher public expenditure on EG may neither result into better HD indicators nor economic indicators. On the contrary, higher public expenditure on HD not only improves HD indicators but also supplements EG. The results of this study conform to the results of earlier research and challenge the very basis of fiscal policy in Pakistan which has continually ignored HD over decades. Research limitations/implications - The model boundary excludes possible causal links of public expenditure, HD and income distribution. Identification and inclusion of these causalities may improve understanding of perpetuating asymmetric income distribution in Pakistan its role in HD and EG trade-off. Practical implications - This paper suggests reorientation of fiscal policy in Pakistan and to anchor it to HD by allocating more public funds. Originality/value - The unique characteristic of this model is explicit modelling of population cohorts in a two-way feedback relationship with economic development considering the delays and non-linearities involved in this process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses panel data from 61 countries at different stages of economic development over a 20-year period to investigate regional differences in the effect of corruption on economic growth and income distribution. Using two measures of corruption, we find that there are statistically significant regional differences in the growth and distributional impacts of corruption. The largest growth impact of corruption is found in African countries while OECD and Asian countries have the lowest growth impact. On the other hand, the largest distributional impact of corruption in found in Latin America. A 10% decrease in corruption increases the growth rate of income by about 1.7% in OECD and Asian countries, 2.6% in Latin American countries, and by 2.8% in African countries. A one standard deviation decrease in corruption decreases the gini coefficient of income distribution (0–1 scale) by 0.05 points, 0.14 points, 0.25 points, and 0.33 points in OECD, Asian, African, and Latin American countries, respectively. The results are robust to various specifications, measurement of corruption, measures of investment, as well as the conditioning variables. The results have interesting policy implications for economic growth, especially in low income countries with high rates of corruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between the relative size of the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) sector, economic growth, and poverty alleviation using a new database on the share of SME labor in the total manufacturing labor force. Using a sample of 45 countries, we find a strong, positive association between the importance of SMEs and GDP per capita growth. The data do not, however, confidently support the conclusions that SMEs exert a causal impact on growth. Furthermore, we find no evidence that SMEs alleviate poverty or decrease income inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty eradication will remain United Nations highest priority after the Millennium Development Goals-2015 deadline. Moreover, although impressive achievements in poverty cutting have been reached in the last decade, progress has been uneven, as inequality has been increasing. Hence, future poverty reduction strategies should be designed taking into account the nexus between economic development, inequality and the so-called "pro-poor factors", which represent the set of policies able to make economic growth beneficial for the poor. The aim of this paper is to provide a quantitative answer to the following questions: Does economic growth reduce poverty? If so, by how much? How economic inequality affects poverty? Does the responsiveness of poverty to growth and inequality depend on initial poverty and inequality? How do pro-poor policies influence the poverty-growth-inequality nexus? Although these questions have received a great deal of attention along the years, this paper makes use of the most complete and up-to-date comparable data on growth, poverty and inequality, as compiled by the World Bank PovcalNet. Moreover, it originally employs the System Generalised Method of Moments estimator. In particular, the present empirical exercise is built on an original unbalanced panel dataset, which comprises 109 developing countries observed between 1981 and 2008, in 8 different three-year growth spells. As for the econometric technique, System GMM has been proved to be the most efficient and best suited in the context of dynamic unbalanced panels. Our main results are in line with the existing literature. First, we find that the poverty elasticity to growth and inequality is, respectively, around -2% and 2%. Second, the poverty elasticity to growth is higher the more favorable the initial conditions (i.e. -0.89% and -2.5% for, respectively, high and low initial poverty and inequality). Third, the poverty elasticity to inequality is higher in relatively richer and more equal countries (i.e. 2.6%) than in poorer and more unequal countries (i.e. 0.39%). And, finally, we show that human capital, as measured as health and education, facilitates the effect of economic growth on poverty reduction (i.e. poverty elasticity of -0.89% and -2.5% for, respectively, high and low infant mortality). Our analysis suggests that, in designing policy reduction strategies, policy makers should carefully take into considerations initial poverty and the initial income distribution. Moreover, as for the fundamental importance of pro-poor policies, and human capital in particular, economic policies should go beyond the mere growth stimulus., economic policies should go beyond the mere growth stimulus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is clear that in the transition out of the COVID-19 crisis in Colombia there will be great need for formal job creation. One source that has been widely discussed in policy circles is strengthening linkages of Colombian firms with Global Value Chains (GVCs). Another source that has received recent attention, and deservedly so, is digital infrastructure development (DID)—which can boost telework and virtual human capital accumulation. Reduction in poverty and inequality through more and better formal employment is an important aspect of a jobs and economic transformation (JET) agenda. In this paper, we explore—through a computable general equilibrium model (CGE) and a microsimulation framework—to what extent reforms of the type envisioned in the JET agenda and which could generate GVC linkages, as well as through DID, for Colombia, and we project their impact on poverty and inequality up to 2030. Our findings show limited impact of the three types of policy changes considered for GVCs—namely (i) fall in barriers for seamless business logistics, (ii) reductions in tariffs, and (iii) lower barriers to foreign direct investment (FDI). The impact of DID on inequality is also moot. There is however a modest impact on poverty reduction in the combined policy of digital infrastructure with a boost in skilled labor. This finding can be linked to different factors. First, there are relatively few direct jobs created to benefit households with low levels of human capital. Second, there might be indirect job creation through backward linkages to local suppliers by firms linked to GVCs, but this effect would be a general equilibrium effect that our CGE model with a partial equilibrium microsimulation distributional module does not fully capture. Third, the positioning of Colombian firms to latch onto GVCs, and also generate demand for local intermediate inputs and services, is not optimal. Fourth, DID may generate more general labor market opportunities through telework and virtual learning expansions but could also induce larger wage gaps as the skill premium rises so that the net effect on inequality is ambiguous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ekonomski Vjesnik is the property of Ekonomski Vjesnik and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Changes in the extent of poverty are affected not only by growth in the mean income but also by changes in the distribution of income. The effect of these two factors can be separately measured by decomposing the total change in poverty. In this context, this paper uses new tools to quantify relative contribution of growth and inequality using the latest available household survey data. The findings of this paper suggest that the role of inequality remained important in mitigating the adverse effects of growth on poverty during the first period, 1998-99 to 2001-02. Alternatively, the role of growth has been fundamental in reducing absolute poverty in the second period, 2001-02 to 2004-05. Poverty would have been further reduced, had the distribution not worsened during this period. The policy implication is that while pursuit of growth as a strategy is important for poverty reduction in Pakistan, the contribution of redistribution in favour of the poor should not be ignored if the effect of growth on poverty reduction is to be enhanced. Thus, the major challenge is to pursue a poverty reduction strategy that is based on growth with redistribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over recent decades, most countries of Southeast Asia achieved reductions in absolute poverty incidence, but these reductions varied in magnitude between countries and over time. This paper shows that differences in the rate and sectoral composition of economic growth explain part, but not all, of these differences. It describes outcomes on poverty incidence in Southeast Asia and relates them to the growth of output in the agricultural, industrial, and services sectors. This analysis uses data from the 1970s to the most recent available for Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines to analyse the economic determinants of changes in poverty incidence in Southeast Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Residential energy consumption level, structure, and potentiality are crucial indices reflecting economic and social development. In rural China, energy poverty is still prevalent, and economic poverty is a critical factor that deteriorates energy poverty. This paper combines income- and asset-based measures of wealth to provide a more dynamic perspective on the effects of economic poverty on energy poverty. Results show that for the household which in an average asset or income level, when its assets and income increase by 10%, the probability of a household choosing clean fuels increases by 0.007 and 0.002, respectively. Rural household prefers gas than electricity when household income and assets increase. To solve the energy poverty problem in rural areas, governments need to take measures to improve the accumulation of wealth, raise the infrastructure level and increase the employment rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article uses two data sets- the 1940 and 1950 census files- in combination with the three subsequent census files to describe long-run trends in black poverty. The paper described a forty-year record of progress in reducing black poverty. The optimism that should have resulted from that progress was tempered by three other events of the 1970's: the accelerating breakup of the black family, the growing numbers of black men with little contact with the labor market, and a continued slowdown in economic growth. As a result, we have entered a new racial era in the U.S., in which black labor market progress no longer guarantees improvements in economic welfare, especially for the black underclass. Trends in labor market wages of black men and women represent only a first step in understanding the changes in black poverty that have taken place. The paper concludes with an examination of the downside of black economic progress-the in- creasing disengagement of many black men from the labor market.

The article focuses on beneficiaries of economic development. The author's 1977 paper had two purposes, one methodological and one empirical. The methodological goal was to apply in the case of a less-developed country a largely overlooked class of absolute measures which gauge directly the extent to which the poor gain from economic development. At the time the author wrote the paper that is in 1975, absolute poverty measures had seldom been used in a dynamic context in studies of developing countries, to measure who benefits how much from economic development within a country. The author shows that those who wish to give predominant weight to countries' progress toward alleviating economic misery might find absolute measures like changes in proportion of income units which are poor and changes in average income among the poor, more convenient than the more familiar measures of relative inequality. The empirical goal was to reexamine the specific case of Brazilian growth in the 1960's. Toward that end, the author's results established that the same income distribution data, when analyzed from an absolute rather than from a relative perspective, yielded a qualitatively distinct and decidedly more positive picture of who benefited.

This paper examines the causal relationship between poverty reduction and economic growth in Swaziland during the period 1980-2011. Unlike some of the previous studies, the current study uses the newly developed ardl-bounds testing approach to co-integration, and the ecmbasedGranger causalitymethod to examine this linkage. The study also incorporates financial development as a third variable affecting both poverty reduction and economic growth - thereby leading to a trivariate model. The results of this study show that economic growth does not Grangercause poverty reduction in Swaziland - either in the short run or in the long run. Instead, the study finds a causal flow from poverty reduction to economic growth in the short run. These findings, however, are not surprising, given the high level of income inequality in Swaziland. Studies have shown that when the level of income inequality is too high, economic growth alone may not necessarily lead to poverty reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Environmental & Social Management Journal / Revista de Gestão Social e Ambiental is the property of Environmental & Social Management Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Current growth literature does not explain the inability of poor countries to utilize existing knowledge. This study presents a stylized development model based on firms' expansion through on-the-job training. Since trained workers can supervise and train more workers, a development process in which output and productivity increase up to a full utilization of existing technology is generated. Unlike schooling-based models, which require an assumption regarding a smaller local stock of knowledge, this study relies on the size of the industrial sector and the limited supply of training opportunities, therefore highlights barriers to development, even when technology and capital are available. ( JEL O1, O4, J2) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Growth is good for the poor" is a ubiquitous statement and one generally backed by theory, research and history. In the long-run, growth reduces poverty. Yet, growth in output - per se - is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for poverty reduction in the short-term. The paper uses a number of parametric and non-parametric methodologies to assess the relation between growth and poverty in Kazakhstan, a country that experienced rapid growth and poverty reduction in the short-term. Combining macro and micro regional data, we find a very small trickle down effect of output growth on household incomes and no evidence that output growth is correlated with poverty reduction. We find instead that pro-poor growth in household income explains well poverty reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urban-rural disparity is a common phenomenon in most developing economies. In particular, this disparity is strengthened by the household registration (Hukou) system in China. Chinese economy, as well as its income inequality, rose dramatically in last decades. Most researches show that urban-rural disparity is an important source of income inequality. In this paper we study the impact of this disparity on innovation through the demand for quality goods. For simplicity, we assume that there are two types of consumers: rich people living in the urban and poor people living in the rural area. The income distribution is measured by the population share of the poor and the relative income of the poor. The larger the income difference between the rural and the urban area, the more individuals migrate to the city in order to improve their income. Firms first invent quality goods, and then produce them in an oligopolistic market. Rich consumers have a higher willingness to pay for the better quality than the poor. Hence, the firms' profit depends on the income distribution of consumers. We focus on the separating equilibrium, where goods of different qualities are sold to different consumers. In this equilibrium, a lower relative income of the poor is good for innovation, while a larger population share of the poor is bad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been noted that the failure to meet the target set by the government for reducing the head count ratio of child poverty in Britain is partly due to the success of government policy in generating economic growth. Apart from ignoring the argument that absolute poverty is not a meaningful idea, this apology for the failure of government to meet poverty targets also misses wider problems embedded in recent trends in the household income distribution. For example, inequality measures sensitive to the distribution of income amongst the poor suggest that the experience of those who remained poor may have worsened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies the relationship between child labor and the development of credit markets at a cross-country level. In particular, we examine whether financial development in the period 1960-95 is associated with a reduction in child labor, and whether it is plausible to view this relationship as causal. This is an important question for a number of reasons. First, although child labor is widely viewed as a source of concern (and has been since at least the nineteenth century; see Basu [1999]), in the absence of perfectly functioning credit markets or without other market failures, it is not clear that child labor is an inefficient phenomenon. It could be the outcome of an optimal tradeoff among the various uses of children's time. Second, it has been argued that the primary cause of child labor is poverty and, consequently, that economic growth will "automatically" eradicate child labor over time. However, to the extent that market failures are the actual cause of child labor, government intervention in the specific market where the inefficiency occurs is preferable (Grootaert and Kanbur 1995). Furthermore, since economic development is often a slow process, addressing issues of credit market imperfections provides an additional policy dimension in thinking about child labor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accurate measurement of poverty is essential for the development of effective poverty policy. Unfortunately, approaches that use poverty rates to assess the causes and consequences of poverty do not fully capture the components of change in the poverty population because changes in the conventional poverty rate can occur owing to processes of natural increase, migration, or transitions in and out of poverty. This article presents an accounting framework for changes in poverty within and between places. The framework, termed the poverty balancing equation, generates a series of summary statistics that can be used in place of the conventional poverty rate in future research. The approach is demonstrated using the 2014 panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation to generate state-level estimates of the poverty components of change for three states in the American South between January and December of 2013. Results show that even when poverty rates remain constant, there is significant dynamism within poor and nonpoor populations. By applying this approach, either completely or in part, researchers can provide more specific and actionable evidence for poverty alleviation policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article studies the relationship between economic growth and the extent of poverty among American families in order to find ways to reduce the poverty. The income distribution stretches as average income grows; if this were not true, poverty would long since have ceased to be a problem. In colonial times, the income gap between the very poor and all but the very rich must have been at most a few hundred dollars. Since the median income in the U.S. now is well above any upper bound of poverty, if the dispersion of income had remained constant as its central tendency grew, no one would now be poor. But the dispersion of income expands along with its central tendency. The quintile boundaries of the income distribution rise approximately by the same percentages, thus bringing widening absolute differentials. This accords with our retributive standards of justice; people are rewarded in proportion to their relative degrees of social worth or productivity. It incidentally guarantees the persistence of poverty without public policies designed to redistribute income or earning power.

This study is the first attempt at promoting agricultural input subsidy policies in a computable general equilibrium framework on two main dimensions of food security (i.e. food availability and access to food), poverty and income distribution in Malaysia for all ethnic groups. This study investigates the short-run impacts of two subsidy removal policy and one subsidy expansion policy using 2010 input–output table. Results show that both subsidy removal policies negatively influence agricultural sectors and economic growth of Malaysia while the expansion policy influence them positively. The removal policies also decrease food availability and access to food and, consequently, increase poverty at the national level and the poverty level of Malay household, while the expansion policy increases food availability and access to food and alleviate the poverty level of Malay household. The complete removal policy without paddy/rice subsidies increases rice production and raises food availability and access to food commodities (or food security) in the country resulting in a lesser increase in poverty compared to the complete removal policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides an overview of the factors that contribute to the concept of privilege and poverty in developed and underdeveloped countries. The increasing rate of population, income comparisons, broadening of the welfare gap, people's attitudes and their behavior were considered elemental basis that accounted for the country's development. Moreover, income, race, culture and geography were also observed as components that determine the poor class of the society and underdeveloped countries from the middle class and developed countries.