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Summary: This paper analyzes the relationship between growth patterns, poverty, and inequality in Brazil during its globalization process, focusing on the role played by the labor market and social programs. Methodologically, the paper makes two contributions to the literature. One is the proposal of a new measure of pro-poor growth, which links growth rates in mean income and in income inequality. The other contribution is a decomposition methodology that explores linkages between three dimensions: growth patterns, labor market performances, and social policies. The proposed methodologies are then applied to the Brazilian National Household Survey covering the period 1995–2004. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: The main objective of the present paper is to present a cross-country analysis of pro-poor growth in 80 countries in 237 growth spells during the period 1984–2001. To achieve this objective the paper proposes a new measure of pro-poor growth that captures gains and losses of growth rates due to changes in the distribution of consumption. The gains imply pro-poor growth, while the losses imply anti-poor growth. The statistical test carried out in the paper shows that regional location of countries has a significant association with the pro-poorness of growth. The paper also attempts to test for the association between growth patterns and certain variables that the literature has identified as significant determinants of growth and inequality. Out of many variables, the paper focuses on four, namely, inflation, the share of agriculture in GDP, openness to trade, and the rule of law. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Drawing on household survey information, this study delineates the poverty profile of the elderly in 15 low-income sub-Saharan African countries which include countries with a high and low prevalence of the HIV-AIDS pandemic. The study shows that the poverty situation of the elderly living with children and the elderly-headed households is much worse than the average in many countries. The impact of providing a social pension to the elderly on group-specific and national poverty head-count ratios and poverty gap ratios, and its fiscal implications, are analysed. Simulating various plausible eligibility criteria and benefit levels, the study concludes that while the case for an universal (untargeted) social pension is weak, substantial welfare gains can be obtained at a low cost with a social pension targeted to the poor among the elderly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on data from 15 African countries, simulation models suggest that to reduce the poverty headcount ratio by increasing incomes among poor households, cash transfers would have to be sizeable – in the range of 2-8% of GDP. Even then, an increase in income, by itself, would not suffice to increase school attendance significantly. Higher impacts at lower cost could be achieved by making transfers targeted and conditional. However, the administrative costs of detailed targeting (e.g. by income) are known to be high. On the other hand, some broad measures, such as targeting rural children only, produce results almost as good as income-linked targeting and, given their low administrative costs, are to be preferred. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the economic growth, poverty and income inequality in the Asia-Pacific region. Investigation on the degree of regional income distribution in Indonesia; Discussion on the factors contributing to inequality and government responsibility for rural poverty; Impact of poverty on growth income component in Australia.

This paper develops a methodology to measure the effectiveness of government's income support on poverty. This is accomplished by computing poverty elasticities with respect to individual income components. A poverty reform index is developed to bring marginal reforms in government transfer programmes in order to minimize aggregate poverty. Applying the methodology developed in this paper to Australian data offers many useful conclusions concerning the changes in poverty in Australia between 1984 to 1988-9 and 1988-9 to 1993-4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this work is to provide a detailed measurement and analysis of poverty in Thailand. In this study we develop new poverty lines that take into account the differing needs of household members and regional price differences. We use the new poverty thresholds to construct poverty profiles for Thailand. The study makes use of the five latest socio-economic surveys conducted in Thailand during the years 1988, 1990, 1992, 1994 and 1996. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]