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The literature on poverty convergence is sparse and much of the empirical evidence relies on Ravallion (2012) who found a lack of poverty convergence across some ninety Less Developed Countries (LDCs) during 1977-2007. This paper revisits cross-country poverty convergence using data from the same sources but an extended period, i.e. 1977-2014. We find that while poverty convergence remains absent across LDCs during 1981-2014, it is explained by initial poverty nullifying the effectiveness of growth in reducing poverty; whereas an adverse direct effect of initial poverty on growth – which is recognized as the main impediment to cross-country poverty convergence during 1977-2007 – is not found. In SSA, in contrast, we find strong cross-country poverty convergence during both periods examined, as an adverse direct poverty effect is not found, and the indirect poverty effect is not large enough to cancel the mean convergence effect.

Empirical evidence in the sparse literature on poverty convergence currently relies on cross-sectional analysis, where Less Developed Countries (LDCs) starting out poorer are found to have enjoyed no faster subsequent poverty reduction during the past three decades than those starting out richer, as initial poverty retards growth and makes it less effective in reducing poverty. Applying a dynamic panel approach to four panel data sets including two covering some 90 LDCs from 1977-2014 and two covering, respectively, 42 Ethiopian and 33 Rwandan regions during 1995-2010 and 2000-2010; this study finds that LDCs as well as Ethiopian and Rwanda regions do enjoy faster subsequent poverty reduction within themselves as their initial poverty incidences decline over time. Our analysis also finds initial poverty as having little direct effect on growth in LDCs, except in SSA where higher initial poverty is associated with faster growth.