When is Economic Growth Pro-Poor? Evidence from Tunisia

24 Pages Posted: 10 Aug 2005 Last revised: 26 Jul 2018

See all articles by Sami Bibi

Sami Bibi

University of Tunis - Faculty of Economic Sciences and Management (ESSEC)

Date Written: July 1, 2005

Abstract

Many empirical studies have shown that economic growth generally leads to a drop in poverty. These studies have also pointed out that a given growth rate is compatible with a large range of outcomes in terms of poverty reduction. This means that growth is more pro-poor in certain cases than in others. Using complete and partial poverty orderings, this paper suggests a measure which captures the extent to which economic growth is pro-poor. This measure decomposes poverty changes into two components: the relative variation in the average income of the poor and the relative variation in the overall inequality within the poor. Evidence from Tunisia shows that economic growth was to a large extent-pro-poor during the last two decades.

Keywords: Poverty measurement, Robustness analysis, Economic growth, Tunisia

JEL Classification: D31, D63, I32, O40

Suggested Citation

Bibi, Sami, When is Economic Growth Pro-Poor? Evidence from Tunisia (July 1, 2005). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=772166 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.772166

Sami Bibi (Contact Author)

University of Tunis - Faculty of Economic Sciences and Management (ESSEC) ( email )

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