Growth, Poverty and Inequality Dynamics : : Four Empirical Essays at the Macro and Micro Level.

• Author: Weisbrod, Julian.
• Place / Publishing House: Frankfurt am Main : : Peter Lang GmbH, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften,, 2008.; ©2008.
• Year of Publication: 2008
• Edition: First edition.
• Language: English
• Series: Goettinger Studien zur Entwicklungsoekonomik / Goettingen Studies in Development Economics.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (156 pages)

Since the Second World War the world has seen an economic growth spurt unprecedented in history. Economic growth is a necessary but not sufficient condition for improving human development, or in other words, economic growth is an important pre-requisite for the ultimate goal of human well-being. The four empirical essays of this book add to the general debate concerning dynamics of growth, poverty and inequality over the past 40 years from four different dimensions. The first chapter analyses the dynamics of the cross-country per capita income distribution and the existence of convergence clubs. The second chapter focuses on the dynamic development of the global income distribution and resulting implications for global income convergence, poverty reduction, pro-poor growth and the evolution of global inequality within and between countries. The third chapter investigates the deterministic relationship between ethnic fractionalisation and growth in a macro cross-country regression framework. Finally, the fourth chapter adds to the understanding of micro determinants of growth and poverty in the context of Indonesia.

Table of Contents

Cover -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- Introduction and Overview -- 1 Twin Peaks or Three Components? -- 1.1 Introduction -- 1.2 Statistical Methodology and Data -- 1.2.1 Data -- 1.2.2 Testing for the Number of Components in a Finite Mixture - the Modified Likelihood Ratio Test -- 1.2.3 Discriminant Analysis via Posterior Probabilities -- 1.2.4 Nonparametric Kernel Density Estimation and Mode Testing -- 1.3 Results -- 1.3.1 Selecting the Number of Components -- 1.3.2 Evolution of the Cross-Country Distribution of Income -- 1.3.3 Intra-Distributional Dynamics Based on Posterior Probabilities -- 1.4 Conclusion -- 1.5 Extension: Mixtures with Distinct Variances -- 2 Global Income Distribution Dynamics and Pro-Poor Growth -- 2.1 Introduction -- 2.2 Methodology and Data -- 2.2.1 Data -- 2.2.2 Mixtures of Log-normal Distributions -- 2.3 The Global Income Distribution -- 2.3.1 Inequality and Poverty -- 2.3.2 Growth Incidence Curves and Pro-Poor Growth -- 2.4 Regional Distributions, Inequality, Poverty and Growth Incidence Curves -- 2.4.1 Regional Income and Log-Income Distributions -- 2.4.2 Regional Poverty and Inequality Measures -- 2.4.3 Regional Semi-Decade Specific Growth Rates, Rates of Pro-poor Growth and Growth Incidence Curves -- 2.5 Conclusion -- 3 Ethnic Fractionalisation, Migration and Growth -- 3.1 Introduction -- 3.2 Theoretical Framework -- 3.3 Existing Empirical Investigations -- 3.4 Data and Methodology -- 3.5 Results -- 3.5.1 Extending the Data Set -- 3.5.2 Migration and Ethnic Fractionalisation -- 3.6 Conclusion and Future Research Questions -- 4 Pathways out of Poverty in Indonesia -- 4.1 Introduction -- 4.2 Conceptualisation and Methodological Issues -- 4.2.1 Conceptualisation and the "Naive" Model -- 4.2.2 Data -- 4.2.3 Poverty Line -- 4.3 Descriptive Analysis, Income &amp -- Poverty Transition Matrices.

4.3.1 Descriptive Statistics -- 4.3.2 Income Growth -- 4.3.3 Poverty Transitions -- 4.4 Micro Determinants of Income and Poverty Transitions -- 4.4.1 The Determinants of Income and Poverty Levels -- 4.4.2 The Determinants of Income Change -- 4.4.3 Poverty Dynamics -- 4.5 Conclusion -- A Appendix A -- B Appendix B -- C Appendix C -- D Appendix D -- Bibliography.