Empirical Analysis of Poverty Dynamics : : With Case Studies from Sub-Saharan Africa.

• Author: Günther, Isabel.
• Place / Publishing House: Frankfurt a.M. : : Peter Lang GmbH, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften,, 2007.; ©2007.
• Year of Publication: 2007
• Edition: First edition.
• Language: English
• Series: Goettinger Studien zur Entwicklungsoekonomik / Goettingen Studies in Development Economics.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (174 pages)

The empirical analysis of poverty over time is still severely constrained by the available survey data in developing countries. In the past, this has led to a neglect of certain aspects of poverty dynamics or even biased assessments of poverty dynamics. This book explicitly takes into account the present data limitations, proposing alternative methods for the empirical analysis of poverty dynamics. The work addresses both the problems related to limited data in the analysis of macro-level (or national) as well as micro-level (or household) poverty dynamics. The proposed methods are applied to survey data from various sub-Saharan African countries. As these countries do not only have the most limited economic survey data but also show the highest poverty rates in the world an accurate understanding of the underlying poverty dynamics seems to be most important for these countries.

Table of Contents

Cover -- List of Tables -- List of Figures -- List of Abbreviations -- Introduction and Overview -- 1 A Growth-Poverty-Paradox? -- 1.1 Introduction -- 1.2 The Paradox -- 1.3 Biased Poverty Estimates -- 1.3.1 Poverty Line -- 1.3.2 Welfare Aggregate -- 1.3.3 Survey Design -- 1.4 Revised Growth-Poverty Assessments -- 1.4.1 Revised Poverty and Inequality Estimates -- 1.4.2 Robustness Check -- 1.4.3 Growth Elasticities of Poverty -- 1.5 Conclusion -- 1.5.1 The 'Arithmetic' Paradox -- 1.5.2 The 'Economic' Paradox -- 2 Pro-Poor Growth and Inflation Inequality -- 2.1 Introduction -- 2.2 Measurements of Pro-Poor Growth -- 2.3 Theory and Empirics of Inflation Inequality -- 2.3.1 Homogenous Price Indices -- 2.3.2 Heterogenous Consumption Patterns and Prices -- 2.4 Methodology -- 2.4.1 Growth Incidence Curve with PCPIs -- 2.4.2 Triple Decomposition of Poverty -- 2.5 Empirical Application -- 2.5.1 Data Description -- 2.5.2 Growth Incidence Curve with PCPIs -- 2.5.3 Triple Decomposition of Poverty -- 2.6 Conclusion -- 3 Vulnerability to Idiosyncratic and Covariate Shocks -- 3.1 Introduction -- 3.2 Concepts and Estimates of Vulnerability -- 3.2.1 Concepts of Vulnerability -- 3.2.2 Estimates of Vulnerability -- 3.2.3 Idiosyncratic and Covariate Shocks -- 3.3 Methodology -- 3.3.1 Mean and Variance of Consumption -- 3.3.2 Multilevel Analysis -- 3.3.3 Idiosyncratic and Covariate Variance -- 3.3.4 Critical Discussion -- 3.4 Empirical Application -- 3.4.1 Data Description -- 3.4.2 Estimation Results -- 3.4.3 Vulnerability to Poverty -- 3.4.4 Sources of Vulnerability -- 3.5 Conclusion -- 4 A Competitive and Segmented Labor Market -- 4.1 Introduction -- 4.1.1 Theory of Informal Labor Markets -- 4.1.2 Empirics of Informal Labor Markets -- 4.2 Econometric Model -- 4.2.1 Specification -- 4.2.2 Test for Segmentation or Competitiveness -- 4.2.3 Implementation.

4.3 Empirical Application -- 4.3.1 Data Description -- 4.3.2 Heterogenous Informal Labor Markets -- 4.3.3 Competitive or Segmented Labor Markets? -- 4.4 Conclusion -- Appendix A -- Appendix B -- Bibliography.