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The Devil is in the Detail: Growth, Inequality and Poverty Reduction in Africa in the Last Two Decades

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  • Fabio Clementi
  • Michele Fabiani
  • Vasco Molini

Abstract

The present paper, starting from evidence of low growth-to-poverty elasticity characterising Africa, purports to identify the distributional changes that limited the pro-poor impact of the last two decades’ growth. Distributional changes that went undetected by standard inequality measures were not showing a clear pattern of inequality on the continent. By applying a new decomposition technique based on a non-parametric method—the ‘relative distribution’—we found a clear distributional pattern affecting almost all analysed countries. Nineteen out twenty four countries experienced a significant increase in polarisation, particularly in the lower tail of the distribution, and this distributional change lowered the pro-poor impact of growth substantially. Without this unfavourable redistribution, poverty could have decreased in these countries by an additional five percentage points.

Suggested Citation

  • Fabio Clementi & Michele Fabiani & Vasco Molini, 2019. "The Devil is in the Detail: Growth, Inequality and Poverty Reduction in Africa in the Last Two Decades," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 28(4), pages 408-434.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:jafrec:v:28:y:2019:i:4:p:408-434.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/jae/ejz003
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    Cited by:

    1. Fabio Clementi & Vasco Molini & Francesco Schettino & Haider A. Khan & Michele Fabiani, 2023. "Polarization and its discontents: Morocco before and after the Arab Spring," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 21(1), pages 105-129, March.
    2. Stephen Dauda, Rasaki & Joel Oyeleke, Olusola, 2021. "Poverty And Inequality: The Challenges To Sustainable Development In Nigeria," Ilorin Journal of Economic Policy, Department of Economics, University of Ilorin, vol. 8(2), pages 1-16, June.
    3. Karthikeya Naraparaju & S. Chandrasekhar, 2022. "Poverty Reduction in Rural India During 2004–2005 to 2011–2012: Role of Growth, Redistribution, and Population‐Shifts," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 68(S2), pages 295-316, December.

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