Monday, July 26, 2010

African poverty is falling...Much faster than you think!

This National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) paper uses the Pinkovskiy and Sala‐i‐Martin methodology to estimate income distributions, poverty rates, and inequality and welfare indices for African countries for the period 1970‐2006. The paper shows that

- Since 1995, African poverty has been falling steadily
- If present trends continue, the poverty Millennium Development Goal of halving the proportion of people with incomes less than one dollar a day will be achieved on time.
- African poverty reduction is remarkably general: it cannot be explained by a large country, or even by a single set of countries possessing some beneficial geographical or historical characteristic.


Interestingly, poverty levels are going down in all classes of countries regardless of including those with disadvantageous geography and history, both landlocked as well as coastal countries, mineral‐rich as well as mineral poor countries, countries with favorable or with unfavorable agriculture, etc. Click here to access the full document.

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