Growth Is Good for Whom, When, How? Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction in Exceptional Cases

• Main Author: DONALDSON, John A.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2008
• Subjects: economic growth; poverty reduction; liberalization; Growth and Development; Inequality and Stratification
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/560; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/1559/viewcontent/Donaldson_Growth_is_Good_for_Whom.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Economic growth and liberal economic policies often help the poor, but what about the numerous cases in which they do not? This article analyzes two types of cases: those in which income growth of the poor was significantly lower than expectations (negative exceptions) and those in which income growth of the poor significantly exceeded expectations (positive exceptions). Insights from these cases inform our theoretical understanding of poverty reduction. In addition, this article contributes a typology of strategies used in these cases, including alternative pathways to economic growth and neoliberal prescriptions for poverty reduction.