Book Chapter
Growth, Distribution, and Poverty Reduction

Poverty levels in the developing world have been declining steadily over the 1990s. However, this progress has been very unequally distributed. Some regions and groups of countries have made rapid progress, while poverty levels in others, particularly in the least developed countries (LDCs) have been stagnant or rising. Economic growth performance is one factor explaining these differences, but there may also be fundamental differences in the efficiency with which growth and distribution reduce poverty in different groups of countries.