Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/107537 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2014
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 8751
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Growth has been high and widespread in the last decade in Africa. Whether this shift in Africa's fortune has impacted poverty has been a subject of controversy. This paper brings into focus recent evidence on the pace of poverty reduction in Africa and addresses whether or not previously held belief that Africa is too poor to grow is relevant today. The findings suggest that there is credible evidence for poverty to have declined significantly since the 1990s but at a lesser speed than growth in per capita GDP. More importantly, global poverty tends to respond much more strongly to shifts in sector of employment, particularly to increase in employment in the industrial sector, than to increase in mean income. In Africa the co-existence of a large traditional and informal sector with a dynamic modern sector will continue to pose a challenge for achieving a sustained reduction in poverty. Challenges of structural transformation and its attendant benefits are discussed using emerging thinking on industrial policies to achieve inclusive growth in Africa.
Subjects: 
economic growth
poverty traps
multidimensional poverty
structural transformation
JEL: 
O12
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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