Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/107966 
Year of Publication: 
2014
Series/Report no.: 
WIDER Working Paper No. 2014/123
Publisher: 
The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), Helsinki
Abstract: 
Disappointment was widespread when rapid economic growth since 2005, coupled with a smallholder-targeted fertilizer subsidy program, failed to significantly reduce poverty in Malawi. Official estimates for 2011 showed a 1.7 percentage point decline in national poverty between 2005 and 2011, while rural poverty increased marginally. In this study we estimate an alternative set of regional poverty lines using a cost of basic needs method that allows the consumption bundle to vary spatially and temporally while ensuring utility consistency. Our poverty figures suggest a substantial 7.3 percentage point decrease in national poverty over the analysis period, driven largely by a sharp reduction in rural poverty. These results are more consistent with the observed level of economic growth and improvements in several non-monetary dimensions of well-being. However, we find that extreme poverty did increase, suggesting that the most vulnerable people continue to be excluded from the benefits of economic policy and growth.
Subjects: 
poverty measurement
inequality
cost of basic needs
Malawi
JEL: 
I32
O55
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
ISBN: 
978-92-9230-844-5
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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