TITLE:
Economic Growth and Its Pro-Poorness in Zambia 2006-2015: To What Extent?
AUTHORS:
Ian C. Filakati
KEYWORDS:
Economic Growth, Poverty, Pro-Poor Growth Measurement, Zambia
JOURNAL NAME:
Theoretical Economics Letters,
Vol.12 No.2,
April
2,
2022
ABSTRACT: Economic growth and its impact on economies
and citizens has been widely debated by economists for some time with its key
attributes including the fact that the benefits of such growth trickle down to
all sections of society, especially the poor. This trickle-down hypothesis has
come into question in recent times with prominent authors proposing a pro-poor
measure of economic growth. Using the methodology developed by Kakwani et al.
(2004) applied to the Zambia Living Conditions. Monitoring Surveys of 2006,
2010 and 2015, this paper empirically executes the measurement of the
pro-poorness of economic growth in Zambia in the period 2006-2015. We find that
economic growth in Zambia has not been pro-poor based on the poverty equivalent
growth rate criteria. Despite positive economic growth being recorded over this
period and the poverty rates declining slowly, the poor in Zambia derived
pro-portionally less benefits from such growth than the non-poor. Growth has
not impacted the poor in a significant way, a situation which calls for a
robust assessment of the composition of the poor and their potential roles in
the economic growth process to appropriately design interventions which yield
dividends for this group of people in as far as poverty reduction is concerned.