النمو الاقتصادي و الفقر في الدول العربية : هل ينمو متوسط دخل الفقراء بنفس معدل نمو متوسط الدخل؟

Abstract EN

The paper reviews the empirical basis for hypothesis that the poor tend to benefit from economic growth to the same extent as other sections of the population.

The paper shows that, from a theoretical perspective, the existence of a proportional relationship between mean income of the society and that of the poor is a result of a confusion regarding the definition of who are the poor.

A proportional relationship would obtain if, and only if, the poor are defined on the basis of Lorenz curve population shares.

Otherwise, there exists no basis to expect such a proportional relationship.

The paper shows that in the general case the income elasticity of the income of the poor is less than unity.

Evidence for this general case is provided by direct calculations, as well as by estimating the relationship between the income of the poor and mean income of society, for a sample of developing countries for which data is available.

The results for the sample of Arab countries show that the Arab poor benefit from growth by about 63% of the growth in mean income.

These benefits range from a high of 80% or more for Tunisia to a low of 40% or less for Mauritania.