The Elusive Quest for Inclusive Growth: Growth, Poverty, and Inequality in Asia

By Ravi Balakrishnan, Chad Steinberg, Murtaza H Syed

June 26, 2013

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Ravi Balakrishnan, Chad Steinberg, and Murtaza H Syed. The Elusive Quest for Inclusive Growth: Growth, Poverty, and Inequality in Asia, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2013) accessed November 21, 2024

Disclaimer: This Working Paper should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF.The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy. Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to further debate

Summary

This paper assesses how pro-poor and inclusive Asia’s recent growth has been, and what factors have been driving these outcomes. It finds that while poverty has fallen across the region over the last two decades, inequality has increased, dampening the impact of growth on poverty reduction. As a result, relative to other emerging and developing regions and to Asia’s own past, the recent period of growth has been both less inclusive and less pro-poor. Our analysis suggests a number of policies that could help redress these trends and broaden the benefits of growth in Asia. These include fiscal policies to increase spending on health, education, and social safetynets; labor market reforms to boost the labor share of total income; and reforms to make financial systems more inclusive.

Subject: Economic growth, Inclusive growth, Income, Income distribution, Income inequality, Labor, Minimum wages, National accounts, Personal income, Poverty, Poverty reduction

Keywords: Asia, Asia and Pacific, Cost of capital, East Africa, Elasticities of poverty, Financial market, Financial Markets, Fiscal Policy, Gini coefficient, Inclusive Growth, Income, Income elasticity, Income growth, Income inequality, Inequality, Labor market, Middle East, Minimum wages, North Africa, Poverty, Poverty headcount, Poverty reduction, South Asia, WP

Publication Details

Pages:

36
Volume:

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DOI:

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Issue:

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Series:

Working Paper No. 2013/152
Stock No:

WPIEA2013152
ISBN:

9781475531169
ISSN:

1018-5941

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