Poverty Reduction during the Rural-Urban Transformation : The Role of the Missing Middle

Christiaensen, Luc; Todo, Yasuyuki

Poverty Reduction during the Rural-Urban Transformation : The Role of the Missing Middle

2013

Christiaensen, Luc | Todo, Yasuyuki

As countries develop, they restructure away from agriculture and urbanize. But structural transformation and urbanization patterns differ substantially, with some countries fostering migration out of agriculture into rural off farm activities and secondary towns, and others undergoing rapid agglomeration in mega cities. Using cross-country panel data for developing countries spanning 1980-2004, the analysis in this paper finds that migration out of agriculture into the missing middle (the rural nonfarm economy and secondary towns) yields more inclusive growth patterns and faster poverty reduction than agglomeration in mega cities. This suggests that patterns of urbanization deserve much more attention when striving for faster poverty reduction.

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AGROVOC Keywords

access to information agricultural growth agricultural products agricultural sector cities developing countries development economics development indicators diversification economic development economic growth economics extractive industries farmers food security growth rate housing income income distribution livelihood strategies nonfarm income poverty alleviation poverty reduction public investment rural areas rural poor rural poverty rural unemployment spatial distribution urban areas urban poor urban population urban poverty urbanization workforce

Bibliographic information

Publisher

World Bank, Washington, DC

Other Subjects

Farm households; Poor; Impact on poverty; Agricultural wages; Agricultural employment; Development policy; National poverty; Rural economy; Country case; Poverty data; Estimation techniques; Farm employment; Rural; Poverty outcomes; Inhabitants; Pro-poor; Poverty line; Reduction of poverty; Regional dummies; Reducing poverty; Policy research; Rural towns; Per capita growth; Income inequality; Land inequality; Poverty incidence; Dynamic panel; Annual change; Farm activities; Poverty reducing; Food policy; Poverty gap; Income constant; Rural poverty reduction; Empirical application; Rural services; Aggregate income; Annual growth rate; Rural villages; Growth pattern; Global poverty; Sectoral composition; Policy implications; Poverty measures; Income growth; Basic infrastructure; Gini coefficient; Country specific; Estimation method; Fixed effects; Growth process; Skilled labor; Political economy; Dependent variable; Inequality; Ppp; Poverty level; Spatial dynamics; Poor people; Growth pro-poor; Significant effect; Higher inequality; Total population; Income levels; Head count ratio; Poor benefit; Country level; Headcount ratio; Employment equations; Average income growth; Growth effect; Developing world; Poverty levels; Population share; Poverty decline; Rural migrants; Rural income; Poverty rates; Growth rates; Skilled workers; Development report; Headcount poverty; Regional science; Agricultural incomes; Unemployment rates; Rural residents; Employment generation; Relative incomes; Absolute terms; Economics literature; Economic studies; Income distributions; Economies of scale; Decomposable poverty; Distribution effect; Rural phenomenon; Estimated coefficients; Country characteristics; Structural transformation; Economic policy; Error terms; Regional growth; Empirical regularities; Changes in poverty; Poverty head; Annual growth; Distributional change; Estimation results; Gdp per capita; Pro-poor growth; Growth elasticity; Error term; Poor living; Average income; Farm work; Poverty measure; Current poverty

License

Policy Research Working Paper;No. 6445http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/World BankCC BY 3.0 Unported

Source

Policy Research Working Paper;No. 6445

In AGRIS since: 2014-09-15

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Links

http://hdl.handle.net/10986/15587

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