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Poverty and Economic Freedom: Evidence from Cross-Country Data

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Author Info
Rana Hasan () (Asian Development Bank, Manila, Philippines)
M.G. Quibria (Operations Evaluation Department, Asian Development Bank, Manila, Philippines)
Yangseon Kim (Visiting Scholar, East-West Center)

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Abstract

This paper explores the empirical relationship between poverty and economic freedom. In doing so, it estimates the levels of absolute poverty for a panel of over forty developing countries and then utilizes fixed effects and GMM-IV estimators to derive the empirical relationships. The principal empirical results that emerge from this exercise indicate that important indicators of economic freedom such as openness to trade and small size of the government are robustly associated with poverty reduction. Labor market flexibility, which reflects an important dimension of economic freedom, does not have a significant effect on poverty on average. However, there is some evidence that trade's beneficial impact on poverty has been smaller in economies with more regulated labor markets. Finally, civil liberties that encompass various types of important economic freedom such as poverty rights, rule of law, etc., also contribute significantly to poverty reduction. This result contrasts with that for political liberties, which have seemingly no impact on poverty reduction. All these suggest that economic freedom is as much important for economic growth as for poverty reduction.

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Paper provided by East-West Center, Economics Study Area in its series Economics Study Area Working Papers with number 60.

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Length: 40 pages
Date of creation: Sep 2003
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Handle: RePEc:ewc:wpaper:wp60

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This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports: References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Quibria, M.G., 2002. "Growth and Poverty: Lessons from the East Asian Miracle Revisited," MPRA Paper 2638, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  2. Arellano, Manuel & Bond, Stephen, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 58(2), pages 277-97, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Villasenor, JoseA. & Arnold, Barry C., 1989. "Elliptical Lorenz curves," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 327-338, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Ravallion, Martin & Datt, Gaurav & van de Walle, Dominique, 1991. "Quantifying Absolute Poverty in the Developing World," Review of Income and Wealth, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 37(4), pages 345-61, December.
  5. Dollar, David & Kraay, Aart, 2001. "Growth is good for the poor," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2587, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
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  6. Mattias Lundberg & Lyn Squire, 2003. "The simultaneous evolution of growth and inequality," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 113(487), pages 326-344, 04. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Pernia, Ernesto M. & Quibria, M.G., 1999. "Poverty in developing countries," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: P. C. Cheshire & E. S. Mills (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 45, pages 1865-1934 Elsevier. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Ravallion, Martin & Datt, Gaurav, 1996. "How Important to India's Poor Is the Sectoral Composition of Economic Growth?," World Bank Economic Review, Oxford University Press, vol. 10(1), pages 1-25, January.
  9. Ruth A. Judson & Ann L. Owen, 1997. "Estimating dynamic panel data models: a practical guide for macroeconomists," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 1997-3, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
  10. Ravallion, Martin, 2001. "Measuring aggregate welfare in developing countries - How well do national accounts and surveys agree?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2665, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
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  11. Levine, Ross & Loayza, Norman & Beck, Thorsten, 2000. "Financial intermediation and growth: Causality and causes," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 31-77, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  12. Shaohua Chen & Datt, Gaurav & Ravallion, Martin, 1993. "Is poverty increasing in the developing world?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1146, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
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  13. Lipton, Michael & Ravallion, Martin, 1993. "Poverty and policy," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1130, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
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    • Lipton, Michael & Ravallion, Martin, 1995. "Poverty and policy," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Hollis Chenery† & T.N. Srinivasan (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 41, pages 2551-2657 Elsevier. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Ravallion, Martin & Chen, Shaohua, 1997. "What Can New Survey Data Tell Us about Recent Changes in Distribution and Poverty?," World Bank Economic Review, Oxford University Press, vol. 11(2), pages 357-82, May.
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  15. Deininger, Klaus & Squire, Lyn, 1996. "A New Data Set Measuring Income Inequality," World Bank Economic Review, Oxford University Press, vol. 10(3), pages 565-91, September.
  16. Kakwani, Nanak, 1980. "On a Class of Poverty Measures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(2), pages 437-46, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  17. Bruno, Michael & Ravallion, Martin & Squire, Lyn, 1996. "Equity and growth in developing countries : old and new perspectives on the policy issues," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1563, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Dieter Ernst, 2004. "Searching for a New Role in East Asian Regionlization: Japanese Production Networks in the Electronics Industry," Economics Study Area Working Papers 68, East-West Center, Economics Study Area. [Downloadable!]
  2. Boy Luethje, 2004. "Global Production Networks and Industrial Upgrading in China: The Case in Electronics Contract Manufacturing," Economics Study Area Working Papers 74, East-West Center, Economics Study Area. [Downloadable!]
  3. Quibria, M.G., 2003. "Growth and Poverty Reduction Does Political Regime Matter?," MPRA Paper 10302, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Jun 2003. [Downloadable!]
  4. Vatcharin Sirimaneetham, 2006. "What drives liberal policies in developing countries?," Bristol Economics Discussion Papers 06/587, Department of Economics, University of Bristol, UK. [Downloadable!]
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