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When Do We See Poverty Convergence?

Author

Listed:
  • Jesús Crespo Cuaresma
  • Stephan Klasen
  • Konstantin M. Wacker

Abstract

We show why convergence in mean income levels and the negative relation between mean income growth and poverty changes need not lead to proportionate poverty convergence across countries. We propose an analytical framework that highlights that poverty convergence depends on the speed of income convergence relative to a complex interaction of initial inequality, mean income levels, and inequality dynamics. Our framework allows us to investigate poverty convergence, or the lack thereof, under different plausible dynamics of mean income and inequality.

Suggested Citation

  • Jesús Crespo Cuaresma & Stephan Klasen & Konstantin M. Wacker, 2022. "When Do We See Poverty Convergence?," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 84(6), pages 1283-1301, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:obuest:v:84:y:2022:i:6:p:1283-1301
    DOI: 10.1111/obes.12492
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Vanessa Hartmann & Konstantin M. Wacker, 2023. "Poverty decompositions with counterfactual income and inequality dynamics," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(3), pages 1746-1768, August.
    3. Nicholas Apergis & Francisco J. Delgado & Claudia Suárez‐Arbesú, 2025. "Inequality and poverty in Spain: Insights from a regional convergence analysis," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(2), pages 1707-1723, April.
    4. Cartone, Alfredo & Di Battista, Luca & Postiglione, Paolo, 2024. "A new approach for measuring poverty or social exclusion reduction in European NUTS 2 regions," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    5. César Lenin Navarro-Chávez & Julio César Morán-Figueroa & Francisco Javier Ayvar-Campos, 2025. "Conditional β-Convergence in APEC Economies, 1960–2020: Empirical Evidence from the Pooled Mean Group Estimator," Econometrics, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-14, February.
    6. Mehmet Pinar, 2023. "Do research performances of universities and disciplines in England converge or diverge? An assessment of the progress between research excellence frameworks in 2014 and 2021," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(10), pages 5731-5766, October.
    7. Wu, Haoyu & Atamanov, Aziz & Bundervoet, Tom & Paci, Pierella, 2024. "Is economic growth less welfare enhancing in Africa? Evidence from the last forty years," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).

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