IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ier/iecrev/v49y2008i4p1143-1172.html

Is Economic Growth Good For The Poor? Tracking Low Incomes Using General Means

Author

Listed:
  • James E. Foster
  • Miguel Székely

Abstract

We propose the use of an alternative methodology to track low incomes based on Atkinson's "equally distributed equivalent income" functions or "general means" and present a new characterization to justify their application. To evaluate the effects of growth on lower incomes, growth rates are compared for two income standards: the ordinary mean and a low-income-sensitive general mean. The question is: How closely related are these two variables? After estimating the growth elasticity, we find that it is not significantly different from zero. Thus, it cannot be concluded that poorer incomes grow proportionately to increases in the average income. Copyright © (2008) by the Economics Department of the University of Pennsylvania and the Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association.

Suggested Citation

  • James E. Foster & Miguel Székely, 2008. "Is Economic Growth Good For The Poor? Tracking Low Incomes Using General Means," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 49(4), pages 1143-1172, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:ier:iecrev:v:49:y:2008:i:4:p:1143-1172
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a
    for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Other versions of this item:

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ier:iecrev:v:49:y:2008:i:4:p:1143-1172. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley-Blackwell Digital Licensing or the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deupaus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.