IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/lje/journl/v16y2011i1p143-172.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Role of Education and Income in Poverty Alleviation: A Cross-Country Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Pervez Zammurad Janjua

    (International Institute of Islamic Economics, International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan.)

  • Usman Ahmad Kamal

Abstract

The existing literature on education and poverty considers mostly primary data from an income point of view. However, the benefits of education vary from a direct income effect to positive externalities, which can help reduce poverty. This paper uses panel data for 40 developing countries for the period 1999 to 2007, and estimates coefficients by applying the random effect generalized least squares (GLS) technique. The study concludes, first, that income growth plays a moderately positive role in alleviating poverty, but that income distribution does not play a key role in poverty alleviation in the sample overall. Second, it concludes that education is the most significant contributor to poverty alleviation.

Suggested Citation

  • Pervez Zammurad Janjua & Usman Ahmad Kamal, 2011. "The Role of Education and Income in Poverty Alleviation: A Cross-Country Analysis," Lahore Journal of Economics, Department of Economics, The Lahore School of Economics, vol. 16(1), pages 143-172, Jan-Jun.
  • Handle: RePEc:lje:journl:v:16:y:2011:i:1:p:143-172
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://121.52.153.179/JOURNAL/LJE%20VOL-16-1/06_Janjua_&_Kamal.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ravallion, Martin & Chen, Shaohua, 1997. "What Can New Survey Data Tell Us about Recent Changes in Distribution and Poverty?," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 11(2), pages 357-382, May.
    2. Orazem, Peter & Glewwe, Paul & Patrinos, Harry, 2007. "The Benefits and Costs of Alternative Strategies to Improve Educational Outcomes," Staff General Research Papers Archive 12853, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    3. Mikael Lindahl & Alan B. Krueger, 2001. "Education for Growth: Why and for Whom?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 39(4), pages 1101-1136, December.
    4. Roland Bénabou, 2003. "Human Capital, Technical Change, and the Welfare State," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 1(2-3), pages 522-532, 04/05.
    5. Robert J. Barro, 1998. "Determinants of Economic Growth: A Cross-Country Empirical Study," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262522543, December.
    6. Geda, A. & de Jong, N. & Mwabu, G. & Kimenyi, M.S., 2001. "Determinants of poverty in Kenya : a household level analysis," ISS Working Papers - General Series 19095, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    7. Sudhir Anand & Martin Ravallion, 1993. "Human Development in Poor Countries: On the Role of Private Incomes and Public Services," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 7(1), pages 133-150, Winter.
    8. Marcel Fafchamps & Agnes R. Quisumbing, 1999. "Human Capital, Productivity, and Labor Allocation in Rural Pakistan," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 34(2), pages 369-406.
    9. Harper, Caroline & Marcus, Rachel & Moore, Karen, 2003. "Enduring Poverty and the Conditions of Childhood: Lifecourse and Intergenerational Poverty Transmissions," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 535-554, March.
    10. Self, Sharmistha & Grabowski, Richard, 2004. "Does education at all levels cause growth? India, a case study," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 47-55, February.
    11. Ravallion, Martin & Datt, Gaurav, 1996. "How Important to India's Poor Is the Sectoral Composition of Economic Growth?," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 10(1), pages 1-25, January.
    12. Canagarajah, Sudharshan & Mazumdar, Dipak & Xiao Ye, 1998. "The structure and determinants of inequality and poverty reduction in Ghana, 1988-92," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1998, The World Bank.
    13. Gemmell, Norman, 1996. "Evaluating the Impacts of Human Capital Stocks and Accumulation on Economic Growth: Some New Evidence," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 58(1), pages 9-28, February.
    14. Banerjee, Abhijit V & Newman, Andrew F, 1994. "Poverty, Incentives, and Development," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(2), pages 211-215, May.
    15. Martin Ravallion, 2004. "The Debate on Globalization, Poverty and Inequality: why Measurement Matters," QA - Rivista dell'Associazione Rossi-Doria, Associazione Rossi Doria, issue 1, March.
    16. Chen, Shaohua & Ravallion, Martin, 2007. "Absolute poverty measures for the developing world, 1981-2004," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4211, The World Bank.
    17. Squire, Lyn, 1993. "Fighting Poverty," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(2), pages 377-382, May.
    18. Martin Feldstein, 1998. "Income Inequality and Poverty," NBER Working Papers 6770, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. World Bank, 2008. "World Development Indicators 2008," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 28241, December.
    20. Gaurav Datt & Martin Ravallion, 1998. "Why Have Some Indian States Done Better than Others at Reducing Rural Poverty?," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 65(257), pages 17-38, February.
    21. World Bank, 2008. "World Development Indicators 2008," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 11855, December.
    22. G. Ellis, 1984. "The dimensions of poverty," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 229-253, October.
    23. Verner, Dorte, 2004. "Education and its poverty-reducing effects: The case of Paraiba, Brazil," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3321, The World Bank.
    24. GOH, Chor-ching & LUO, Xubei & ZHU, Nong, 2009. "Income growth, inequality and poverty reduction: A case study of eight provinces in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 485-496, September.
    25. Erich Gundlach & Jose Navarro de Pablo & Natascha Weisert, 2001. "Education Is Good for the Poor: a Note on Dollar and Kraay (2001)," WIDER Working Paper Series DP2001-137, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    26. Timothy Besley & Robin Burgess, 2003. "Halving Global Poverty," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 17(3), pages 3-22, Summer.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yen H. T. Nguyen & Tuyen Q. Tran & Dung T. Hoang & Thu M. T. Tran & Trung T. Nguyen, 2023. "Land quality, income, and poverty among rural households in the North Central Region, Vietnam," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(2), pages 150-172, June.
    2. Nadia Hassan & Altaf Hussain & Muhammad Azhar Bhatti & Tusawar Iftikhar Ahmad, 2022. "Perceived Administrative Service Efficiency in Academia: A Case Study of International Islamic University Islamabad," iRASD Journal of Management, International Research Alliance for Sustainable Development (iRASD), vol. 4(2), pages 449-464, june.
    3. Félix, Elisabete Gomes Santana & Belo, Teresa Freitas, 2019. "The impact of microcredit on poverty reduction in eleven developing countries in south-east Asia," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 52.
    4. Usman & A. S. & Tasmin & R., 2016. "The Relevance of Islamic Micro-finance in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals," International Journal of Finance, Insurance and Risk Management, International Journal of Finance, Insurance and Risk Management, vol. 6(2), pages 1115-1115.
    5. Ahmed Raza Cheema & Ahmed Raza Cheema, 2012. "Poverty, Income Inequality, and Growth in Pakistan: A Pooled Regression Analysis," Lahore Journal of Economics, Department of Economics, The Lahore School of Economics, vol. 17(2), pages 137-157, July-Dec.
    6. M. Akram, Mian & Afzal, Muhammad, 2014. "Dynamic Role of Zakat in Alleviating Poverty: A Case Study of Pakistan," MPRA Paper 56013, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Ja-Young Han & Jae-Hee Kwon & Sun-Hwa Kim & Heeyoung Lee, 2023. "Hepatitis Risk in Diabetes Compared to Non-Diabetes and Relevant Factors: A Cross-Sectional Study with National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), 2013–2018," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(6), pages 1-12, March.
    8. Egla Mansi & Eglantina Hysa & Mirela Panait & Marian Catalin Voica, 2020. "Poverty—A Challenge for Economic Development? Evidences from Western Balkan Countries and the European Union," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-24, September.
    9. Muhammad Luqman & Muhammad Umer Mehmood & Muhammad Farooq & Tariq Mehmood & Muhammad Waqar & Muhammad Yaseen & Mukkram Ali Tahir, 2021. "Critical Analysis of Rural Development Initiatives in Pakistan," Journal of Economic Impact, Science Impact Publishers, vol. 3(2), pages 121-129.
    10. Tran Huong Thi Thanh & Le Ha Thi Thu, 2021. "The Impact of Financial Inclusion on Poverty Reduction," Asian Journal of Law and Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 95-119, April.
    11. Ahmed Raza ul MUSTAFA* & Mohammad NISHAT**, 2017. "ROLE OF SOCIAL PROTECTION IN POVERTY REDUCTION IN PAKISTAN: A Quantitative Approach," Pakistan Journal of Applied Economics, Applied Economics Research Centre, vol. 27(1), pages 67-88.
    12. Saqlain Latif Satti & Muhammad Shahid Hassan & Fozia Hayat & Sudharshan Reddy Paramati, 2016. "Economic Growth and Inflow of Remittances: Do They Combat Poverty in an Emerging Economy?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 127(3), pages 1119-1134, July.
    13. Senarathne Chamil W., 2020. "Are Religious Believers Irrational: A Direct Test from an Efficient Market Hypothesis," Financial Sciences. Nauki o Finansach, Sciendo, vol. 25(1), pages 35-53, March.
    14. Muhammad Shahid Hassan & Samra Bukhari & Noman Arshed, 2020. "Competitiveness, governance and globalization: What matters for poverty alleviation?," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 3491-3518, April.
    15. Kirui, O., 2018. "Skill Development, Human Capital and Economic Outcomes: Impact of Post-Secondary Education among Smallholder Farmers in Africa," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277068, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    16. Rizwan Akhtar & Hongman Liu & Amjad Ali, 2017. "Influencing Factors of Poverty in Pakistan: Time Series Analysis," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 7(2), pages 215-222.
    17. Taha Zaghdoudi & Abdelaziz Hakimi, 2017. "Does external debt- poverty relationship confirm the debtoverhang hypothesis for developing counties?," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 37(2), pages 653-665.
    18. Mamoon, Dawood & Hyat, Fozia & Hassan, Shahid, 2018. "Lumping Together Democracy and Dictatorship: Has Macro Dynamics of Poverty Remained Steady in Pakistan," MPRA Paper 87672, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Purmiyati Atik & Berma Madeline & Talib Basri Abdul & Rakhima Marta Sabila, 2019. "The Role of Banking Capital in Industrial Sector Micro Enterprises for Poverty Alleviation: A Study in East Java, Indonesia," Foundations of Management, Sciendo, vol. 11(1), pages 131-142, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Baldacci, Emanuele & Clements, Benedict & Gupta, Sanjeev & Cui, Qiang, 2008. "Social Spending, Human Capital, and Growth in Developing Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 1317-1341, August.
    2. Arne Bigsten & Jörgen Levin, 2001. "Growth, Income Distribution, and Poverty," WIDER Working Paper Series DP2001-129, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    3. Bigsten , Arne & Levin, Jörgen, 2000. "Growth, Income Distribution, and Poverty: A Review," Working Papers in Economics 32, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    4. Mr. Emanuele Baldacci & Mr. Larry Q Cui & Mr. Benedict J. Clements & Mr. Sanjeev Gupta, 2004. "Social Spending, Human Capital, and Growth in Developing Countries: Implications for Achieving the MDGs," IMF Working Papers 2004/217, International Monetary Fund.
    5. Ferreira, Francisco H.G. & Ravallion, Martin, 2008. "Global poverty and inequality : a review of the evidence," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4623, The World Bank.
    6. M. Danquah & B. Ouattara, 2014. "Productivity Growth, Human Capital And Distance To Frontier In Sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 39(4), pages 27-48, December.
    7. Benfica, R. & Henderson, H., 2018. "IFAD RESEARCH SERIES 23 - The effect of the sectoral composition of economic growth on rural and urban poverty," IFAD Research Series 280072, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
    8. Rui Benfica & Heath Henderson, 2021. "The Effect of the Sectoral Composition of Economic Growth on Rural and Urban Poverty," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 67(1), pages 248-284, March.
    9. Andreas Steiner, 2010. "Central Banks’ Dilemma: Reserve Accumulation, Inflation and Financial Instability," IEER Working Papers 84, Institute of Empirical Economic Research, Osnabrueck University.
    10. Vrachimis Konstantinos & Zachariadis Marios, 2013. "A contribution to the empirics of welfare growth," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 13(1), pages 1-32, April.
    11. John Knight & Sai Ding, 2008. "Can the Augmented Solow Model Explain China's Economic Growth? A Cross-Country Panel Data Analysis," Economics Series Working Papers 380, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    12. Tan, Clifford, 2013. "The contribution of university rankings to country's GDP per capita," MPRA Paper 53900, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. World Bank, 2002. "India : Power Sector Reform and the Poor," World Bank Publications - Reports 15286, The World Bank Group.
    14. Fiseha Gebregziabher & Miguel Niño-Zarazúa, 2014. "Social Spending and Aggregate Welfare in Developing and Transition Economies," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2014-082, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    15. Fagerberg, Jan & Srholec, Martin & Verspagen, Bart, 2010. "Innovation and Economic Development," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 833-872, Elsevier.
    16. Inoue, Takeshi & Hamori, Shigeyuki, 2010. "How has financial deepening affected poverty reduction in India? : empirical analysis using state-level panel data," IDE Discussion Papers 249, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    17. Laurence Roope, 2015. "Critical percentiles for equalizing growth," CSAE Working Paper Series 2015-16, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    18. Gebregziabher, Fiseha & Niño-Zarazúa, Miguel, 2014. "Social spending and aggregate welfare in developing and transition economies," WIDER Working Paper Series 082, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    19. Kym Anderson, 2009. "Distorted Agricultural Incentives and Economic Development: Asia's Experience," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 351-384, March.
    20. Di Liberto, Adriana, 2008. "Education and Italian regional development," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 94-107, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Education; income; income distribution; poverty alleviation; GLS; Pakistan.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I30 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty

    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:lje:journl:v:16:y:2011:i:1:p:143-172. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Shahid Salahuddin (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsecopk.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.