Pro-Poor Growth in the Urban Areas of Iran's Provinces

Abstract

Poverty is one of the major problems of human societies that causes many social harms. Therefore, policymakers and economic development planners always aim to eliminate it. In addition, economic growth is one of the important and influential variables of macroeconomics. Therefore, examining the impact of economic growth on poverty through the lens of growth and distribution effects offers valuable insights for policymaking and poverty reduction strategies. In this study, we use the log-normal curve approach introduced by Bourguignon to estimate the growth effect on poverty utilizing data from urban households in Iran over the period 2013-2019. The results indicate that only in the one-year period of 2015-2016, the triangle of poverty, growth, and inequality has worked well and the growth has been pro-poor. Furthermore, provincial-level findings unveil discernible patterns: (a) In provinces experiencing positive growth, urban areas in Qom exhibit pro-poor growth, while those in Alborz, Golestan, and Hamedan provinces observe a trickle-down effect. Meanwhile, in other provinces, growth demonstrates an immiserizing trend. (b) In provinces with negative growth, only urban areas in Markazi province observe a reduction in poverty. However, due to the lack of growth, it cannot be concluded that this province has had pro-poor growth. In the urban areas of other provinces in this group, the situation has been unfavourable for the poor.

Keywords

• pro-poor growth
• distributional effect
• income effect
• inequality
• provinces of iran