Datt, GauravRavallion, Martin2012-03-192012-03-192009-10-01https://hdl.handle.net/10986/4314The extent to which India's poor have benefited from the country s economic growth has long been debated. This paper revisits the issues using a new series of consumption-based poverty measures spanning 50 years, and including a 15-year period after economic reforms began in earnest in the early 1990s. Growth has tended to reduce poverty, including in the post-reform period. There is no robust evidence that the responsiveness of poverty to growth has increased, or decreased, since the reforms began, although there are signs of rising inequality. The impact of growth is higher for poverty measures that reflect distribution below the poverty line, and it is higher using growth rates calculated from household surveys than national accounts. The urban-rural pattern of growth matters to the pace of poverty reduction. However, in marked contrast to the pre-reform period, the post-reform process of urban economic growth has brought significant gains to the rural poor as well as the urban poor.CC BY 3.0 IGOABSOLUTE DIFFERENCEABSOLUTE POVERTYABSOLUTE TERMSABSOLUTE VALUEAGGREGATE GROWTHAGGREGATE POVERTYAGRICULTURAL CHANGEAGRICULTURAL GROWTHAGRICULTURAL LABORERSAGRICULTURAL PERFORMANCEAGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIONAGRICULTURAL SECTORAGRICULTURAL WAGESANNUAL GROWTHANNUAL RATEAVERAGE LEVELCALORIES PER PERSONCALORIES PER PERSON PER DAYCHANGES IN POVERTYCOMMON PROPERTYCOMPARATIVE ADVANTAGECOMPARISON GROUPCONSUMER PRICE INDEXCONSUMPTION AGGREGATECONSUMPTION EXPENDITURECONSUMPTION GROWTHCONSUMPTION PER CAPITACONSUMPTION SMOOTHINGDATA SETDECLINE IN POVERTYDECOMPOSABLE POVERTYDECOMPOSABLE POVERTY MEASURESDETERMINING POVERTY REDUCTIONDEVELOPING COUNTRIESDEVELOPING COUNTRYDEVELOPMENT ECONOMICSDEVELOPMENT RESEARCHDEVELOPMENT STRATEGIESDEVELOPMENT STRATEGYDISTRIBUTIONAL DATADISTRIBUTIONAL EFFECTDISTRIBUTIONAL EFFECTSDIVERSIFICATIONDOWNWARD BIASECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTECONOMIC GROWTHECONOMIC INEQUALITYECONOMIC PERFORMANCEECONOMIC REFORMECONOMIC REFORMSECONOMIC REVIEWECONOMIC SHOCKSECONOMICSEMPLOYMENT IN AGRICULTUREERROR TERMESTIMATES OF POVERTYEXTERNAL TRADEEXTREME POVERTYFACTOR ENDOWMENTSFACTOR PRICESFARM GROWTHFARM PRODUCTIVITYFARM SECTORFIREWOODFOOD COMPONENTSFOOD ITEMSFOOD MARKETSFOOD POLICYFOOD PRICESFOOD SHAREGINI INDEXGLOBAL ECONOMYGLOBAL MARKETSGLOBAL POVERTYGROWTH EFFECTGROWTH ELASTICITYGROWTH PROCESSGROWTH RATEGROWTH RATESHETEROSKEDASTICITYHOUSEHOLD CONSUMPTIONHOUSEHOLD LIVING STANDARDSHOUSEHOLD SURVEYSHUMAN CAPITALHUMAN DEVELOPMENTIMPACT ON POVERTYINCOMEINCOME DISTRIBUTIONINCOME DISTRIBUTIONSINCOME GROWTHINCOME INEQUALITYINCOMESINDEPENDENT VARIABLEINDUSTRIAL POLICYINEQUALITYINTERNATIONAL TRADELOG GINIMEAN CONSUMPTIONMEAN INCOMEMEASURED INEQUALITYMEASUREMENT ERRORSMEASURING POVERTYNATIONAL ACCOUNTSNATIONAL POVERTY0 HYPOTHESISPAYMENTS CRISISPER CAPITA CONSUMPTIONPER CAPITA CONSUMPTION GROWTHPER CAPITA INCOMEPOLICY CIRCLESPOLICY DEBATEPOLICY ENVIRONMENTPOLICY ISSUESPOLICY RESEARCHPOORPOOR LIVINGPOOR PEOPLEPOPULATION GROWTHPOPULATION SHAREPOST-REFORMPOVERTYPOVERTY ALLEVIATIONPOVERTY DATAPOVERTY DEBATEPOVERTY DECLINEPOVERTY GAPPOVERTY GAP INDEXPOVERTY IMPACTPOVERTY IMPACT OF GROWTHPOVERTY LINEPOVERTY LINESPOVERTY MEASUREPOVERTY MEASUREMENTPOVERTY MEASURESPOVERTY RATEPOVERTY REDUCTIONPRIVATE CONSUMPTIONPRIVATE SECTORPRO-POORPRO-POOR GROWTHPRODUCTPRODUCTIVITY GROWTHQUALITY GROWTHREAL WAGESREDUCED INEQUALITYREGIONAL GROWTHRELATIVE DISTRIBUTIONRELATIVE IMPORTANCERISING INEQUALITYRURALRURAL AREASRURAL CONSUMERRURAL ECONOMIC GROWTHRURAL ECONOMYRURAL GROWTHRURAL HEADCOUNTRURAL HEADCOUNT INDEXRURAL INEQUALITYRURAL LIVING STANDARDSRURAL POORRURAL POPULATIONRURAL POVERTYRURAL POVERTY LINERURAL POVERTY REDUCTIONRURAL PRICESRURAL SECTORRURAL SECTORSSCHOOLINGSECTORAL COMPOSITIONSERIAL CORRELATIONSERIES DATASHORT SERIESSIGNIFICANT EFFECTSIGNIFICANT IMPACTSQUARED POVERTY GAPSQUARED POVERTY GAP INDEXSTANDARD DEVIATIONSTRUCTURAL BREAKTRADE LIBERALIZATIONTRADE OPENNESSTRANSFERSUNSKILLED LABORURBAN AREASURBAN GROWTHURBAN POORURBAN POVERTYWorld Bank10.1596/1813-9450-5103