Ravallion, Martin2012-06-252012-06-252005-04https://hdl.handle.net/10986/8928The idea that developing countries face a trade-off between poverty and inequality has had considerable influence on thinking about development policy. The experience of developing countries in the 1990s does not, however, reveal any sign of a systematic trade-off between measures of absolute poverty and relative inequality. Indeed, falling inequality tends to come with falling poverty incidence. And rising inequality appears more likely to be putting a brake on poverty reduction than to be facilitating it. However, there is evidence of a trade-off for absolute inequality, suggesting that those who want a lower absolute gap between the rich and the poor must in general be willing to see lower absolute levels of living for poor people.CC BY 3.0 IGOABSOLUTE DIFFERENCEABSOLUTE POVERTYADJUSTMENT PERIODAVERAGE INCOMECOUNTRY LEVELDATA SETDEVELOPING COUNTRIESDEVELOPMENT ECONOMICSDISTRIBUTIONAL EFFECTECONOMIC ACTIVITYECONOMIC GROWTHECONOMIC REFORMECONOMIC REVIEWECONOMIC THEORYEMPIRICAL LITERATUREEMPIRICAL PROBLEMSEMPIRICAL RELATIONSHIPEMPIRICAL RESULTEMPIRICAL STUDIESFALLING POVERTYFINANCIAL FLOWSGROWTHGROWTH PRO-POORGROWTH RATESHOUSEHOLD CONSUMPTIONHOUSEHOLD INCOMEHOUSEHOLD SURVEYSINCOMEINCOME DISTRIBUTIONINCOME DISTRIBUTIONSINCOME INEQUALITYINCOME SHAREINDIVIDUAL INCOMESINEQUALITYINEQUALITY MEASUREINEQUALITY MEASUREMENTINEQUALITY MEASURESLINEAR REGRESSIONLIVING STANDARDSLOG-NORMAL DISTRIBUTIONMARKET ECONOMYMEAN INCOMEMEAN INCOMESMEASUREMENT ERRORMEASUREMENT ERRORSMEASURING POVERTYNEGATIVE CORRELATIONNEGATIVE RELATIONSHIPPER CAPITA CONSUMPTIONPOLICY DISCUSSIONSPOLICY ISSUESPOLICY RESEARCHPOOR COUNTRIESPOOR PEOPLEPOSITIVE COEFFICIENTPOSITIVE CORRELATIONPOSITIVE GROWTHPOVERTYPOVERTY INCIDENCEPOVERTY LINEPOVERTY LINESPOVERTY MEASUREPOVERTY MEASURESPOVERTY RATEPOVERTY REDUCTIONPOVERTY RISESPRIVATE CONSUMPTIONPROPORTIONATE CHANGESPUBLIC GOODSPURCHASING POWERPURCHASING POWER PARITYQUALITY GROWTHRAPID GROWTHRELATIVE POVERTYRISING INEQUALITYSERIES DATATRANSITION ECONOMIESURBANIZATIONWorld Bank10.1596/1813-9450-3579