The Dynamics of Poverty: A Review of Decomposition Approaches and Application to Data from Burkina Faso’, mimeo, UFR-SEGUniversité de Ouagadougou

Abstract Recent years have been characterized by significant efforts to understand and fight poverty, especially in Africa. Decomposing the dynamics of poverty is one of the focuses of this analysis, which seeks to evaluate the contribution some major factors make to the evolution of the phenomenon of poverty. Several approaches to this decomposition have been proposed in the literature. Our study draws on the Shapley value as a theoretical foundation for various decompositions and reviews the primary methods in existence. These methods are illustrated using data from Burkina Faso. This work was conducted with technical support from CREFA at the Université Laval and provides a framework for advanced training sessions jointly conducted by SISERA and the WBI

MACROECONOMIC GROWTH, SECTORAL QUALITY OF GROWTH AND POVERTY IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: MEASURE AND APPLICATION TO BURKINA FASO

Economic growth generally refers to GDP growth. The studies on the link between growth and poverty dynamic (Datt and Ravallion, 1992; Kakwani, 1997; Shorrocks, 1999) measure growth by mean household per capita expenditures. Furthermore, many countries experience at the same time economic growth and growing poverty. It is therefore important to establish a link between these two types of growth. This key link allows a formal shift from macroeconomic growth (GDP growth) to mean per capita household expenditure growth. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the link between macroeconomic growth and mean per capita household expenditure growth with the evidence drawn from Burkina Faso data. The paper also analyzes the impact of sectoral growth on poverty using Shapley value-based decomposition approach. National Accounts consumption - which is smaller - gives greater poverty incidences for 1994 and 1998 compared to the incidence from the surveys’ consumption. An annual 3.99% increase in real per capita consumption based on the survey gives a 13.37% decrease in poverty incidence, while a 6.59% annual growth in GDP yields only 6.59% decrease in poverty incidence. Agricultural sector growth accounts for at least 80% of the decline in poverty incidence, gap and severity.Growth, Poverty decomposition, Shapley Value, Burkina Faso