Does Sectoral Composition of Growth Matter for Income and Non-income Poverty Reduction? Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

This paper analyses how the size and composition of growth are correlated with poverty reduction. Unlike most studies that focus only on income poverty, this study uses both income poverty and child undernutrition in the analysis and extends the discussion on growth-poverty relationship further to include non-income poverty. Using a cross -sectional data from SSA, analysis has been made first to see the poverty reducing effect of sectoral growth after decomposing the sectors into seven, and then the significance of labour intensity in such differential impacts. Results indicate that both the size and composition of growth matter for income poverty reduction. However, child undernutrition is not associated with size of growth of GDP. Only composition of growth matters for reduction in child undernutrition.