Growth, inequality and poverty in Tanzania.
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Date
2003
Authors
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Publisher
University of Dar es Salaam
Abstract
As countries become richer, on average the incidence of poverty falls. Other indicators of well being such as average level of education and health tend to improve as well. In a many developing countries like Tanzania, previous studies have revealed occurrence of growth while poverty indicators were found to be deteriorating. This study is an enquiry in the behaviour of growth, inequality and poverty in Tanzania between 1970 and 2000. Its key objective is to examine the impact of economic growth on poverty reduction. The study has used distributional-corrected economic growth to include the effect of distribution. This is because of the fact that high or rising inequality dulls the gains to the poor. The study applies time series data. Variables are expressed in logarithmic form to reduce outliers. Stationarity test is done on the data to avoid spurious results. The Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) method is employed for the purpose of estimation, the method having been preferred because of its simplicity and convenience in estimation. Analysis, based on the OLS estimates, shows that distribution-corrected rate of economic growth reduces poverty. Other variables such as spending on social services indicate that it is increased spending in such areas which is vital to reduce poverty. It is recommended that the government should increase the size and efficiency of spending in the identified priority sectors for poverty reduction.
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Available in print form
Keywords
Poverty reduction, Indicators, Economic growth, Impact, Tanzania
Citation
Lugoe, N. T. (2003). Growth, inequality and poverty in Tanzania. Masters dissertation, University of Dar es Salaam. Available at (http://41.86.178.3/internetserver3.1.2/search.aspx?formtype=advanced)