Gaaitzen de Vries on industrialization in developing countries: is it related to poverty reduction?

Gaaitzen de Vries presents at the WIDER Seminar Series on 9 March.

Abstract

This paper proposes an empirical framework that relates poverty reduction to production growth. We use the GGDC/UNU-WIDER Economic Transformation Database to measure the contribution to growth of productivity improvements within sectors and structural change—the reallocation of workers across sectors—for 42 developing countries from 1990 to 2018. Next, the contributions are used in a regression analysis, which indicates that poverty reduction is significantly related to structural change and productivity growth in manufacturing. An attribution exercise suggests that structural change and agricultural productivity growth account for a substantial share of poverty reduction in developing Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, and that productivity growth in manufacturing accounts for poverty reduction in developing Asia, but not in sub-Saharan Africa.

About the speaker

Gaaitzen is a member of the Groningen Growth and Development Centre (GGDC) at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. He is part of UNU-WIDER’s project on the Economic Transformation Database. He is involved in researching patterns and causes of structural transformation in developing countries, and the development of the Economic Transformation Database, the successor of the GGDC 10-sector database.

WIDER Seminar Series

The WIDER Seminar Series showcases the latest research on key topics in development economics. It provides a forum for senior and early-career researchers, both inhouse and external, to present recent and ongoing work related to UNU-WIDER’s current work programme.

In addition to providing a forum for both academic debate and training, the series presents an opportunity for policy makers and others interested in development to learn about the latest research methods and findings.

In spring 2021, the Seminar Series events take place on Wednesdays. All those interested are invited to register and attend via Zoom.