Faculty Research and Creative Activity

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

January 2013

Abstract

This paper examines the determinants of poverty in agrarian developing economies. Based on data from the World Bank and a sample of thirty agrarian developing economies we find that the fraction of the population below the national poverty line is linearly dependent on urbanization as measured by the fraction of the total population living in urban areas, the maternal mortality ratio, the level of development as measured by purchasing power parity per capita gross national income, and the fraction of births attended by skilled health staff. We observe that the coefficient estimate of one explanatory variable, namely, the fraction of births attended by skilled health staff does not have its expected sign, possibly to the collinearity between this variable and the maternal mortality ratio as well as with the level of purchasing power parity per capita GNI. Statistical results of such empirical examination will assist governments in agrarian developing countries focus on appropriate policies in order to reduce poverty.

Comments

Available at 10.13189/aeb.2013.010208

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