Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction in Sub-Saharan Africa Current and Emerging Issues

Andrew McKay, Professor of Development Economics, University of Sussex,Erik Thorbecke, H.E. Babcock Professor of Economics Emeritus and former Director of the Program on Comparative Economic Development, Cornell University

Andy McKay is Professor of Development Economics at the University of Sussex where he teaches masters and PhD students in different fields of development economics. He has recently become managing editor of the Review of Development Economics; and is closely associated with the African Economic Research Consortium as a resource person and as co-coordinator of their collaborative project on the growth-poverty nexus in Sub-Saharan Africa. He was associate director of the Chronic Poverty Research Centre from 2005-2011; he recently obtained research grants for two projects looking at female labour supply in relation to poverty reduction, much of this in Sub-Saharan Africa.


Erik Thorbecke is a renowned development economist who has made major contributions in many fields in the areas of economic and agricultural development, the measurement and analysis of poverty and malnutrition (including the seminal Foster-Greer-Thorbecke poverty index), the social accounting matrix/ general equilibrium modeling, and international economic policy. This includes major contributions on the impact of growth, globalization, and many policy factors on poverty reduction. He has been associated with the African Economic Research Consortium almost from its outset as a resource person and through being involved in many of their projects. Among these he made major contributions to capacity building in the analysis of poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa through a collaborative project in that area.

1. Introduction, Andy McKay and Erik Thorbecke
2. The Anatomy of Growth and Development in Sub-Saharan Africa, Erik Thorbecke
3. Is Poverty a Binding Constraint on Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa?, Jean-Yves Duclos and Stephen A. O'Connell
4. Agriculture as an Engine of Growth and Poverty Reduction: Lessons for Africa, Douglas Gollin
5. Growth, Employment Creation, and Poverty Reduction: An Overview of Evidence and Possible Applications to Africa, Haroon Bhorat
6. The Informal Economy, Economic Growth, and Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa, Ernest Aryeetey
7. Spatial Inequality and its Implications for the Growth-Poverty Reduction Relationship, Andy McKay and Emilie Perge
8. Linking Economic Growth to Poverty Reduction under Globalization: A Case for Harnessing Globalization for the Poor in Sub-Saharan Africa, Machiko Nissanke
9. Real Exchange Rate Undervaluation and Poverty, Ibrahim A. Elbadawi