MAY 6, 2002
ECONOMIC VIEWPOINT
By Robert J. Barro
The U.N. Is Dead Wrong on
Poverty and Inequality |
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According to the U.N., growing poverty and
inequality are the world's main economic threats, and unchecked globalization
and market expansion are largely to blame. For example, the 1999 Human
Development Report says: "When the market goes too far in dominating social and
political outcomes, the opportunities and rewards of globalization spread
unequally and inequitably...The past decade has shown increasing concentration
of income, resources, and wealth." In response to the perceived threat, the U.N.
proposes to improve governance, by which it means an increase in the power of
international organizations, especially the U.N. But before opting for more
world government, perhaps we should explore the facts about
inequality.
One point is that poverty and inequality are two different
concepts. Poverty refers to the fraction of the population, or the number of
people, whose income falls below a designated amount intended to reflect some
minimally acceptable standard of living. To be meaningful, the standard must
remain fixed over time; two common ones are thresholds of $1 or $2 per day (in
1985 dollars). In today's dollars, these standards translate into annual per
capita incomes of about $500 and $1,000.
When measured in these terms,
world poverty has fallen dramatically in the past 30 years. Xavier Sala-i-Martin
estimates in an unpublished study, "The World Distribution of Income" (Columbia
University), that the number of people in extreme poverty--below the $1-a-day
standard--fell from 550 million, or 17% of the world's population in 1970, to
350 million, or 6.7% of the population at the end of the 1990s. For the $2-a-day
standard, the decline was from 1.3 billion people, or 41% of the population, to
970 million, or 19% of the population. Thus, the past 30 years have seen a
dramatic decline in world poverty--not exactly the picture painted by the
U.N.
For world inequality, we can think of the changes in two parts. The
first is within countries, the second is across countries. Inequality has risen
in the past 30 years within several countries, including the U.S., Britain,
Australia, and China. Considering the world as a whole (by weighting according
to the populations of all of the countries), Sala-i-Martin shows that this
factor implies a rise in world income inequality. But he also shows that this
effect is small. More important are the cross-country changes in the dispersion
of average incomes.
Looking across countries, one's first impression is
that the spread of average incomes has risen since 1970. For example, the ratio
of the highest per capita incomes (in the U.S. and Western Europe) to the
poorest (in sub-Saharan Africa) has grown. However, this change was more than
offset by the rise in income in the world's two largest countries, China and
India. China, which now has 21% of world population, has grown rapidly since
1978. India, which has 17% of world population, has also grown fast since 1990.
Since these countries were poor in the 1970s, and since they account for 38% of
the world's population, their rapid economic ascent implies a substantial
narrowing of world inequality.
One irony is that continued rapid growth
in China and India in the next decade is likely to lead to rising world income
inequality. That is because these countries would continue to converge toward
the world's richest countries and away from the world's poorest in Africa.
However, a reasonable assessment is that the problem is not rapid growth in
China and India but, rather, slow growth in Africa.
Since China and India
had many people in poverty in the 1970s, their fast growth is a key factor
behind the reductions in world poverty. Developments in two other large
countries also mattered significantly--fast growth in Indonesia (through 1997)
and disastrous negative growth in Nigeria. The success stories in Asia mean that
Africa now plays a dominant role in world poverty. Sala-i-Martin estimates that
at the end of the 1990s, 66% of those with incomes below $1 a day resided in
sub-Saharan Africa. In 1970, this fraction was only 11%. At the $2-a-day level,
the comparable figures are 38% and 11%. Further reducing world poverty will
require a greater focus on the African poor. Given the low average incomes in
African countries, income redistribution is no answer. The main solution has to
involve raising the overall rates of economic growth in Africa.
The U.N.
Human Development Reports should base their assessments of world poverty and
inequality on a better understanding of the facts. It is incorrect to argue that
world poverty and inequality have been rising over the past 30 years and then to
attribute this fictional development to unchecked globalization and market
expansion. These poorly grounded observations from an apparently respectable
source feed into the false arguments of the world's "globaphobes," who are
generally opposed to economic development. Globaphobia will neither help to
reduce world poverty nor spur economic growth in Africa.
Robert J. Barro is a professor of
economics at Harvard University and a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution
(rjbweek@harvard.edu).
