Poverty, Growth, and Safety Nets

Among the most remarkable events in the world during the last half-century has been the notable economic growth, social transformation, and poverty reduction that has taken place in Asia. It was only three decades ago that more than half of the region's population lived below the poverty line, only two of five adults were literate, and the average person could expect to live only 48 years. At present, the proportion of people who are poor is down to one-third, 70 percent of adults are literate, and life expectancy is up to 68 years. And while the region's population has increased from 1.8 billion to 3.0 billion, the number of poor people has dropped from more than 1 billion to about 800 million. And yet, because Asia is so vast and heterogeneous, its success story does not apply equally to all the countries. There are large differentials in economic and social progress between and within countries in the region. There is a sharp contrast between the countries of South Asia and those in East and Southeast Asia. Even the more dynamic East and Southeast Asian countries have suffered recent setbacks (including sharp increases in poverty) in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis of 1997 to 1998. This volume is devoted to the topic of poverty, growth, and safety nets in Asia. The issue contains nine papers, authored by economists, sociologists and anthropologists, covering five countries in the region: India, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. These countries differ enormously from each other in terms of their records on poverty reduction, economic growth, and safety net interventions. For instance, while the incidence of poverty in Pakistan increased from 22.4 percent in 1993 to 31 percent in 1997, in Vietnam it declined from 58 percent to 37 percent over roughly the same period (1992-93 to 1997-98). The growth performance of the two countries was also very different, with the Vietnamese economy growing at about twice the rate of the Pakistani economy (real growth of about 9 percent per annum over the period 1993 to 1997 versus 4.6 percent). While the papers in this issue do not directly address the reasons for this divergent experience, they deal with the rich diversity of issues relating to poverty and growth in the region−from the role of democracy in influencing social inequality in India to the access of health services by the poor in Vietnam. The paper by Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen addresses the question of democracy and its role in securing economic development and social justice in the context of India. The authors argue for making a distinction between democratic institutions and democratic practice. While India has been unusually successful (among developing countries) in maintaining and nurturing democratic institu

China · Development economics · East Asia · Economic growth · Economics · Extreme poverty · Geography · Life expectancy · Political science · Population · Population growth · Poverty · Socioeconomics · Sociology · Income, Poverty, and Inequality · Demography