CMI Research Group
Poverty Reduction
Presentation | People | Projects | Publications
Considerable efforts are being made to describe and measure the living standards of the poor, and to establish poverty profiles. Yet, current poverty research suffers from an analytical and multi-disciplinary deficit. The PRRG will focus on analytical research into the mechanisms that reproduce social and economic inequalities, the very reasons why poverty exists and persists.
Through a thorough evaluation of present policy interventions, we seek to identify policies that are effective in removing barriers that prevent the poor and marginalised from escaping poverty. A more systematic exchange of perspectives and results from across the social sciences will advance poverty research beyond the fragmented, uni-disciplinary approach that currently dominates this field of research.
Key areas of research:
- Assessments of the design of pro-poor policies and evaluating their impact
- Study of the socio-cultural and economic barriers preventing poor people from escaping poverty
- Analyses of the ethical justifications for pro-poor policy interventions
To effectively address these research goals a Multi-disciplinary research design will be employed by the PRRG. The group comprises economists, social anthropologists and political scientists, and seeks to develop multi-disciplinary research designs and methodologies that realize synergies between quantitative and qualitative approaches. Through its adoption of both a policy and multi-disciplinary approach, the PPRG builds on two of CMI's main comparative research advantages.
Policies for Poverty Reduction and their Impact
The adverse impact of, and strong public and political reaction to structural adjustment in the 1990s induced the international donor community and national governments to soften economic reform policies and introduce a new international development policy regime. This new policy-regime was aimed at being explicitly "pro-poor" and to secure spaces for policy dialogue between stakeholders. The main vehicles for establishing the new policy regime of "development with a human face" were the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs). Unlike previous reforms, the formulation of PRSPs involve broad-based participation at all levels of government and by civil society organisations. Poverty reduction policies now aim to be multidimensional, addressing peoples' (i) lack of income and assets to attain basic necessities such as food, shelter, clothing and acceptable levels of health and education through increased opportunity; (ii) sense of voicelessness and powerlessness in relation to the institutions of society and the state, alleviated through empowerment; and (iii) vulnerability to adverse shocks linked to the ability to cope through social relationships and legal institutions, alleviated through social security.
Our research agenda involves:
- What determines the policy-making process?
Acknowledging that processes of formulating national poverty reduction strategies and plans are inherently controversial, we see the need for field research to give insights, not only into the ways in which governments respond to civil society and poverty issues, but also how national and international actors are able to shape policy outcomes. - To what extent do PRSP processes contribute to the reduction and production of poverty ?
We aim to make CMI a leading centre in Scandinavia for the evaluation of policy impacts and socio-economic change in aid dependent countries. The collection of relevant data and analyses of patterns of change pose complex methodological and theoretical challenges. We seek to build research capacity for MDG and PRS monitoring and to co-operate with the leading international and national institutions in that endeavour. Evaluating the effects of policies designed to reduce poverty along different dimensions is exceedingly difficult. Moreover, evaluating policies implies a "counterfactual analysis", i.e. what would the situation have been like if the policy had not been implemented.
Barriers to Poverty Reduction
Recognised problems in the design of pro-poor policies call for a better understanding of the distributional effects of measures to stimulate economic growth. This entails studying the factors and social barriers that inhibit poor people from seizing upon the opportunities created by a growing economy. These barriers may stem from social and cultural institutions and norms; processes related to the inequalities of national and international economies; lack of infrastructure; or from discrimination and lack of access to local, national, and international markets.
Our research agenda involves:
- What are the barriers created at the local level?
We will develop in-depth empirical studies of the political, economic and socio-cultural processes responsible for the creation of abject or chronic poverty or the maintenance of oppressive social institutions such as caste systems, bonded labor, gender inequalities and ethnic discrimination. Discrimination between different groups may persist and be reproduced at the village level through socially formed reinforcing mechanisms or norms, to the point that marginalised villagers themselves believe they are less productive than others.
- What are the barriers at national level?
National policies may present obstacles to pro-poor growth. Although recent economic reforms in many developing countries have led to substantial economic progress, many groups are left lagging behind in conditions of poverty. With a substantial surplus labour force, the wage level may not necessarily keep up with the price increases on essential goods that may result from economic liberalisation. We want to identify and test the effects of different forms of affirmative action to counteract marginalisation and discrimination and suggest policies that may complement current economic reform and sector policies.
- What are the barriers at the international level?
International economics has always been a core research area at CMI, and we will develop this further in studying conditions determining access to international markets for developing country businesses. Required standards related to health, safety, and quality can be major obstacles for export of goods into Western markets. Red tape in the exporting as well as importing countries may also present major obstacles to international trade. These inhibiting factors add to the conventional ones, such as poor infrastructure, various export and import taxes, and quotas. In addition to restrictions on the international movement of outputs from production, there are restrictions on the movement of inputs.
The Ethics of Poverty Reduction
Critiques of aid highlight the gap between, on the one hand, stated intentions and policy rhetoric and actual practice, on the other. It is argued that the urgency and priority of poverty reduction are ultimately ethical issues. A normative approach to poverty would facilitate a discussion of duties and/or responsibilities for poverty reduction. Who are the duty-bearers and how should responsibilities be pursued and shared? This ethical perspective has bearing on the scope and legitimacy of donor interventions, and on the appropriate role and autonomy of collaborating partner governments.
Our research agenda involves:
- What is an applied ethics of poverty reduction?
We aim to develop an ethical perspective on poverty and aid, and to critically assess the role of donors, international institutions and partner country governments in poverty reduction.
- What are the rights and responsibilities of duty-bearers in poverty reduction?
We aim to analyse the role of various agents in poverty reduction, with a view to assessing tools and incentive structures to promote responsible development assistance and partner country action.
Our approach: Multi-disciplinary research design
The group comprises economists, social anthropologists and political scientists, and will develop multi-disciplinary research designs and methodologies that realise synergies between quantitative and qualitative approaches.
- We will combine qualitative and quantitative methodologies to monitor poverty, to understand the determinants of poverty, and to evaluate policy interventions. The quantitative approach allows for stringent testing of hypotheses, correlations and causal relations based on data from representative household surveys, which can be followed-up by using qualitative methods to understand the depth and nuances of processes that produce and reproduce poverty and marginalisation.
- Econometric (quantitative) specialisation: The research strategy requires advanced econometric techniques to establish causal relationships, whether the focus is factors that may explain poverty traps or policy interventions. Ideally, we want to conduct controlled experiments to identify the causal effects of changes in particular variables. In reality, however, experimental designs are not always feasible, leaving sophisticated econometric analysis as a suitable alternative. The main technical challenge is to identify instrumental variables that have an effect on the explanatory variable, but not on the dependent variable. We believe that a multi-disciplinary approach is of great value in identifying instrumental variables, control variables, as well as in formulating relevant hypotheses.
- Participatory (qualitative) specialisation: The research strategy will utilise advanced qualitative techniques (i) to discover processes and interdependencies related to non-quantifiable dimensions of poverty such as vulnerability and powerlessness; (ii) to contextualise and inform quantitative analysis by testing causal hypothesis on the ground; and (iii) to involve the poor themselves in the analysis of their own situation in ways that are difficult by means of structured questionnaires.
