When Does Trade Reduce Poverty? Revisiting the Evidence for East Asia
Menon, Jayant; Melendez, Anna Cassandra | June 2020
Abstract
East Asia’s openness to trade is often credited as one of the main drivers behind the region’s impressive gains in economic growth and poverty reduction. In this paper, we examine the literature to determine whether there is a sound theoretical and empirical basis for this presumed relationship between trade and poverty reduction. Like many other studies on this topic, we find that the linkages are not automatic; the impact of trade on poverty is highly context-specific, and many factors come into play. Complementary policies are necessary to maximise trade’s potential impact on poverty reduction. We also explore the role of Aid-for-Trade in addressing specific trade-related capacity constraints which prevent developing countries from maximising the benefits from trade.
Citation
Menon, Jayant; Melendez, Anna Cassandra. 2020. When Does Trade Reduce Poverty? Revisiting the Evidence for East Asia. © ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute. http://hdl.handle.net/11540/12166.Keywords
Poverty Analysis
Participatory Poverty Assessment
Poverty Reduction Strategy
Extreme Poverty
Economic development
Growth And Poverty
Energy
Free Trade
Trade
Trade Agreements
Regional Economic Integration
Intraregional Trade
Income Distribution
Demographic Indicators
Social Justice
Exports
Economic integration
Distribution
Development Bank
Trade policy
Social change
Social accounting
Inequality of income
Economic growth
Quality of Life
Euro
Inflation
Business
Finance
Free trade
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