Pro-Poor Growth : One or Multiple Concept?

Confronting theoretical and empirical literature on the relationship between growth, inequality and poverty, this paper aimed at suggesting a suitable conception of pro-poor growth for development studies focusing on the true test of pro-poorness (the bias in favor of the poor), all the sources of poverty reduction and the policies implications. The weak versus strong definitions and relative versus absolute approaches of pro-poor growth were compared to neighboring concepts as well as their policy implications were drawn. The distribution-focused approaches were found typically synonyms to the quest for a middle class or a progressive growth, calling for redistribution policies and limiting the scope of growth. The poverty-outcome-focused approaches were discovered to be substituted to trickle down growth or inclusive growth, implying growth accelerating policies. The analysis resulted at tolerating the strong absolute definition of pro-poor growth