Resource information
Brazil, China and India have seen
falling poverty in their reform periods, but to varying
degrees and for different reasons. History left China with
favorable initial conditions for rapid poverty reduction
through market-led economic growth; at the outset of the
reform process there were ample distortions to remove and
relatively low inequality in access to the opportunities so
created, though inequality has risen markedly since. By
concentrating such opportunities in the hands of the better
off, prior inequalities in various dimensions handicapped
poverty reduction in both Brazil and India. Brazil's
recent success in complementing market-oriented reforms with
progressive social policies has helped it achieve more rapid
poverty reduction than India, although Brazil has been less
successful in terms of economic growth. In the wake of its
steep rise in inequality, China might learn from
Brazil's success with such policies. India needs to do
more to assure that poor people are able to participate in
both the country's growth process and its social
policies; here there are lessons from both China and Brazil.
All three countries have learned how important macroeconomic
stability is to poverty reduction.
