The Effect of Economic Growth on Poverty and Income Inequality: Measurement of Pro-poor Growth in Urban and Rural Areas of Iran

Economic growth and poverty alleviation have been among the most important government policies in Iran for the past three decades. This paper examines the effect of economic growth on the poverty reduction in Iran using various methodologies and approaches for the period 1995-2003 Main findings of the paper show that poverty incidence in urban and rural areas of Iran has declined, however, the intensity of poverty has declined in urban, but increased in rural areas. Furthermore, measurements of indices such as the poverty incidence,, poverty-growth curves, and the poverty equivalent growth indicate that economic growth in most years has been weakly pro-poor in both urban and rural areas, confirming the trickle down effect of growth.