Where Is Poverty Concentrated? New Evidence Based on Internationally Consistent Urban and Poverty Measurements

Shohei Nakamura (1) , Pierre-Philippe Combes (2) , Robin Moellerherm (3) , Charlotte Robert (3) , Mark Roberts (1) , Benjamin Stewart (1) , Slava Yakubenko (4)

1 World Bank Group
2 ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po)
3 Universität Heidelberg [Heidelberg] = Heidelberg University
4 HSE - Vysšaja škola èkonomiki = National Research University Higher School of Economics [Moscow]

The lack of comparable urban definitions across countries has presented a significant challenge in effectively addressing poverty in both urban and rural areas. This study aims to tackle this issue by comparing subnational poverty statistics across countries, integrating internationally consistent definitions of urban areas into the World Bank’s official global poverty measurement framework. Focusing primarily on 16 Sub-Saharan African countries, the analysis reveals that poverty rates tend to be lower in densely populated urban areas. However, the findings also highlight that urban areas have a higher concentration of impoverished populations than previously estimated. These results underscore the importance of employing consistent urban definitions in cross-country poverty analysis and call for a reevaluation of geographically targeted policies to expedite poverty reduction efforts.

Keywords: Global poverty; urban poverty; urbanization; cost of living; Sub-Saharan Africa

Domains: Economics and Finance

Shohei Nakamura, Pierre-Philippe Combes, Robin Moellerherm, Charlotte Robert, Mark Roberts, et al.. Where Is Poverty Concentrated? New Evidence Based on Internationally Consistent Urban and Poverty Measurements. 2023. ⟨hal-04345458⟩