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Begin New Search Author Andy Sumner Publication Year within 25 Years

1. Who Are the World’s Poor? A New Profile of Global Multidimensional Poverty

Author:
Gisela Robles Aguilar and Andy Sumner
Publication Date:
01-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
Who are the world’s poor? This paper presents a new global profile of multidimensional poverty using three specifications of multidimensional poverty. The paper draws comparisons with the global monetary poverty profile and with the new World Bank measure of combined monetary and non-monetary poverty; discusses how global poverty differs by specification, the extent of multidimensionality, and presents a set of estimates of the disaggregated characteristics of global multidimensional poverty in 2015. We find the following: (i) at an aggregate level, the overall characteristics of global multidimensional poverty are similar to those of global monetary poverty at $1.90 per day; (ii) at a disaggregated level, we find that poverty in rural areas tends to be characterized by overlapping deprivations in education and access to decent infrastructure (water, sanitation, electricity, and housing) and counterintuitively, given the proximity, in principle, to better health care and economic opportunities, it is child mortality and malnutrition that is more frequently observed within urban poverty; and (iii) the extent of the multidimensionality of poverty differs substantially by region; moreover, some deprivations frequently overlap while others do not.
Topic:
Poverty, World Bank, Inequality, and Rural
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2. New Estimates of Global Poverty and Inequality: How Much Difference Do Price Data Really Make?

Author:
Peter Edward and Andy Sumner
Publication Date:
05-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
This paper makes new estimates of global poverty and inequality in 2012 using both ‘old’, 2005 and ‘new’, 2011 purchasing power parity (PPP) price data in order to assess systematically what difference PPP data makes to the estimates. The methodology for the 2011 PPP data is thought to be superior. However, contentions remain. We discuss the PPPs and justify the use of 2011 PPP data to estimate global poverty and inequality, at least for comparison purposes.
Topic:
Poverty

3. Philanthropy, Welfare Capitalism or Radically Different Global Economic Model: What Would It Take to End Global Poverty within a Generation Based on Historical Growth Patterns?

Author:
Peter Edward and Andy Sumner
Publication Date:
09-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
This paper considers the effectiveness and efficiency of global growth, as a route to poverty reduction, since 1990 and then demonstrates the redistributive challenges implicit in various poverty lines and scenarios: the significance being that this historical data can inform understanding and appreciation of what it would involve to end global poverty in the future. We find that a very modest redistribution of global growth could have ended poverty already at the lowest poverty lines. However, higher, but arguably more reasonable, poverty lines present radically different challenges to the current workings of national economic systems and to global (normative) obligations.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Humanitarian Aid, and Poverty

4. How Has the Developing World Changed since the Late 1990s? A Dynamic and Multidimensional Taxonomy of Developing Countries

Author:
Andy Sumner and Sergio Tezanos Vázquez
Publication Date:
08-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
Many existing classifications of developing countries are dominated by income per capita (such as the World Bank's low, middle, and high income thresholds), thus neglecting the multidimensionality of the concept of 'development'. Even those deemed to be the main 'alternatives' to the income-based classification have income per capita heavily weighted within a composite indicator. This paper provides an alternative perspective: clusters of developing countries. We take 4 'frames' on the meaning of development: economic development, human development, better governance, and environmental sustainability. We then use a cluster procedure in order to build groups of countries that are to some extent internally 'homogeneous', but noticeably dissimilar to other groups. The advantage of this procedure is that it allows us identify the key development characteristics of each cluster of countries and where each country fits best. We then use this taxonomy to analyze how the developing world has changed since the late 1990s in terms of clusters of countries and the country groupings themselves.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Governance, and Reform

5. The Geography of Inequality: Where and by How Much Has Income Distribution Changed since 1990?

Author:
Andy Sumner and Peter Edward
Publication Date:
09-2013
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
The interplay of between-and within-country inequality, the relative contribution of each to overall global inequality, and the implications this has for who benefits from recent global growth (and by how much), has become a significant avenue for economic research. However, drawing conclusions from the commonly used aggregate inequality indices such as the Gini and Theil makes it difficult to take a nuanced view of how global growth interacts with changing national and international inequality.
Topic:
Cold War, Development, Economics, and Globalization

6. Is It All About the Tails? The Palma Measure of Income Inequality

Author:
Alex Cobham and Andy Sumner
Publication Date:
09-2013
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
There are normative or instrumental reasons why inequality may be said to matter (e.g. fairness and meritocracy). However, much global literature has taken an instrumentalist approach as to why high or rising inequality can hinder development. For example, Birdsall (2007) argues that income inequality in developing countries matters for at least three instrumental reasons: where markets are underdeveloped, inequality inhibits growth through economic mechanisms; where institutions of government are weak, inequality exacerbates the problem of creating and maintaining accountable government, increasing the probability of economic and social policies that inhibit growth and poverty reduction; and where social institutions are fragile, inequality further discourages the civic and social life that underpins the effective collective decision-making that is necessary to the functioning of healthy societies.
Topic:
Economics, Poverty, Social Stratification, and Labor Issues

7. Where Will the World's Poor Live? An Update on Global Poverty and the New Bottom Billion

Author:
Andy Sumner
Publication Date:
09-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
This paper updates the distribution of global poverty data and makes projections up to 2020. The paper asks the following question: Do the world's extreme poor live in poor countries? It is argued that many of the world's extreme poor already live in countries where the total cost of ending extreme poverty is not prohibitively high as a percentage of GDP. And in the not-too-distant future, most of the world's poor will live in countries that do have the domestic financial scope to end at least extreme poverty. This would imply a reframing of global poverty as largely a matter of domestic distribution.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Poverty

8. The Buoyant Billions: How "Middle Class" Are the New Middle Classes in Developing Countries? (And Why Does It Matter?)

Author:
Andy Sumner
Publication Date:
10-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
Middle-income countries (MICs) are now home to most of the world's extreme poor—the billion people living on less than $1.25 a day and a further billion people living on between $1.25 and $2. At the same time, many MICs are also home to a drastically expanding emerging middle or nonpolar group, called here the “buoyant billions.” This group includes those (mostly in MICs) living on between $2 and $4 a day and another billion people (also mostly in MICs) between $4 and $10 a day. Although they are above the average poverty line for developing countries, many people in these new “middle classes” may be insecure and at risk of falling into poverty. This paper outlines indicative data on trends relating to poverty and the nonpoor by different expenditure groups, and critically reviews the recent literature that contentiously labels such groups as “middle class.” The paper argues that such groups are neither extremely poor nor secure from poverty and that such groups are worthy of closer examination because their expansion may potentially have wider societal implications related, for example, to taxation, governance, and—ultimately—domestic politics.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Emerging Markets, and Poverty

9. Global Health and the New Bottom Billion: How Funders Should Respond to Shifts in Global Poverty and Disease Burden

Author:
Amanda Glassman, Andy Sumner, and Denizhan Duran
Publication Date:
01-2012
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
After a decade of rapid economic growth, many developing countries have attained middle-income status. But poverty reduction in these countries has not kept pace with economic growth. As a result, most of the world's poor—up to a billion people—now live in these new middle-income countries (MICs), making up a “new bottom billion.” As the new MICs are home to most of the world's poor, they also carry the majority of the global disease burden. This poses a challenge to global health agencies, in particular the GAVI Alliance and the Global Fund, which are accustomed to disbursing funds on the assumption that the majority of poor people live in poor countries.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Health, and Poverty

10. MDGs 2.0: What Goals, Targets, and Timeframe?

Author:
Charles Kenny, Andy Sumner, and Jonathan Karver
Publication Date:
06-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are widely cited as the primary yardstick against which advances in international development efforts are to be judged. At the same time, the Goals will be met or missed by 2015. It is not too early to start asking 'what next?' This paper builds on a discussion that has already begun to address potential approaches, goals and target indicators to help inform the process of developing a second generation of MDGs or 'MDGs 2.0.' The paper outlines potential goal areas based on the original Millennium Declaration, the timeframe for any MDGs 2.0 and attempts to calculate some reasonable targets associated with those goal areas.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Emerging Markets, Post Colonialism, and Political Theory