Secondary Towns and Poverty Reduction: Refocusing the Urbanization Agenda

Christiaensen, Luc; Kanbur, Ravi

doi:10.1596/1813-9450-7895

Cited by 15 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Recent evidence further suggests that labor movements out of agriculture into the rural non-farm economy and secondary towns are especially effective in reducing poverty, much more than movements into big cities. So, it is not just the transition out of agriculture which is associated with poverty reduction, but its effectiveness in reducing poverty also depends on where the off-farm jobs become available (Christiaensen, DeWeerdt and Todo 2013, Dorosh and Thurlow 2014, Christiaensen and Kanbur 2016. This complements the observation that agricultural growth has a more powerful poverty reducing effect than does non-agricultural growth (Minten and Barrett 2008;de Janvry and Sadoulet 2009;Christiaensen, Demery and Kuhl 2011).…”

Section: Essentials Of Structural Transformation Of Agricultural and mentioning

confidence: 98%

On the Structural Transformation of Rural Africa

Barrett

Christiaensen

Sheahan³

et al. 2017

Journal of African Economies

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119

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The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.

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Section: Essentials Of Structural Transformation Of Agricultural and mentioning

confidence: 98%

On the Structural Transformation of Rural Africa

Barrett

Christiaensen

Sheahan³

et al. 2017

Journal of African Economies

Self Cite

119

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“…Another ongoing research effort in this spirit focuses on the role of secondary cities in reducing poverty in South Asia and Sub‐Saharan Africa (Christiaensen and Kanbur, ). This research develops the concept of “action space” as the range of possible destinations to which a migrant can realistically move at a given point in time and, intimately linked to this, the set of possible livelihoods at destination.…”

Section: Household Characteristics Versus Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges in Measuring Poverty and Understanding its Dynamics: A South Asian Perspective

Rama¹

2019

Review of Income and Wealth

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SouthAsia's success at reducing poverty does not imply that the topic has become passé. Poverty rates are by now low, but this is because poverty lines are low as well. And the assessment of living standards and their dynamics are blurred by measurement and interpretation challenges. This paper relies mostly on South Asian examples to highlight four tensions: poorer versus richer households, rural versus urban locations, monetary versus non-monetary dimensions of wellbeing, and household characteristics versus context. The discussion is conducted against the backdrop of the two analytical approaches with South Asian roots that have shaped the debate for decades. This review leads to three main recommendations: household survey data has to be exploited in a more thorough manner, data that is increasingly available from other sources needs to be incorporated more systematically in the analysis, and the multiple dimensions of wellbeing should be better integrated in a common framework.JEL Codes: D31, I32, O1

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“…Regarding the latter, several studies have documented the existence of an urban gradient, with average income higher and poverty levels lower in cities compared to secondary towns (e.g. Christiaensen and Kanbur, 2016). Large cities may also have markedly different food environments.…”

Section: Unpacking the Effects 61 The Composition Of The Urban Landsmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Corn to Popcorn? Urbanization and Food Consumption in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from Rural-Urban Migrants in Tanzania

Cockx

Weerdt

2017

SSRN Journal

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There is rising concern that the ongoing wave of urbanization will have profound effects on eating patterns and increase the risk of nutrition-related non-communicable diseases. Yet, our understanding of urbanization as a driver of food consumption remains limited and primarily based upon research designs that fail to disentangle the effect of living in an urban environment from other socioeconomic disparities. Data from the Tanzania National Panel Survey, which tracked out-migrating respondents, allow us to compare individuals' dietary patterns before and after they relocated from rural to urban areas and assess whether those changes differ from household members who stayed behind or moved to a different rural area. We find that individuals who relocated to urban areas experience a much more pronounced shift away from the consumption of traditional staples, and towards more high-sugar, conveniently consumed and prepared foods. Contrary to what is often claimed in the literature, living in an urban environment is not found to contribute positively to the intake of protein-rich foods, nor to diet diversity. Though we do not find a strong association with weight gain, these changes in eating patterns represent a clear nutritional concern regarding the potential longer-term impacts of urbanization. Our results however also indicate that the growth of unhealthy food consumption with urbanization is largely linked to rising incomes. As such, health concerns over diets can be expected to spread rapidly to less-urbanized areas as well, as soon as income growth takes off there. Our findings clearly call for more in-depth research that may help to improve health and food and nutrition security as well as correctly predict food demand and adapt trade, agricultural and development policies.

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Secondary Towns and Poverty Reduction: Refocusing the Urbanization Agenda

Cited by 15 publications

References 17 publications

On the Structural Transformation of Rural Africa

On the Structural Transformation of Rural Africa

Challenges in Measuring Poverty and Understanding its Dynamics: A South Asian Perspective

From Corn to Popcorn? Urbanization and Food Consumption in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from Rural-Urban Migrants in Tanzania

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