Poverty-Growth-Inequality Triangle

The Poverty-Growth-Inequality Triangle was originally introduced by Bourguignon in a paper presented at the Conference on Poverty, Inequality and Growth in Paris on November 13, 2003.

A modified version of the paper was presented at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations in New Delhi on February 4, 2004.

[2] Economists working for international organizations like the World Bank use the Poverty-Growth-Inequality Triangle to create poverty reduction strategies that include both steps to reduce inequality and stimulate growth.

[3][2] [4] In 2013, a study of the 138 countries over the period 2005 to 2010 found that the basic ideas of Poverty-Growth-Inequality Triangle hold and that both growth and inequality impact absolute poverty as Bourguignon described.

[10] Developmental economists Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo argue that cross-country data cannot be used to give any meaningful insight on topics like poverty and inequality.

[10] Critics also argue that the simplified nature of the model means that it misses factors that affect absolute poverty.

[5] Other economists argue that the triangle should include financial instability, crises, the business cycle, and their effects on poverty.