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An Analysis of Welfare Changes in Zimbabwe *
Author(s) -
Kwenda Prudence
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
african development review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.654
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1467-8268
pISSN - 1017-6772
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8268.2010.00246.x
Subject(s) - welfare , economics , poverty , inequality , income distribution , dominance (genetics) , demographic economics , educational attainment , disconnection , development economics , labour economics , economic growth , political science , biology , mathematics , mathematical analysis , biochemistry , law , market economy , gene
: This paper presents a brief account of welfare changes in Zimbabwe along the income and education dimensions between 1995 and 2003. Using sequential dominance procedures, we find that education attainment substantially improved over time. However, these gains did not necessarily translate into poverty reduction, rather welfare over the joint distribution of income and education dramatically deteriorated. These results are robust for all education partitions, income thresholds and a broad class of welfare indices. A further inquiry into the factors underlying this apparent disconnection between education and income using decomposition techniques reveals that the increase in poverty incidence cannot be attributed to household characteristics but is reflective of the broader socio‐economic trends prevailing at the time. The decline in economic growth contributed tremendously to the decline in welfare while inequality changes account for a small proportion.