Is There a Metropolitan Bias? The Inverse Relationship between Poverty and City Size in Selected Developing Countries

This paper provides evidence from eight developing countries of an inverse relationship between poverty and city size. Poverty is both more widespread and deeper in very small and small towns than in large or very large cities. This basic pattern is generally robust to choice of poverty line. The paper shows, further, that for all eight countries, a majority of the urban poor live in medium, small, or very small towns. Moreover, it is shown that the greater incidence and severity of consumption poverty in smaller towns is generally compounded by similarly greater deprivation in terms of access to basic infrastructure services, such as electricity, heating gas, sewerage, and solid waste disposal. The authors illustrate for one country -- Morocco -- that inequality within large cities is not driven by a severe dichotomy between slum dwellers and others. The notion of a single cleavage between slum residents and well-to-do burghers as the driver of urban inequality in the developing world thus appears to be unsubstantiated -- at least in this case. Robustness checks are performed to assess whether the findings in the paper are driven by price variation across city-size categories, by the reliance on an income-based concept of well-being, and by the application of small-area estimation techniques for estimating poverty rates at the town and city level.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Ferre, Celine, Ferreira, Francisco H.G., Lanjouw, Peter
Language:	English
Published:	2010-12-01
Subjects:	ACCESS TO ELECTRICITY, ACCESS TO SERVICES, ALLOCATION OF RESOURCES, BASIC INFRASTRUCTURE, CHILD MORTALITY, CITIES, CITY SIZE, CITY SIZES, COEFFICIENTS, CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURE, CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURES, CONSUMPTION POVERTY, COST OF FOOD, DIFFERENTIALS, DIMENSIONS OF POVERTY, DISTRICT, DISTRICTS, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, EQUITABLE GROWTH, ESTIMATES OF POVERTY, EXPENDITURE, EXPENDITURE DATA, EXTREME POVERTY, FAMILY PLANNING, FARMERS, FOOD CONSUMERS, FOOD ITEMS, GARBAGE COLLECTION, GLOBAL POVERTY, HOUSEHOLD CONSUMPTION, HOUSEHOLD INCOME, HOUSEHOLD SURVEY, HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS, HOUSING, HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, INCIDENCE OF POVERTY, INCOME, INCOME POVERTY, INDUSTRIALIZATION, INEQUALITY, INFANT MORTALITY, INFANT MORTALITY RATES, LARGE CITIES, LARGER TOWNS, LIVING STANDARDS, LOCAL PUBLIC GOODS, MALNUTRITION, METROPOLITAN AREA, METROPOLITAN AREAS, NATIONAL POVERTY, NATIONAL POVERTY LINES, PER CAPITA CONSUMPTION, PER CAPITA EXPENDITURES, POLICY ANALYSTS, POOR, POOR COMMUNITIES, POOR LIVING, POOR PEOPLE, POOR PERSON, POVERTY ANALYSIS, POVERTY ASSESSMENT, POVERTY ASSESSMENTS, POVERTY ESTIMATES, POVERTY INCIDENCE, POVERTY INDICATORS, POVERTY LINE, POVERTY LINES, POVERTY MAP, POVERTY MAPPING, POVERTY MAPPING METHODOLOGY, POVERTY MAPS, POVERTY MEASUREMENT, POVERTY MEASURES, POVERTY PROFILE, POVERTY RATE, POVERTY RATES, POVERTY REDUCTION STRATEGIES, PROVINCES, PUBLIC DOMAIN, REGIONAL COVERAGE, REGIONAL PRICE, REGIONAL PRICE INDEX, RURAL, RURAL AREAS, RURAL PHENOMENON, RURAL POPULATION, RURAL POVERTY, RURAL POVERTY REDUCTION, SANITATION, SEWERAGE, SLUM AREAS, SLUM DWELLERS, SLUM RESIDENTS, SMALL TOWN, SMALL TOWNS, SMALLER TOWNS, SOLID WASTE, SOLID WASTE DISPOSAL, SPATIAL CORRELATION, SUB-NATIONAL, SUB-NATIONAL UNITS, TOWN, UNEMPLOYMENT, URBAN AREAS, URBAN GROWTH, URBAN POOR, URBAN POPULATION, URBAN POVERTY, URBAN POVERTY REDUCTION, URBAN SLUMS, URBANIZATION, VIOLENT CRIME, WELFARE INDICATOR, WELFARE MONITORING,
Online Access:	http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/main?menuPK=64187510&pagePK=64193027&piPK=64187937&theSitePK=523679&menuPK=64187510&searchMenuPK=64187283&siteName=WDS&entityID=000158349_20101221161955 https://hdl.handle.net/10986/3992
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