Does the Environment Matter for Poverty Reduction? : The Role of Soil Fertility and Vegetation Vigor in Poverty Reduction
The debate on the environment-poverty nexus is inconclusive, with past research unable to identify the causal dynamics. This paper uses a unique global panel data set that links (survey and census derived) poverty data to measures of environmental...
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2018
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/732471533299978428/Does-the-environment-matter-for-poverty-reduction-the-role-of-soil-fertility-and-vegetation-vigor-in-poverty-reduction http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30227 |
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okr-10986-302272021-09-20T17:40:10Z Does the Environment Matter for Poverty Reduction? : The Role of Soil Fertility and Vegetation Vigor in Poverty Reduction Heger, Martin Zens, Gregor Bangalore, Mook SOIL FERTILITY POVERTY REDUCTION LAND USE SOIL QUALITY ENVIRONMENT RAINFALL The debate on the environment-poverty nexus is inconclusive, with past research unable to identify the causal dynamics. This paper uses a unique global panel data set that links (survey and census derived) poverty data to measures of environmental quality at the subnational level. The analysis uses vegetation vigor as a proxy for above-ground environmental quality and soil fertility as proxy for below-ground environmental quality. Rainfall is used to account for endogeneity issues in an instrumental variable approach. This is the first global study using quasi-experimental methods to uncover to what degree environmental quality matters for poverty reduction. The paper draws three main conclusions. (1) The environment matters for poverty reduction. The panel regression suggests that a 10 percent increase in vegetation vigor is associated with a poverty headcount ratio reduction of nearly 0.7 percentage point in rural areas, and 1 percentage point in Sub-Saharan Africa. A 10 percent increase in soil quality leads to a roughly 2 percentage point decrease in poverty rates in rural areas and in Sub-Saharan Africa. (2) The effects of environmental quality on poverty are stronger than its effects on average income, suggesting that the poor benefit disproportionately from environmental quality. (3) In situ environmental quality improvements are pro-poor, in contrast to urbanization. Although urbanization has highly significant and sizable correlations with GDP per capita, it is not significantly correlated with poverty reduction. 2018-08-15T18:31:22Z 2018-08-15T18:31:22Z 2018-08 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/732471533299978428/Does-the-environment-matter-for-poverty-reduction-the-role-of-soil-fertility-and-vegetation-vigor-in-poverty-reduction http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30227 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8537 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Africa Sub-Saharan Africa |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English |
| topic |
SOIL FERTILITY POVERTY REDUCTION LAND USE SOIL QUALITY ENVIRONMENT RAINFALL |
| spellingShingle |
SOIL FERTILITY POVERTY REDUCTION LAND USE SOIL QUALITY ENVIRONMENT RAINFALL Heger, Martin Zens, Gregor Bangalore, Mook Does the Environment Matter for Poverty Reduction? : The Role of Soil Fertility and Vegetation Vigor in Poverty Reduction |
| geographic_facet |
Africa Sub-Saharan Africa |
| relation |
Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8537 |
| description |
The debate on the environment-poverty
nexus is inconclusive, with past research unable to identify
the causal dynamics. This paper uses a unique global panel
data set that links (survey and census derived) poverty data
to measures of environmental quality at the subnational
level. The analysis uses vegetation vigor as a proxy for
above-ground environmental quality and soil fertility as
proxy for below-ground environmental quality. Rainfall is
used to account for endogeneity issues in an instrumental
variable approach. This is the first global study using
quasi-experimental methods to uncover to what degree
environmental quality matters for poverty reduction. The
paper draws three main conclusions. (1) The environment
matters for poverty reduction. The panel regression suggests
that a 10 percent increase in vegetation vigor is associated
with a poverty headcount ratio reduction of nearly 0.7
percentage point in rural areas, and 1 percentage point in
Sub-Saharan Africa. A 10 percent increase in soil quality
leads to a roughly 2 percentage point decrease in poverty
rates in rural areas and in Sub-Saharan Africa. (2) The
effects of environmental quality on poverty are stronger
than its effects on average income, suggesting that the poor
benefit disproportionately from environmental quality. (3)
In situ environmental quality improvements are pro-poor, in
contrast to urbanization. Although urbanization has highly
significant and sizable correlations with GDP per capita, it
is not significantly correlated with poverty reduction. |
| format |
Working Paper |
| author |
Heger, Martin Zens, Gregor Bangalore, Mook |
| author_facet |
Heger, Martin Zens, Gregor Bangalore, Mook |
| author_sort |
Heger, Martin |
| title |
Does the Environment Matter for Poverty Reduction? : The Role of Soil Fertility and Vegetation Vigor in Poverty Reduction |
| title_short |
Does the Environment Matter for Poverty Reduction? : The Role of Soil Fertility and Vegetation Vigor in Poverty Reduction |
| title_full |
Does the Environment Matter for Poverty Reduction? : The Role of Soil Fertility and Vegetation Vigor in Poverty Reduction |
| title_fullStr |
Does the Environment Matter for Poverty Reduction? : The Role of Soil Fertility and Vegetation Vigor in Poverty Reduction |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Does the Environment Matter for Poverty Reduction? : The Role of Soil Fertility and Vegetation Vigor in Poverty Reduction |
| title_sort |
does the environment matter for poverty reduction? : the role of soil fertility and vegetation vigor in poverty reduction |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2018 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/732471533299978428/Does-the-environment-matter-for-poverty-reduction-the-role-of-soil-fertility-and-vegetation-vigor-in-poverty-reduction http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30227 |
| _version_ |
1764471471888924672 |