도시화와 빈곤감소의 관계에 대한 실증적 연구

Abstract

Poverty and urbanization are some of the most common phenomena in developing countries. It is also an important issue that constitutes sustainable development goals (SDGs). Currently, 10% of the world population experiences absolute poverty, and 80% of the poor live in developing countries. Meanwhile, in 2018, 55% of the world population lives in cities, and urbanization is rapidly proceeding in developing countries. Therefore, it is essential to understand the interaction effects of the two variables in terms of spatial coherence. The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of urbanization on poverty reduction. We conduct an empirical analysis using 105 cross-country panel data for 35 years. The dependent variables are the poverty rate, the poverty gap, and the squared poverty gap in the FGT index. We classify the country income group for verifying the impact of poverty reduction on urbanization according to the national economic level. The results of the study show that the increase in urbanization contributes to the decrease in absolute poverty. In particular, poverty reduction shows the highest sensitivity to urbanization in the upper-middle-income country group. This study provides empirical proof that urbanization is a decisive factor that leads to poverty reduction. We find the implications that more active research is needed basing on understanding the positive correlation between urbanization and poverty reduction.