ABSTRACT
In Chapter 22, Fields argued that more attention needs to be paid to absolute poverty reduction if we truly wish to study the gap between rich and poor. In this chapter, Norman L. Hicks questions whether policies directed toward meeting basic human needs, and hence toward reducing absolute poverty, will result in slowed growth. In other words, are developing nations faced with a cruel choice between growth and basic needs? Hicks discusses the limitations of using the available data to answer this question, pointing out that many basic needs indicators are not sensitive to distribution questions, but merely report averages that can obscure important differences between rich and poor sectors of a population. Selecting life expectancy at birth and adult literacy as two reasonable measures of the progress of a nation in meeting basic human needs, he finds that meeting such needs actually contributes to growth, even among developing countries with good records in meeting basic needs but unexceptional growth rates. Although Hicks says that these conclusions are tentative and require better data for confirmation, the data presented make it seem reasonable to believe that the dual goals of absolute poverty reduction and economic growth are not incompatible. These findings, therefore, reinforce Fields’s suggestion that the focus of research should be on the reduction of absolute poverty.
