POVERTY IN ZAMBIA: ASSESSING THE IMPACTS OF TRADE LIBERALISATION IN THE 1990S

Abstract

The aim of this background paper is to investigate the impact of reforms in agricultural marketing, privatisation, trade liberalisation and public sector on household poverty dynamics focussing in particular on the reforms of the maize market and the impact of the declining international copper price. We first summarise some of the key features of the changes in poverty between 1991 and 1998, disaggregating the findings by geographical location and other socio-economic categories. The paper also summarise some of the essential features of the reforms in the 1990s. In the absence of panel data set for the period we construct a pseudo-panel of households, using districts and age of household head, and estimate a consumption growth model incorporating standard demographic actors and reform-related variables