Essays on poverty dynamics in Africa: Analyses using household surveys and computable general equilibrium methods

This dissertation analyzes poverty dynamics in Africa using both empirical methods and a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model for an archetype economy.; The first chapter examines changes in living standards over time using Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) which are available for at least two points in time for ten African countries. Although they are not specifically designed for economic analysis, the DHS provide consistent sampling frames and survey instruments allowing inter-temporal welfare comparisons. This chapter focuses on the evolution of child-nutrition and mortality, education and an index of household wealth constructed from factor analysis on assets. Each of the indicators is analyzed separately, and their covariation examined. The determinants of child-nutrition and mortality are also examined using regression analysis.; The second chapter examines in more detail the household wealth index introduced in the first chapter. While the welfare comparisons using the asset index give results across both countries and time consistent with other studies, this chapter examines how closely the orderings of household welfare based on the asset index correspond to those based on the more traditional money metric, household consumption expenditures. Since constructing household asset indices is but one way to contend with the absence of money-metrics of welfare in the DHS, an alternative that links the DHS with household expenditure data is also explored. The performances of these two indicators are evaluated according to tests of rankings and prediction capabilities for nutritional outcomes using Living Standard Measurement Study (LSMS) surveys for Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana and Vietnam.; In the third chapter, a CGE model of an archetype African economy is built to simulate the welfare effects of trade liberalization specifically on poverty. The economy is modeled following a dual-dual framework that is characteristic of the structure of a developing country in its middle development phase. This provides the basis for explicitly modeling labor migration. Intra-group income distributions and a poverty line defined as the value of a subsistence consumption bundle, are endogenized to incorporate poverty analysis into this CGE model. A SAM of a prototype African economy provides the initial conditions upon which the model is calibrated.