Trade Liberalisation, Poverty and Livelihoods: Understanding the linkages

This paper reviews and assesses the key analytical approaches that are used to understand the linkages between trade and poverty, with a view to understanding their linkages in the context of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Explores two main perspectives: mainstream economics takes an aggregate approach, measures poverty primarily on the basis of income, and is generally positive about the impacts of trade liberalisation on poverty. A wider socio-economic, livelihoods perspective focuses on micro-level complexity, employs multi-dimensional concepts of poverty and is less positive about the impact of trade liberalisation on poverty.