During the 1980s the OECD countries experienced divergent trends in taxation. In some countries governments took to cutting tax rates, especially income tax rates, influenced perhaps by the supply-side economists. In other countries, tax rates continued to rise as had generally been the case...

The paper addresses two questions. First, what do national and cross-national regressions reveal about the link from economic growth to poverty reduction, and how is this link affected by (a) initial conditions, such as the degree of inequality, and (b) the type of growth, e.g its sectoral...