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The Government of Cameroon has declared poverty reduction through strong and sustainable economic growth the central objective of its socioeconomic policy. This paper uses available household survey data to assess the performance of the economy with respect to this objective over the period 1996-2007. The authors use counterfactual decompositions based on both the Shapley method and the generalized Oaxaca-Blinder framework to identify proximate factors that might explain differences in observed outcomes over time, across regions and households. The concept of pro-poorness provides a basis for a normative evaluation of these outcomes. The analysis of changes in the size distribution of economic welfare reveals that formal sector employment, access to credit, education, and urban residence are characteristics that bring significantly high returns to households. Employment in smallholder agriculture has a negative impact on welfare across quantiles. Economic growth was accompanied by significant poverty reduction between 1996 and 2001. But poverty barely decreased between 2001 and 2007 due to very weak growth. Over the same period, household investment in human capital took a serious hit. Given the additional finding that the pattern of growth is characterized by urban bias and regional disparity, the overall assessment is that economic growth has been weakly pro-poor in Cameroon. There is therefore a need to re-examine and possibly reform the mechanisms governing the allocation of public resources designed to support individuals' efforts to improve their standard of living.

Achieving Shared Growth --- Agricultural products --- Agricultural sector --- Child mortality --- Counterfactual --- Economic growth --- Extreme poverty --- Global partnership --- Household survey --- Human capital --- Income --- Inequality --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Poor --- Poor infrastructure --- Poverty impact --- Poverty Reduction --- Public spending --- Regional Economic Development --- Rural --- Rural areas --- Rural poverty --- Rural Poverty Reduction --- Smallholder agriculture

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The paper revisits the site of a large, World Bank-financed, rural development program in China 10 years after it began and four years after disbursements ended. The program emphasized community participation in multi-sectoral interventions (including farming, animal husbandry, infrastructure and social services). Data were collected on 2,000 households in project and nonproject areas, spanning 10 years. A double-difference estimator of the program's impact (on top of pre-existing governmental programs) reveals sizeable short-term income gains that were mostly saved. Only modest gains to mean consumption emerged in the longer term-in rough accord with the gain to permanent income. Certain types of households gained more than others. The educated poor were under-covered by the community-based selection process-greatly reducing overall impact. The main results are robust to corrections for various sources of selection bias, including village targeting and interference due to spillover effects generated by the response of local governments to the external aid.

Aid Effectiveness --- Anti-Poverty --- Communities & Human Settlements --- Community Participation --- Counterfactual --- Debt Markets --- Economic Growth --- Economic Theory and Research --- Extreme Poverty --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Financial Literacy --- Household Survey --- Housing and Human Habitats --- Income --- Income Gains --- Inequality --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Market Failures --- Poor --- Poor Areas --- Poor Infrastructure --- Poverty Impact Evaluation --- Poverty Monitoring and Analysis --- Poverty Policies --- Poverty Reduction --- Poverty Reduction Project --- Rural --- Rural Development --- Rural Household --- Rural Poverty Reduction --- Services and Transfers to Poor --- Targeting