What Role Agriculture and Employment Can Play in Creating and Fostering Pro Poor Growth in Central Africa?: Evidences From FMOLS Panels on Sector Disaggregated Components in CEEAC

This paper aims at investigating the structural impacts of sector components of value added and employment on pro poor growth in central African countries between 1994 and 2019. It uses income of lowest 20% and the vast majority income as measures of pro poor growth. The results show that growth in agriculture and natural resources rents reduce pro poor growth when measured by the income share of the lowest 20%. Growth in agriculture still has a negative impact on pro poor growth measured by the growth in vast majority income. Relying on the fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS) method, the estimates also show that employment in any sector, where significant, improves the pro poorness of growth. In view of the evidence, incentives on agriculture activities rather than non-agricultural to create pro poor growth may have inverse results as these could be held mostly by rich proprietors and exports oriented.