Structural change and poverty elimination

Abstract

Purpose The United Nations adopted 17 goals for sustainable development, which has been known as the 17 SDGs. Knowing how to achieve these goals will be very important for many countries. The first of the 17 is no poverty. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how to realize no poverty in UN’s SDGs by focusing on structural changes based on the New Structural Economics. Design/methodology/approach This paper explains the relationship between structural changes and people’ s income in both rural and urban areas, and then introduces how to eliminate poverty from a New Structural Economics’ perspective. Finally, it discusses what to do to make these changes a reality. Findings To reduce and eventually eliminate poverty, increasing personal income becomes the first step. From national perspective, structural changes are related to an income increase. In rural and urban areas alike, the structural changes will usually be accompanied by new technologies and job opportunities, which will help people improve their incomes. Originality/value This paper explains relationship between structural changes and poverty elimination. How to increase people’s income is also discussed according to New Structural Economics. This paper’s findings may well be valuable for research on poverty elimination in the future.