Poverty spatial polarization in Senegal

This paper aims at inquiring the impact of neighboring regions poverty rate on the poverty rate of a given region. This inquiry will help find out the best driving region in terms of poverty alleviation in Senegal. We applied basic spatial econometrics tools to Senegalese regions from 1994 to 2006. The results show that a decrease of 0.62% of the poverty rate in Dakar results from an increase of 1% of poverty rate in the other regions. Conversely, a decrease of 1% of poverty rate in a given region except Dakar is predicted to decrease poverty rate in the other regions by 0.53% on average. At this level, Thies has been found to be most driving region in terms of poverty alleviation in Senegalese regions. Besides controlling for other variables, the results yields that poverty alleviation could be achieve through better education and health system.   Key words: Poverty, polarization, regional.