99 research outputs found
Transition of Poverty in Pakistan: Evidence from the Longitudinal Data
No full textThis paper quantitatively investigates transition of poverty in Pakistan using two-period panel data set of Pakistan Socio-economic Survey. Empirical results show that the incidence, intensity, and severity of poverty have increased over time. This analysis also identifies ‘the absolute poor’, ‘the transitory poor’, and ‘the non-poor’, and suggests that ‘the absolute poor’ households have increased significantly over time. The poverty transition portrays that about onequarter of the households remain poor, while approximately fifty percent households remain nonpoor. Analysis of poverty entries and exits over these two periods show that many households enter poverty while fewer households exit from poverty. The analyses also suggest that transition of poverty is closely related to socio-economic dimensions of the households such as school enrolment, child labour, employment status of the head of the household, and indebtedness of the households. The main message that emerges from this study is that poverty reduction should focus on the extremely vulnerable households, and should try to reduce entry into poverty while increasing exit from poverty.Poverty, Pakistan
Does Governance Contribute to Pro-poor Growth? Evidence from Pakistan
No full textEconomic growth is a driving force in reducing poverty, but experience has shown that good governance and pro-poor choices are vitally important in the process of alleviating poverty. This paper explores linkages between governance and pro-poor growth in Pakistan for the period 1996 to 2005. The analysis indicates that governance indicators have low scores and rank at the lowest percentile as compared to other countries. The dimensions of pro-poor growth, which include poverty, inequality, and growth, demonstrate that the poor do not benefit proportionately from economic growth. It is found that poverty and inequality have worsened and the share in income and expenditure for the bottom 20 percent has also decreased, while inflation for this lowestincome group is high as compared to the highest-income group. It is also observed that approximately 25 percent households reported that their economic status was worse than in the previous year, 2004-05. The results of the study show that a strong link exists between governance indicators and pro-poor growth in the country. Econometric analysis shows that there is a strong relationship between good governance and reduction in poverty and inequality. It is concluded that greater voice and accountability, political stability, regulatory quality, and rule of law can control corruption and the pro-poor policies, which ultimately reduce poverty and inequality in the long run. To face the challenge of good governance, Pakistan needs to formulate, and implement effectively, its governance policies to improve the governance dimensions, taking account of both higher growth and the aim of achieving the Millennium Development Goals, which require halving poverty by 2015.Governance Indicators, Pro-poor Growth, poverty, Inequality
Occupational Profile of Poverty in Pakistan
No full textThe issue of poverty in Pakistan has its significance for sustainable development. Long run development is not possible without protecting the rights of the vulnerable groups and the participation of the entire population in the development process. A notable development in the last decade in Pakistan’s economic scene has been the sharp pick up in the incidence of poverty. It can be attributed to several factor. The real GDP growth fell from 6 percent in the 1980s to 5 percent in the first half of the 1990s and declined further to just over 4 percent in the second half of the decade. The rate of inflation remained in single digits throughout the 1980s but had a rapid increase of 12 percent during the first half of the 1990s. It is significant to note that food prices generally rose more sharply than overall consumer price index. The unemployment rate increased by 2 percent in the 1990s as compared to in the 1980s reflecting the deceleration of labour absorption in the economy in response to the significant decrease in the economic growth during the nineties.
Dimensions of Well-being and the Millennium Development Goals
No full textWell-being and happiness, individually and collectively, is a main indicator of a good life. This paper attempts to implement empirically some of the multidimensional concepts of human well-being by using data from the ‘Pakistan Living Standards Measurement Survey’ 2006-07. Objective well-being index and subjective well-being index are constructed to study regional disparities in the quality of life. The results reveal that most of the top ranked districts are located in the province of Punjab which tends to indicate that Punjab is ahead of other provinces in terms of objective well-being. Sindh and NWFP districts are dominated in the category of lower medium well-being category. At the lower end of the distribution districts of Balochistan emerged in lowest category of well-being. It is observed that Punjab have highest share of population in top category of well-being while population of Balochistan gets major share in lowest category of wellbeing. It is important to note that those districts which have higher achievements in hard facts of well-being, acquire less subjective well-being in term of satisfaction. Districts of Balochistan, with least developed indicators, perception about the quality of life is evident in their lowest level of satisfaction. Since the underlying premise of the MDGs is still the concept of human development, so priorities is needed to concentrate on least developed districts for achieving the MDGs by 2015.Well-being, Objective, Subjective, Measurement, Quality of Life
Globalisation and Its Implications for Agriculture, Food Security, and Poverty in Pakistan
No full textThe world trade liberalisation has been the major concern to almost all the international communities since very long due to the extensive trade restrictions imposed by the developed and industrial countries. These restrictions caused to create a very tough protectionist economic environment for all the countries [SESRTCIC (1995) and Chaudhary (2001)]. Pakistan is one of the founder members of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) since 1948 and a signatory of Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Agreement (MTA) with Word Trade Organisation (WTO). The Agreement made significant progress in three major areas i.e. market liberalisation which could add approximately one percent of world real GDP (US$212–274 billion) and 10 percent to world trade upon full implementation of the Agreement, strengthening of rule and institutional structure, particularly the creation of WTO, which could decide on dispute and impairment of trade rules and principles, and integration of new areas into the multilateral trading system such as general agreements on trade in services (GATS) and trade-related intellectual property rights (TRIPs), trade-related investment measures (TRIMs) and the traditionally sensitive and contentious sectors (agriculture, and textile and clothing) [Abidin (1994); GATT (1994) and IMF (1994)]. The classical economists explained the welfare benefits of globalisation (by the specialisation and widening of markets through trade). Trade can bring settlement by allowing countries to take benefit of their comparative advantage, harvest the profit of scale economies and ensure competition, greater variety and potentially, more stable markets and prices.
A Sectoral Analysis of Poverty in Pakistan
No full textSince independence, the problem of mass poverty in Pakistan has been substantial. The number of the destitute has continued to soar. The problem of poverty now looks to be beyond control. The vast masses of the people, particularly in rural areas, are indeed, miserably below the poverty line. Moreover, the socioeconomic and demographic indicators are dismal. Official planning and the market economy system have failed to lessen poverty. The policies formulated to eradicate it have failed to achieve their objectives. The issue of poverty in Pakistan has its significance for sustainable development. Long run development is not possible without protecting the rights of the vulnerable groups and the participation of the entire population in the development process. Although Pakistan’s economic growth has been quite respectable for much of the last four decades but it has failed to trickle down to the masses. The country has experienced poverty and stagnation in 1950s, increasing poverty and growth in the 1960s, stagnation of growth but declining poverty in the 1970s, increasing growth and declining poverty in the 1980s and finally, increasing poverty and falling growth in the 1990s [MHCHD/UNDP (1999)]. The mainstream approach to identifying the poor specifies a cut-off point ‘poverty line’, defining the level of income/expenditure below which people are diagnosed as poor. The conventional measure of poverty, head-count index, has been widely used in Pakistan. However, in practice this absolute threshold usually cannot stand the pressures of changing circumstances and is not as absolute as the term would appear to imply [Zaidi and de Vos (1993)]. To show the true face of poverty this study uses Foster, Greer and Thorbecke (1984) class of additively decomposable measure to estimate the variation in the incidence, intensity and severity of poverty across sectors of employment. This study also determines the relative contribution of the various sectors to aggregate poverty. Location index is also used to measure the concentration of poor in each sector. To evaluate the sources of observed changes in sectoral poverty at the micro level ‘HIES’ data sets are used.
Determinants of Expenditure on Health in Pakistan
No full textAn important component of human capital formation is improvements in the health status of the population.1 Improvements in the health status of a nation can lead to longer life expectancy, shift the labour supply curve outward, increase labour productivity, and increase the productivity of investment in other forms of human capital, particularly education. Since health and the capacity to improve health are related to socio-economic conditions, it is important to analyse the impact of changes in these variables on the provision of health services. Due to the presence of externalities, market failures, and inability of a significant proportion of the population to pay, government intervention is required in the health sector. In this study, we shall analyse the changes in the provision of public health resources in Pakistan, in response to the changes in socio-economic factors. Most empirical studies in this area have been cross-country studies. Fulop and Reinke (1983) emphasise that socio-economic factors affect the health status directly and indirectly. The indirect effect is through the changes in health resources in response to the changes in socio-economic factors. Kleiman’s (1986) cross-country analysis shows that per capita national income, the ratio of government consumption expenditure to private consumption expenditure, and the measure of income inequality are important determinants of public expenditure on health. The study also shows that public and private expenditure on health are good if not a perfect substitute for each other. Correa and Namkoong (1992) show that changes in health policies (or health resources), represented by changes in health personnel, infrastructure, and expenditure on health, are significantly influenced by Socio-economic and political conditions. Similarly, Hitiris and Posnett (1992); Gerdtham and Jonson (1992) and Murthy (1992) show that economic factors play an important role in determining the expenditure on health.
The Causal Relationship between Institutions and Economic Growth: An Empirical Investigation for Pakistan Economy
No full textThis paper investigates relationship between institutional quality and economic performance in Pakistan using the Johansen-Juselius cointegration technique and the Granger causality test. The study results indicate that Institutions and growth are cointegrated and thus exhibit a reliable long run relationship. The Granger causality test findings indicate that the causality between Institutions and growth is uni-directional. However, there is no short run causality from Institutions to growth and vice versa. Therefore, as a policy implication that institutional quality may cause to the sustainable increase in country’s income in the long run, and success of any policy could be influenced by the soundness of institutions.institutions; social capital; growth; cointegration; index;granger; error correction; Johansen; pakistan
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