An Investigation of Multidimensional Energy Poverty in Pakistan

Poverty is an alarming problem all over the world. It is one of the severe challenges today faced by not only the developing nations but by the developed nations also. However, the problem is worst in developing countries [United Nations and IEA (2010)]. All these countries face poverty in different forms such as food poverty, energy poverty, shortage of natural resources, shortage of agricultural products, lack of shelter and clothing among others. It is persuasive to correlate poverty with lack of energy consumption also. Such a correlation identifies that poor use energy very inadequately [Pachauri, et al. (2004)]. Energy helps societies to move from one development stage to another. Worldwide energy demand is increasing while supply is decreasing due to increase in the world population, emerging economies and economic development. In current day to day life energy has become an essential requirement. For all of us energy is required for lighting, transportation, cooking, health services, and to fulfill many of our basic needs. Electricity access at household level enhances telecommunication, entertainment, and knowledge via radio, television, and computer etc

Measuring Multidimensional Poverty and Inequality in Pakistan

The key development objective of Pakistan, since its existence, has been to reduce poverty, inequality and to improve the condition of its people. While this goal seems very important in itself yet is also necessary for the eradication of other social, political and economic problems. The objective to eradicate poverty has remained same but methodology to analysing this has changed. It can be said that failure of most of the poverty strategies is due to lack of clear choice of poverty definition. A sound development policy including poverty alleviation hinges upon accurate and well-defined measurements of multidimensional socio-economic characteristics which reflect the ground realities confronting the poor and down trodden rather than using some abstract/income based criteria for poverty measurement. Conventionally welfare has generally been measured using income or expenditures criteria. Similarly, in Pakistan poverty has been measured mostly in uni-dimension, income or expenditures variables. However, recent literature on poverty has pointed out some drawbacks in measuring uni-dimensional poverty in terms of money. It is argued that uni-dimensional poverty measures are insufficient to understand the wellbeing of individuals. Poverty is a multidimensional concept rather than a unidimensional. Uni-dimensional poverty is unable to capture a true picture of poverty because poverty is more than income deprivatio

Economic and Cultural Relations Between Pakistan and the Soviet Union During Ayub Khan’s Period

This article deals with Pakistan and Soviet Union relationship from 1958 to 1969 during Ayub Khan’s regime. It highlights aspects of all events which were main obstacles among both countries relationship at that time. It also covers the following circumstances. What was the Ayub Khan’s policy in his early period and why did he give up soon and why did he make his foreign policy in the direction of Soviet Union? Firstly, from independence of Pakistan many Governments of Pakistan received many offers from Soviet Union for paid visit, but why did Ayub Khan visit Soviet Union three times in the land mark history of Pakistan? It also points out all the pacts which were made between Pakistan and Soviet Union and its role in the war of Indo-Pak 1965

An Empirical Analysis of Employment Status, Nature of Employment and Poverty Incidence in Pakistan

This study measured poverty incidence and decomposition of poverty incidence across employment status, industry /sectors of employment and occupation of employment in Pakistan. Impact of employment status and nature of employment of household head on household poverty incidence is also analysed by employing logistic regression technique. The study used Pakistan Social and Living Standard Measurement Survey (PSLM) data set for the year 2013-14 for empirical estimations. A class of Foster-Greer-Thorbecke (1984) method is employed to estimate poverty incidence as well as decomposition of poverty incidence. The results showed that poverty incidence is about 36 percent in Pakistan in year 2013-14. Poverty decomposition results depicted that poverty significantly varies across employment status, sectors/industry of employment and occupation of employment. Employers, electricity, gas & water industry and legislative, senior official & managers group have lowest poverty incidence while sharecropper & paid employee, construction sector and elementary occupations had highest poverty incidence. The results of Logit Model indicate that age of the household head, education of the household head and  general employment of the household head are inversely related to poverty while being male as head, residence of household in rural area, household size and dependency ratio are positively related to poverty incidence. Employment of the household head significantly reduces while dependency ratio immensely increases the odds of being in poverty. Therefore, sufficient employment opportunities should be provided to all for massive reduction in poverty and sustainable development of the country. Employment of the household head as share cropper, paid employed & livestock only, in construction, transport & storage sector, and in elementary occupations etc. have higher prospect of being in poverty. Thus, for fabulous reduction in poverty government should implement minimum wage policy and provide social safety nets to enhance the income of these poor workers to bring them out of poverty

Estimating the Role of Prices towards Poverty in Pakistan

This study investigates the effects of prices on poverty by applying the methodology of Son and Kakwani (2006) using the two data sets of Pakistan Living Standard Measurement Survey (PSLM) of 2007-08 and 2010-11 in Pakistan. The study calculates three poverty measures such as headcount ratio, poverty gap, and severity of poverty. The study also estimates the price elasticities of poverty for two commodities groups such as food and fuel. The study decomposes the price elasticity of poverty measures into two components; income component and distribution component. The study also estimates pro-poor price index (PPPI) for all the poverty measures. The results show that there in reduction in poverty from 16 % in 2007-08 to 12 % in 2010-11.  The results reveal that food price elasticity of poverty is greater than fuel price elasticity of poverty. The income as well as distribution components contribute to increase poverty, but income component contributes more than the redistribution one towards increase in poverty. The results also disclose that the increases in the prices of both commodities hurt the poor more than the non-poor. The increase in price of food commodities disturbs the poor more than the increase in prices of fuel commodities during 2007-08 and 2010-11. The government should compensate the poor and give some subsidies regarding food

An Investigation of Multidimensional Energy Poverty in Pakistan: A Province Level Analysis

Present study employs Alkire and Foster’s (2007) methodology to measure Multidimensional Energy Poverty (MEP) at provincial level in Pakistan. MEP Headcount has been calculated using PSLM data. Indoor pollution is found to be the largest contributor to MEP Headcount in all four provinces of Pakistan while cooking fuel is the second largest contributor. Results of MEP Headcount show that 47%, 51%, 69% and 66% of the households residing in Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtoon Khaw (KPK) and Baluchistan provinces of Pakistan respectively are energy poor. Households of all the four provinces are most deprived in the dimension of indoor pollution i.e. in the range of 49% to 63% followed by cooking fuel i.e. in the range of 35% to 59%. Deprivation is least in the dimension of home appliances for all provinces except Baluchistan which is least deprived in entertainment appliances dimension.   Keywords: Multidimensional Energy Poverty; poverty measurement; decomposability; deprivation; Pakistan. JEL Classifications: D12; I32; O13; Q4

An Investigation of Multidimensional Energy Poverty in Pakistan

Abstract This study uses Households of Pakistan are most deprived in cooking fuel dimension (55%) while deprivation is the least in dimension of home appliances ownership (15%). In urban areas of Pakistan, households are more deprived in dimension of cooking fuels (23%) followed by indoor pollution (19%). Almost one third households of rural Pakistan are deprived in dimension of indoor pollution (69%). Contribution of indoor pollution (32%) to multidimensional energy poverty headcount in Pakistan is the highest followed by the cooking fuels dimension (31%) and collectively these two dimensions contribute up to 63% in overall Multidimensiona

Insights Into Clinical Outcomes of Acute Pancreatitis With Concomitant Acute Myocardial Infarction Using the National Inpatient Sample Database.

Acute pancreatitis (AP) and acute coronary syndrome (ACS) are common conditions, occasionally sharing overlapping symptoms, posing various clinical challenges. This study aims to investigate the demographics, outcomes, and risk factors of patients admitted with AP and ACS using the National Inpatient Sample database. The database from 2016 to 2019 was analyzed, identifying patients with a primary diagnosis of AP and dividing them into 2 groups: those with ACS and those without (non-ACS). Of the 112,874 patients with AP, 5,210 (0.46%) had ACS. The patients with AP with concomitant ACS were older, predominantly male, and had a higher prevalence of co-morbidities. Inpatient mortality was significantly higher in the AP with concomitant ACS cohort compared with the AP without ACS cohort (8.4% vs 0.5%, adjusted odds ratio 9.94, 95% confidence interval 7.79 to 12.67,