Does Inequality Matter for Poverty Reduction? Evidence from Pakistan’s Poverty Trends

The paper explores the linkages between poverty, growth and inequality in the context of Pakistan. Time series macro data are used for the period 1979 to 2002. Consistent poverty and inequality measures are interpolated to facilitate the estimation of poverty elasticity with respect to growth and inequality in a multivariate regression framework. The paper also attempts to find out macroeconomic and structural correlates of inequality. The empirical findings—high poverty elasticity with respect to inequality measures—confirm the importance of inequality in poverty reducing effort. Inflation, sectoral wage gap, and terms of trade in favour of manufacturing exacerbate inequality, while progressive taxation, investment and development expenditure on social services play a significant role in reducing inequality. The results also indicate a positive correlation between per capita GDP and income inequality.Pakistan, Poverty Trend, Income Distribution, Poverty Elasticity with respect to Growth and Inequality

In Search of Poverty Predictors: The Case of Urban and Rural Pakistan

The main objective of this research is to provide correlates of household consumption or poverty using the latest household survey. The estimated coefficients and their weights may be used to predict poverty incidence from light monitoring survey such as Core Welfare Indicator Questionnaire (CWIQ). The CWIQ survey instrument essentially collects simple welfare indicators from a large segment of population and is not designed to measure income, consumption or expenditure. The paper estimates consumption functions separately for urban and rural areas. These functions are estimatedwith the help of non-monetary correlates of consumption and applied to predict poverty at provincial and district levels. The paper also provides the latest estimates of poverty in the country using a consistent methodology. Overall, 33 percent people were poor, according to estimates from the latest available household survey of 2001-02. Incidence, depth, and severity of poverty are high in rural areas, as compared to their urban counterpart.

Assessing Poverty with Non-Income Deprivation Indicators: Pakistan, 2008-09.

The approach to measure poverty in terms of financial deprivation has been widely criticised in the literature of welfare and wellbeing. It is argued that to understand the complex phenomenon of poverty or to evaluate household or individual wellbeing, a multidimensional exercise is imperative. This research quantifies the level of multidimensional poverty in Pakistan using household data of Pakistan Social and Living Standard Measurement Survey. Multidimensional poverty in terms of the popular FGT (headcount, poverty gap, poverty severity) indices is estimated for the year 2009. Indicators of human poverty, poor housing and deprivation in household physical assets are included in estimating poverty in multi-dimensional context. For assessing the inter-temporal consistency in the methodology, poverty indices are also developed for the year 2005. JEL classification: I32, I31 Keywords: Poverty, Multidimensional, Categorical Principal Component Analysis, Poverty Indices, Pakista

In Search of Poverty Predictors: The Case of Urban and Rural Pakistan

The main objective of this research is to provide correlates of household consumption or poverty using the latest household survey. The estimated coefficients and their weights may be used to predict poverty incidence from light monitoring survey such as Core Welfare Indicator Questionnaire (CWIQ). The CWIQ survey instrument essentially collects simple welfare indicators from a large segment of population and is not designed to measure income, consumption or expenditure. The paper estimates consumption functions separately for urban and rural areas. These functions are estimatedwith the help of non-monetary correlates of consumption and applied to predict poverty at provincial and district levels. The paper also provides the latest estimates of poverty in the country using a consistent methodology. Overall, 33 percent people were poor, according to estimates from the latest available household survey of 2001-02. Incidence, depth, and severity of poverty are high in rural areas, as compared to their urban counterpart

Does Inequality Matter for Poverty Reduction? Evidence from Pakistan’s Poverty Trends

The paper explores the linkages between poverty, growth and inequality in the context of Pakistan. Time series macro data are used for the period 1979 to 2002. Consistent poverty and inequality measures are interpolated to facilitate the estimation of poverty elasticity with respect to growth and inequality in a multivariate regression framework. The paper also attempts to find out macroeconomic and structural correlates of inequality. The empirical findings—high poverty elasticity with respect to inequality measures—confirm the importance of inequality in poverty reducing effort. Inflation, sectoral wage gap, and terms of trade in favour of manufacturing exacerbate inequality, while progressive taxation, investment and development expenditure on social services play a significant role in reducing inequality. The results also indicate a positive correlation between per capita GDP and income inequality

Poverty and Inequality during the Adjustment Decade: Empirical Findings from Household Surveys

This paper investigates the dynamics of poverty and inequality in Pakistan over the period 1988-1999. The year 1988 was the year of the first formal Structural Adjustment Lending (SAL) from the World Bank and the IMF. Thus, this analysis facilitates the debate regarding the impact of SAL on household welfare and poverty. This is done by analysing changes in poverty and inequality from two comparable household income and expenditure surveys conducted by the Federal Bureau of Statistics. Our findings show an increase both in the Gini coefficient from 0.34 to 0.38 and poverty incidence from 24 to 30. The dynamic decomposition of the poverty index indicates the relative importance of growth and redistribution effects in explaining the changes in poverty. The analysis reveals that increase in poverty can mainly be attributed to low economic growth during the decade especially in the rural areas

The Changing Profile of Regional Inequality

There is a growing concern in developing and transition economies that spatial and regional inequality, of economic activity, incomes, and social indicators, is on the increase. Regional inequality is a dimension of overall inequality, but it has added significance when spatial and regional divisions align with political and ethnic tensions to undermine social and political stability. Despite these important popular and policy concerns, surprisingly there is little systematic and coherent documentation of the facts of what has happened to spatial and regional inequality over the past twenty years. This paper is an attempt to meet this gap. It provides changing scenarios of multi-dimensional inter-temporal spatial inequality and level of development in Pakistan during early 1980s and late 1990s

Shifting Patterns in Developmental Rank Ordering: A Case Study of the Districts of Sind Province

The primary objective of this paper is to observe the changing patterns in regional development and to highlight some of the major underlying phenomena. C).1t examination of changes in rank ordering over a short period of time reveals that only moderately developed districts have altered their position in either upward or downward direction. Larkana district moved from sixth to fourth rank, while Tharparkar district regressed considerably from fourth to eighth rank. The exercise will facilitate policy-makers in allocating development resources in districts where the deficiencies are evidently serious. It will also be helpful in locating research areas to determine partkular bottlenecks to development in districts which shifted downward in rank ordering

Exploring Determinants of Productivity in Pakistani Manufacturing Firms

This study examines the determinants of productivity among manufacturing firms in Pakistan using firm level data gathered in the World Bank Enterprise Survey of 2007. The research econometrically investigates the impact of various structural, organizational and technological characteristics of firms on the level of Total Factor Productivity (TFP). Findings of The study suggest thatfactors which enhance the firms’ performance and level of productivity include; foreign ownership, use of information and communication technology, schooling of production workers, presence of labor welfare programs, access to international market and use of innovative production process. In contrast, unionization of workforce and power outages are negatively associated with TF