Trends in Inequality and Welfare in Consumption Expenditure: The Case of Pakistan

Economic growth is important, but at the same time it loses its importance if nothing trickles down to the poor. One of the frequent heard arguments against growth strategies is that it benefits only the comparatively well off segment of the society. This means that the concomitant of economic growth is more skewed income distribution. Growth and equity should be solved subsequently or in some cases simultaneously, otherwise these countries are exposed to disaster [Hirschman (1973)]. The surge for income distribution studies both in developed and developing countries has, however, been caused by different reasons. In a developed nation, a high economic growth, in terms of GNP per capita and the introduction of the concept of a welfare state necessitated a widespread debate on income inequality and relative poverty issues. In the developing countries, failure to achieve sustainable high growth rates and disappointment from the pursuit of growth-led macro-economic policies in the past decade has surfaced a need to conduct income distribution studies and policies. Much of the recent literature on inequality and economic well-being in Pakistan has focused on the apparent increased inequality that occurred during the last two decades.

Transition of Poverty in Pakistan: Evidence from the Longitudinal Data

This 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

Occupational Profile of Poverty in Pakistan

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. 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.

An Analysis of Poverty at the Local Level

Using primary data from a union council of Punjab (Dhamyal), this article analyses the poverty and inequality at the lower administrative level. The analysis shows that 35 percent of the households are poor while there is wide variation of incidence of poverty among the seven villages of the union council. The highest magnitude of poverty in terms of incidence, intensity, and severity is found in the villages of Hayal and Mohra Bariyan. Location index also demonstrates that these two villages have high concentration of poverty as compared to its population share in the community. Income distribution by quintile shows that the bottom 20 percent households receive 6.7 percent of per capita income share while the upper 20 percent households receive 43 percent of per capita income share. Socio-economic dimensions of poverty reveal that a large number of earners, with large household size, a high dependency ratio, and a high percentage of illiterate head of the household, are marked in poor households. The housing and sanitation conditions of the community show that both poor and non-poor households are deprived of most civic amenities

Dimensions of Well-being and the Millennium Development Goals

Well-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

Does Governance Contribute to Pro-poor Growth? Evidence from Pakistan

Economic 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

Bashir Ahmad Khilji. Sixty Years of Human Resource Development in Pakistan. Government of Pakistan, Higher Education Commission, Pakistan. Islamabad: HEC Printing Press. 2011. 283 pages. Price not given.

Human resource development (HRD) occupies a central position in the advancement of a society. It is obvious from the historical experience of industrialised countries that developing human capacity is essential for a self-reliant and self-sustaining pattern of growth. Almost all Asian countries, including Pakistan, continue to search for additional appropriate strategies to respond to the rapid changes in the global economy. Unfortunately, despite registering a satisfactory rate of economic growth, Pakistan’s progress on the human front lags behind in terms of key indicators such as literacy, primary-level participation rate, basic health facilities, population welfare, water and sanitation, etc. Pakistan ranked 145th out of 179 countries in the world on the human development index in 2011