Disparities in Welfare: The Spatial and Temporal Dynamics across Districts of Pakistan

Abstract

The concept of welfare has multidimensional perspectives in economic literature There is no consensus on the definition of economic welfare among experts as they have paradoxical and divergent views about multidimensional alternatives of the economy. Welfare in any particular region can be extracted from the average level of per capita income, income distribution, poverty, and human development in the region. The present study aims to present interregional comparisons, special attention has been paid to comparing the level of welfare among different regions of Pakistan. The measures acquired to present welfare are district-wise multidimensional poverty, the Gini coefficient, and the Human development index. Moreover, to explore further the Welfare index based on average income and Gini coefficient is calculated for each district across four provinces. The data employed from Pakistan Social and Living Standard Measurements (PSLM) 2005-06 and 2013-14 to measure the level of welfare in districts as well as in provinces. The overall findings elucidate that district-wise inequality exists in terms of income and living conditions to maintain quality of life. The deprivation is more in the majority of the districts in Balochistan and two-thirds of its total districts’ rank deteriorated in 2014-15 followed by KP and Sindh where the rank of one-half of the total districts declined. The welfare conditions of the Punjab districts are much better, and the Federal capital is at the top among all districts of Pakistan. Therefore, it is recommended that the redistribution of resources and allocation of funds through the Public Sector and private sector should be undertaken to reduce these disparities.