Economic Growth and Rural Poverty in Pakistan: A Panel Dataset Analysis

摘要

The relationship between growth and poverty is complex in Pakistan, where economic growth has not always been translated into poverty reduction. In the present work, three waves of a panel/longitudinal household survey, conducted between 2001 and 2010, were used to analyze poverty trajectories as well as the relationship between their patterns and economic growth. The findings from the panel survey reveal that more than half of the rural population remained in the state of poverty at least for one period. Poverty is transient in nature, as moving into and out of poverty is a common phenomenon in rural Pakistan. The high-growth period of 2001-2004 was not pro-poor, whereas the low-growth period of 2005-2010 was pro-poor despite the political and economic challenges. The findings reveal that policy interventions for the chronically poor may not be the same as those for the impoverished and transitory poor.