Do Pakistani children have an equal chance? a study of inequality of human opportunities for children in Pakistan

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Abstract/Description

For a long time now, economists and researchers have taken keen interest in the inequalities and their effect in the developing countries. The earlier literature primarily focused on income and consumption inequalities, but it was found that in the context of development, it is inequality of opportunities, which matters the most. A strong need was recognized for developing countries and their policy makers to identify the depth of multidimensional issues that are created due to inequality of opportunities. The study aims to measure inequality of opportunities among kids in Pakistan at a provincial level for two micro datasets (2004-2005 and 2014-2015) from Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey (PSLM). This decade holds more importance considering decentralization of National Finance Committee Award (NFC) which increased the flow of resources and autonomy to the provinces of Pakistan. The study uses the Human Opportunity Index to measure the access to basic services in the country. In total, seventeen opportunities are chosen to measure from the dimensions of education, health, and infrastructure and are adjusted for inequality caused due to individual circumstances (exogenous factors) of a child. The decomposition of the Dissimilarity index is obtained with Shapely Decomposition. The findings of the study show that access to these basic opportunities is inequitable and low at Pakistan level.

Session Theme

Youth Development and Society - Session - IIIC

Session Type

Parallel Technical Session

Session Chair

Irene Martinez Fernandez, Lecturer - IBA Karachi

Session Discussant

Dr. Zeeshan Atiq, Assistant Professor - University of Karachi

Start Date

3-4-2021 4:00 PM

End Date

3-4-2021 5:30 PM

Comments

  • Sarah Nizamani, Research Fellow at the Institute of Business Administration, Karachi
  • Mohmmad Shahid Waheed, PhD Scholar at the Applied Economics Research Centre, University of Karachi

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Apr 3rd, 4:00 PM Apr 3rd, 5:30 PM

Do Pakistani children have an equal chance? a study of inequality of human opportunities for children in Pakistan

For a long time now, economists and researchers have taken keen interest in the inequalities and their effect in the developing countries. The earlier literature primarily focused on income and consumption inequalities, but it was found that in the context of development, it is inequality of opportunities, which matters the most. A strong need was recognized for developing countries and their policy makers to identify the depth of multidimensional issues that are created due to inequality of opportunities. The study aims to measure inequality of opportunities among kids in Pakistan at a provincial level for two micro datasets (2004-2005 and 2014-2015) from Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey (PSLM). This decade holds more importance considering decentralization of National Finance Committee Award (NFC) which increased the flow of resources and autonomy to the provinces of Pakistan. The study uses the Human Opportunity Index to measure the access to basic services in the country. In total, seventeen opportunities are chosen to measure from the dimensions of education, health, and infrastructure and are adjusted for inequality caused due to individual circumstances (exogenous factors) of a child. The decomposition of the Dissimilarity index is obtained with Shapely Decomposition. The findings of the study show that access to these basic opportunities is inequitable and low at Pakistan level.