Abstract/Description

Disparities in the distribution of public services have persisted throughout Pakistan's history. Current research on regional development has stressed the need of evaluating human development phenomena using spatial models such as density, locality, and distance. The study investigates how fiscal decentralization influences the education index at the district level in Pakistan's Punjab province. The research is based on the education index, which has five components. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) integrates these variables to provide a final education index. The study's findings revealed that the significant positive effects of fiscal decentralization on the education index at the district level depend on the distance of districts from the capital city—the beneficial effects of fiscal decentralization increase as the "distance from the city" decreases. Because geography effects public service delivery, it is recommended that disparities across districts be addressed by upgrading social and economic institutions and infrastructure in the country's underdeveloped parts.

Keywords

Fiscal Decentralization, Education Index, Geography, Spatial Disparity

Location

MAV 1 room, Adamjee building

Session Theme

Cities and Infrastructure

Session Type

Parallel Technical Session

Session Chair

Qazi Masood, Institute of Business Administration

Session Discussant

Demetrio Panarello, Link Campus University ; Zahid Asghar, Quaid-i-Azam University

Start Date

10-12-2024 3:15 PM

End Date

10-12-2024 5:15 PM

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Dec 10th, 3:15 PM Dec 10th, 5:15 PM

Fiscal decentralization and education index; Evidence from Punjab Pakistan

MAV 1 room, Adamjee building

Disparities in the distribution of public services have persisted throughout Pakistan's history. Current research on regional development has stressed the need of evaluating human development phenomena using spatial models such as density, locality, and distance. The study investigates how fiscal decentralization influences the education index at the district level in Pakistan's Punjab province. The research is based on the education index, which has five components. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) integrates these variables to provide a final education index. The study's findings revealed that the significant positive effects of fiscal decentralization on the education index at the district level depend on the distance of districts from the capital city—the beneficial effects of fiscal decentralization increase as the "distance from the city" decreases. Because geography effects public service delivery, it is recommended that disparities across districts be addressed by upgrading social and economic institutions and infrastructure in the country's underdeveloped parts.