Wealth Disparities in Punjab, Pakistan: From Measurement of Gini Coefficients to Spatial Pattern Analysis Across the Districts

Type Working Paper
Title Wealth Disparities in Punjab, Pakistan: From Measurement of Gini Coefficients to Spatial Pattern Analysis Across the Districts
Author(s)
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2017
URL https://papers.ssrn.com/Sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2972493
Abstract
This study examines the spatial patterns of wealth disparities across the districts of Pakistani Punjab. As a first step of analysis, Gini coefficients of wealth index have been estimated using MICS 2014 micro-data, to assess the wealth disparities at the district level at aggregate level and then at rural and urban areas of each district. Subsequently, the spatial econometric tools such as Global Moron’s I and Local Indicators of Spatial Association (LISA) have been employed to study the spatial patterns of wealth disparity in Punjab.

This study finds the existence of High-High and Low-Low spatial cluster of wealth Disparity among the districts at aggregate level, urban and rural area level. The findings of the study emphasizes that there is a need to allocate resources for eradication of disparities among regions and districts. Furthermore, the policies and decision-making aimed at reducing regional disparities and in enhancing the equity are needed. These policies and decision making tools must be like a comprehensive spatial economic development framework for the clusters of districts as a whole considering them as a region because there exists a significant spatial dependence or local spatial association among the spatial units (district) in each cluster.

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