Essays on Comparing Poverty Measures, Gender Differences in Subjective Well-being, Food Insecurity and Malnutrition in Pakistan
von Tahir Mahmood
Datum der mündl. Prüfung:2018-07-24
Erschienen:2018-08-09
Betreuer:Prof. Dr. Xiaohua Yu
Gutachter:Prof. Dr. Stephan Klasen
Gutachter:Prof. Dr. Sebastian Vollmer
Dateien
Name:T. Mahmood-PhD-Economics-Thesis--2018.pdf
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Description:Essays on Comparing Poverty Measures, Gender Differences in Subjective Well-being, Food Insecurity and Malnutrition in Pakistan
Zusammenfassung
Englisch
This dissertation includes four essays on the measurement and determinants of poverty, gender gap, food insecurity and malnutrition in Pakistan. All papers use current methods and approaches of the relevant literature and some extend the applied literature. An executive introduction nicely motivates the papers, methods, data, and summarize the main results. The first paper compares objective income poverty to a subjective measure where household placed themselves on a ten-step income scale. It finds that some determinants, including household size and physical security differ. Thus, priority should be given to specific targeted determinants, which are more important in the alleviation of poverty, while making and implementing public policy given the limited available resources. The second essay analyzes the intra-household gender gap in the subjective 10 scale well-being measure. It finds that consumption food insecurity, and lack of sanitation has a larger impact of female than male stated well-being while the reverse is the case for physical security. Hence, gender difference in subjective well-being is associated with gender specific access to goal relevant resources. The study concludes that it is not safe to gauge well-being from one dimension only. The third essay analyzes determinants of a nine-scale food insecurity index using food insecurity experience scale, incorporating quantitative, qualitative, psychological, and social dimension of food security. It finds that a broad range of demographic, economic and social determinants affect food insecurity in Pakistan. The last essay uses a multi-level model to study determinants of childhood stunting in Punjab province. It finds that heterogeneity at the household level is the largest drivers of stunting, even after controlling for covariates. This reveals that there exist an acute income inequality, access to health care facility, food insecurity, and opportunities deprivation at household level. In a nutshell, this dissertation consists of four substantive quantitative exercises that each makes a contribution to the applied literature.
Keywords: Poverty; Gender Differences; Food Insecurity; Malnutrition-Stunting; Pakistan