LAHORE: Development and economic experts at a three-day international conference said that there is need for broader measures of poverty that go beyond conventional annual statistics. They said that such traditional measures might overlook extreme deprivations and highlighted the importance of considering instability and consumption smoothing in assessing welfare.

“I will focus on the simple but multidimensional idea of poverty encompassing health, education and standard of living,” said Dr Jonathan J Morduch (professor of Public Policy and Economics, Executive Director of the Financial Access Initiative, New York University) at the conference. The event was organised by the Lahore School of Economics’ Centre for Research in Economics and Business (CREB) and the Innovation and Technology Centre (ITC) in collaboration with International Growth Center and Consortium for Development Policy Research.

The conference covered a range of topics including labour markets, technology, health, gender, trade, institutions, poverty, social protection, climate, environment, and governance.

Dr Morduch addressed questions about household resources and how people manage with limited means. Dr Zara Liaqat, assistant professor at Wilfrid Laurier University, used the 2016 terrorist attack in India as a quasi-natural experiment to study its impact on firm-level export behaviour. She said her research found that smaller exporters experienced a significant decline in export volume and price, whereas import-intensive firms, especially those importing from India, did not see a reduction in demand.

Dr Nida Jamil, early career researcher at the University of Edinburgh, examined the effects of trade policy changes, such as the Pakistan-China Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and the Multifibre Agreement (MFA), on firm-level carbon emissions. She said that while the FTA increased Pakistani exports and the quality of goods, it also led to higher emissions. Conversely, the MFA resulted in lower exports and decreased emissions per unit of output.

Dr Philipp Barteska, postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Kennedy School, discussed how the implementation of policy by bureaucrats significantly affected its impact on exports, a key factor in South Korea’s economic success.

In a session on institutions chaired by Dr Hamna Ahmad, associate professor at the Lahore School of Economics and Research Fellow at CREB, Sarah Shaukat, PhD candidate at Tufts University, investigated the impact of FATF grey-listing and subsequent NGO deregistration in Punjab. Sara said she found that the closures led to reduced household investment in education, particularly for girls, and decreased access to prenatal care and immunisation in rural areas. Although the government attempted to fill the gap, it did not fully replace the services provided by NGOs.

Other speakers included Nikita Grabher-Meyer, PhD candidate at the University of East Anglia, Dr Zunia Tirmazi, assistant professor at Lahore School of Economics and Senior Research Fellow at CREB, Dr Mahreen Mahmud, senior lecturer at the University of Exeter and Dr Saima Nawaz, associate professor at COMSATS University Islamabad, who discussed the impact of discontinuing long-running cash transfers such as the Benazir Income Support Programme.

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2024