Determinants of Household Food Expenditures among Households Receiving Social Protection in Pakistan

Abstract

This paper primarily investigates the prevailing situation in Pakistan, where poverty and hunger is a major block for the development and progress. Unfortunately, it is dominated among almost half of the country’s masses. The largest chunk of the poverty stricken and marginalized group of masses in the developing and poor countries are living with epidemic challenges. Pakistan has taken several measures to curb hunger among poor households by employing Social Safety Net programs. The major welfare measure in the country is the equitable food distribution schemes implemented by the government and non-government organizations in alleviating the destitution. Social Protection is one of the major sources of revenue for scores of households residing in Pakistan. These receipts are seemingly at the heart of the administrations’ poverty alleviation refined strategy. This requires an examination concerning how these receipts are spent and what are the factors which determine this expenditure pattern of the households. Hence, this study scrutinized the determinants of food expenditure trends of households receiving social protection with that of other households and its respective relevance of the Engel’s Law. This research work has also attempted to take a deeper look into the social safety net program and has examined whether the program is successful in uplifting the living standard of the households. A quantitative research approach is followed, whereby Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement (PSLM) survey is used in which district questionnaires are precisely regulated on a stratified random sample of residents living in Pakistan. An Extreme Bound Analysis (EBA) methodology is used to examine the socioeconomic factors that determine the food consumption behavior of the households. Households head receiving social protection, aggregate income of the household head, total members per household, age of the household head, the maximum education attainment, gender of the household head and region are all subtly found to have a significant impact on total food expenditures per household. On the contrary, the marital status and employment status of the household head are not statistically significant in determining the food expenditure pattern of the households. Hence, the results of this research work contribute to understanding the phenomena of the vulnerable households’ inclination to avail these assistances and receipts by demonstrating the variability associated with food expenditure; evaluating the impact of receipts on the households receiving social protection. This study also helps to identify that the socioeconomic status of the vulnerable households receiving social grants is improved. Finally, the study found that social safety net program is targeting the right eligible beneficiaries; yet few of them being facilitated because of inadequate financial resources. Therefore, the right-based methodology is predetermined to mitigate the poverty by efficient administrative peculiar steps in aiding the resilience of poverty-stricken masses.