Social Overhead Capital and Poverty Alleviation: Panel Data Analysis in the SAARC Countries

Abstract

The present study examines the impact of social overhead capital on reducing poverty in the SAARC countries. It is the poorest region in the world. However, it has the huge material resources that can be utilized to meet the challenges posed by poverty. The study incorporates the panel data for the year from 2000 to 2018 of eight countries of SAARC including Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri-Lanka, Pakistan and Maldives. The study employs the fixed effect model to analyze the impact of infrastructure related variables on poverty. The results report that transportation, telecommunication sector and electricity access have negative impact on poverty. Moreover, gross domestic product, inflation rate are also contributing towards the reduction of poverty. Fertility rate is showing the positive association with the poverty.