Mapping the Role of Fiscal Decentralization to Improve Female Human Capital: An Empirical Evidence from Pakistan

Abstract

Female human capital is particularly a crucial pathway for the development of an economy as women consist of half of human resources. Despite the increasing trend of fiscal decentralization for the improvement of various socioeconomic indicators in Pakistan, there are very few attempts on its impact on human capital. This study increases the knowledge by empirically estimating the research hypothesis that how fiscal decentralization affects female human capital in Pakistan with 18th amendment in NFC as a backdrop taking the period from 1975 to 2020. The robust analysis shows that fiscal decentralization policy is helpful to frame female human capital in Pakistan. These results are particularly important for policy formulation for provinces to increase female human capital as well as for public finance sector in Pakistan.