Role of SME in Poverty Alleviation in SAARC Region via Panel Data Analysis

Faiza Manzoor, Longbao Wei (), Mohammad Nurunnabi and Qazi Abdul Subhan
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Faiza Manzoor: Department of Agricultural Economics and Management, School of Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310029, China
Mohammad Nurunnabi: St Antony’s College, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6JF, UK
Qazi Abdul Subhan: Bahria Business School, Bahria University, Islamabad, P.O. 44000, Pakistan

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 22, 1-14

Abstract: The key objective of the formation of the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is to join hands collectively for slow economic growth, poverty eradication, deprived health and education sectors. In the 12th SAARC Summit, it has been declared that poverty eradication is the main area of concentration and SAARC countries would strive their best to minimize all types of poverty with the help of any possible strategy. The main objectives of the current study are to evaluate the development of the agenda of poverty eradication in SAARC countries through small and medium enterprise (SME) development because it would be considered as a short-routed remedy to mitigate poverty. The poorest 20% income holder as a percentage of GDP has been used as the proxy for poverty in the SAARC region. SME development has been measured through the SME share in GDP in respective countries. The panel dataset has been developed for the period of 1990 to 2015. The fixed effect method (FEM) and regression equation techniques were used to analyse the observed data. The results of the FEM were misleading. The regression equations for the respective countries were used for empirical analysis. The results have identified that there are three main factors that are essential in reducing poverty in the SAARC region: SME growth, openness of trade and social sector development.

Keywords: SME; poverty alleviation; SAARC; asian region; development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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