Nexus between Household Energy and Poverty in Poorly Documented Developing Economies—Perspectives from Pakistan

Iftikhar A. Shahid, Kafait Ullah, Atif Naveed Khan, Muhammad Imran Ahmed, Muhammad Dawood, Clark A. Miller and Zafar A. Khan
Additional contact information
Iftikhar A. Shahid: U.S. Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Energy (USPCAS-E), National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST), Islamabad 44000, Pakistan
Kafait Ullah: U.S. Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Energy (USPCAS-E), National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST), Islamabad 44000, Pakistan
Atif Naveed Khan: U.S. Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Energy (USPCAS-E), National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST), Islamabad 44000, Pakistan
Muhammad Imran Ahmed: School of Chemical & Materials Engineering (SCME), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad 44000, Pakistan
Muhammad Dawood: Klipsch School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, New Mexico State University (NMSU), Las Cruces, NM 88003, USA
Clark A. Miller: School for the Future of Innovation in Society (SFIS), Arizona State University (ASU), Tempe, AZ, USA
Zafar A. Khan: Department of Electrical Engineering, Mirpur University of Science and Technology, Mirpur 10250, Pakistan

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 19, 1-20

Abstract: The indicators measuring socioeconomic wellbeing, such as the human development index (HDI) and multi-dimensional poverty indicator (MPI), recognize energy as an important resource for human development. However, energy did not find due weight in determining HDI or MPI, except as a fractional contributor to MPI calculations. This study presents a regression model to establish an energy–poverty nexus in Pakistan, utilizing a real-world dataset. Defining poverty in terms of per-capita income (PCI), the proposed model incorporates education-based parameters along with the energy-dependent indicators linked to households in Pakistan. The data aggregated at districts level are extracted from the Census 2017 campaign, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). Statistical analyses indicate that energy-based identifiers correlate well with the PCI and augment the education-only model, capturing 94% variability in PCI vs. 78% for the education-only model. The study highlights the criticality of relevant data collection and data-driven planning in Pakistan for creating synergy in energy planning and poverty alleviation programs and provides recommendations for considering energy as an important and integral contributory factor in the human development index (HDI).

Keywords: sustainability; regression analysis; energy–poverty nexus; Pakistan; developing countries; human development index (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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