Guest editors' note.
Jones, Gavin W. ; Mansuri, Ghazala
This special issue of The Pakistan Development Review, titled 'Poverty and Social Dynamics in Pakistan' pulls together a diverse set of papers that highlight the type of work that only panel data makes possible. All of the papers use the Pakistan Panel Household Survey (PPHS). The panel data has 3 rounds, and covers the period between 2001 and 2010. The decade between 2001 and 2010 is one in which Pakistan has faced very significant challenges, but has also managed to reduce poverty quite substantially. The determinants of this decline in poverty and its implications for economic and social mobility need to be examined carefully. Equally importantly, we need to understand better the relationship between poverty and vulnerability and whether the decline in poverty has been accompanied by commensurate shifts in other dimensions of welfare. The papers in this volume contribute to the small but growing literature which attempts to answer these questions. The papers explore the dynamics of poverty and mobility, examine the relationship between human development outcomes and income growth and assess the potential impact of major social protection programmes like the Benazir Income Support Programme, among other topics. Having been involved in this endeavour from its inception, it has been a pleasure to act as guest editors for this volume and we hope that the research presented in this volume will encourage the use of the PPHS data by many more scholars and will generate high quality research on these and other topics.
Professor Gavin W. Jones
Dr Ghazala Mansuri