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The role of infrastructure in poverty alleviation remains ambiguous due to weak institutions in developing countries. Considering spatial dependence, this study provides empirical evidence on the role of rural infrastructure in poverty alleviation using district-wise data of Pakistan. Results indicate positive direct as well as spatial spillover effects of financial infrastructure and female education infrastructure while positive direct effects of energy infrastructure are observed. The insignificant role of health and transportation infrastructure in poverty alleviation is a matter of serious concern. From a policy point of view, allocation of sufficient financial resources, improvement of female education infrastructure in rural areas and reformulation of health and transportation policies should be priority steps for poverty alleviation. An adverse effect of male education infrastructure on poverty reduction is detected, which needs further exploration. Adverse spillover effects of water and sanitation infrastructure on poverty may suggest the authorities to revise the implementation procedure of National Sanitation and Drinking Water Policy. The analysis might be relevant to the South Asian region due to homogeneous economic development. Moreover, the study provides evidence informing the debate on balanced regional development in developing countries with a particular focus on high and medium level of poverty clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the relationship between attitudes toward migrants and social integration. Specifically, we consider two types of migration flow: migration flow from EU countries and migration flow from non-EU countries. The aims of this paper are twofold: (1) we want to understand whether an inclusive attitude towards migrants can contribute to their efforts to integrate with the receiving society (2) we want to understand whether the potential impact is the same across different migrant groups (EU vs. non-EU). Using data from 33 mainly European countries over the period 2003–2016 and controlling for common integration determinants such as inflation, foreign direct investment and educational attainment, our results indicate that there is a significant positive relationship between inclusive and good attitude toward migrants and social integration. We also in the robustness sections, identify that the size of this impact differs across different subcomponents of attitudes and integration, these results are robust to alternative estimation techniques that take cares of endogeneity (System GMM, 2SLS, and Lewbel 2SLS). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]