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Poverty alleviation has been a major concern of governments and international institutions in developing countries over the past few decades. In Pakistan, government and international organizations have implemented several economic reforms in the country to mitigate poverty and improve the living standards of the masses. Present study investigates the effects of these economic reforms on poverty reduction in Pakistan. Using time series data over the period of 1975-2019, the study constructs indices of social reforms, trade reforms and financial reforms following the methodology of Morris and McAlpin (1983). An econometric model is formulated to explore the link between poverty and economic reforms. Results of the model are obtained using ARDL technique. It is found that trade reforms significantly reduce poverty in the long run while social and financial reforms remained insignificant for poverty eradication. Other important factors determining poverty in the long run are unemployment and real output. On the basis of the findings, it is suggested that trade restrictions should be minimized and there should be focus towards increasing trade at international level. Furthermore, long term financial and social sector planning is required to increase the effectiveness of economic reforms.

The concept of poverty is usually explained in terms of financial resources; however, it may also include deprivation in non-economic dimensions, such as education, health, and standard of living. These three dimensions of poverty or well-being have lacked attention from researchers in the past. At the start of the twentieth century, researchers explored whether non-economic poverty also drives people towards a lower quality of life and decreased well-being. In this regard, one of the popular instruments that can help to alleviate non-economic poverty is the minimum wage policy. It helps workers to maintain a stable standard of living required to avoid poverty. The prime objective of this research is to assess the importance of minimum wages in reducing social poverty in 11 selected Asian countries (Bangladesh, China, India, Iran, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Thailand). This study used data ranging from 2000 to 2017. Using the ordinary least squares (OLS) estimation method, the results suggest that the minimum wage policy alone is not helpful unless supplementary policies are implemented to reduce non-economic poverty.

The present study investigates the impact of fiscal decentralization (FD) on the efficiency of public service delivery (PSD) in the education sector of Punjab, Pakistan, from the year1982 to 2017. Firstly, the efficiency coefficients for secondary school enrolment are estimated using Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA). Secondly, the impact of FD on PSD in the education sector of Punjab, Pakistan, is analyzed using the Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) method of estimation. The findings suggest that revenue decentralization positively enhances PSD efficiency in the education sector. In contrast, the effect of expenditure decentralization is negative on the efficiency of the education sector.