The Impact of Food Affordability on the Human Development Index in Pakistan

Abstract

This research uses annual time-series data from 1990 to 2024 to determine the effect of food affordability (FA) on the human development index (HDI) in Pakistan. Food affordability index has been computed as the ratio of per capita income to the food price index. To measure the true effect of food affordability on the human development index certain control variables; GDP, government’s expenditures on health and on education, and the food production index have been employed in the model. For the purpose of measuring the simultaneous long and short -term effects of the food affordability on human development index error correction model based on the autoregressive distributed lags technique has been employed. The outcome of this study shows that food affordability has a statistically significant positive impact on the HDI in both the long and short-term. These findings reveal that the high standard of living, health, and education in Pakistan improve as economic access to food increases. This research suggests that food affordability should be focused to increase the level of human development index, rather than traditionally focusing only on health and education.

Food Affordability, Human development index, GDP, Government spending on health, Government spending on education, food production Index