The Inter-Linkage between Governance and Poverty: Evidences from SAARC Countries

Abstract

This chapter aims at assessing the impact of governance on the country's economic and human well-being in the selected South Asian countries. The study finds that for the countries-India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal, over the years 1990-2012, the growing rate of GDP per capita (PPP) and growing employment to population ratio has a significant negative impact on the Global Hunger Index as expected. Also the panel regression run for the eight SAARC countries over the period 2007-13 to find out the impact of each of the six governance indicators on the per capita GDP showed that political stability and absence of violence, government effectiveness and regulatory quality have very strong and significant role in augmenting the economic output besides the remaining indicators. The trends for each of the indicators across countries over time show that except Bhutan, none of the countries are exhibiting good performance of the governance indicators.