Aggregate and Regional Demand Response Patterns in Pakistan

The econometric analysis of demand in Pakistan has, until recently, been a relatively neglected field of analysis. Much of the earlier work, reviewed in Ali (1985), consists of linear Engel curves based on grouped data published by the Bureau of Statistics. Ahmad, Leung and Stern (1984), and Ahmad, Ludlow and Stern (1987) use household observations from the 1976 Micro-Nutrient Survey (MNS), to estimate 17 (9 of which are food items) and 13 commodity parameters and elasticities based on a modified linear Expenditure System (LES) using Maximum likelihood methods. The modified LES is a method of obtaining LES parameters without independent price information, analogous to the ELES. This method differs from the ELES in that expenditure information is used, rather than income, see Ahmad, Ludlow and Stern (1987) for details.