Spatial Disparities in Socioeconomic Development: The Case ofPakistan

Rising spatial disparities in socioeconomic development is amajor concern in developing economies. Regional inequality is adimension of overall inequality, but it has added significance whenspatial and regional divisions align with political and ethnic tensionsto undermine social and political stability. This paper is an attempt todocument the extent and nature of regional inequality in the level ofsocioeconomic development. Seventeen indicators related to humanresources and standards of living are developed from the districtrepresentative household data of Pakistan Social and Living-StandardMeasurement (PSLM) survey for the year 2012-13. Development Indicators,for the first time in Pakistan are also aggregated at sub-district levelto incorporate the intra-district inequalities in the analysis ofspatial disparities. The study provides provincial multidimensional Ginicoefficients and district development ranking to evaluate inter andintra provincial disparities respectively in the selected dimensions ofsocioeconomic development with the help of Inequality-adjustedSocioeconomic Development Index (ISDI). JEL Classification: D63, I31Keywords: Multidimensional Inequality, Inequality Adjusted SocioeconomicDevelopment Index, Development Ranking, Pakistan