The Impact of Foreign Remittances and Financial Development on Poverty and Income Inequality in Pakistan

The objective of the study is to examine the impact of financial development and foreign remittances on poverty and income inequality in the context of Pakistan. The study used ARDL-Bounds testing approach for robust inferences. The results show that in the short-run, remittances increases poverty and income inequality, which further translated into its long-run impact. The result confirmed the inverted Ushaped relationship between per capita income and income inequality, while the second order coefficient of per capita income substantially decline poverty incidence in a country. In the long-run, the results disappeared and it’s turned into U-shaped relationship between income inequality and country’s per capita income. Education largely decreases income inequality both in the short and long-run, however, it increases poverty in the long-run. Unemployment rate substantially damaged the pro-poor growth scenario, as high unemployment rate increases both the poverty rates and income inequality, which suffered poor more than non-poor in a country. Financial development has a positive impact on poverty reduction and income inequality in the short-run. The impact of income inequality on poverty incidence is positive both in the short- and long-run, which need pro-poor growth policies and rationale income distribution in a country.