Mahbub ul Haq Research Centre at LUMS

Pakistan hosts the 9th largest labour force in the world, with 73% of its workers employed in the informal economy. A majority of…

While the average people walking the streets of Pakistan may have taken off their mask and the news media may have moved on from discussing the economic impacts of COVID-19, data shows that the economic distress caused by the pandemic is far from over.

COVID-19 is a health pandemic with economic consequences whose severity cannot be underestimated. Yet there is limited understanding of the pandemic’s effects on the economic lives of citizens. We address this gap using the Pakistan...

Inequality has emerged as a major global challenge around the world, and reducing inequalities within and amongst countries has been recognized as a UN SDG goal (no. 10). Growing levels of inequality tend to create poverty because money continues to move from those who must spend...

Today, we see bright, knowledgeable folks of all ages, male and female, who know and understand education far better than those with decision-making powers. Almost all come from a segment of society that has benefitted from...

Between 2010 and 2018, there appeared to be some very exciting and frenetic reform efforts unfolding across the school education sector in the Punjab. Moving the needle on school access and learning outcomes, it seemed, was as aspiration closest to the hearts...

Rapid urbanization in low and middle-income countries is contributing to the ‘urbanization of poverty’. Yet the true scale and nature of this challenge are unknown. Census data are infrequent and household surveys...

In 2015, local elections were held in Pakistan, ten years after the previous ones in 2005 during General Pervez Musharraf’s military rule. Local government elections...

Providing fair and equitable access to utilities is the cornerstone of building trust between states and citizens. But states are increasingly under pressure to reduce subsidies for utilities such as water and electricity. Last year...

Balochistan covers about 44% of Pakistan’s territory and houses about 6% of its population. Huge distances and low population density provide a unique...

Pakistan’s Punjab province has access to rich district-representative household survey data from the Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey (MICS). Five...

In urban Pakistan, limited access to, and the safety of, public transport is estimated to reduce female labor force participation. Minibusses are...

If there is one reform that will unlock Pakistan from its state of perpetual inertia, it is the transformation of the public sector. While this series...