Macroeconomic Dynamics of Standard of Living in South Asia

Purpose - The study explores social well-being of the community of five selected countries of the South Asia: India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh. The study compares effectiveness of macroeconomic policies across the countries through interactive effects of the macroeconomic policy variables with the regional dummy variables. Research design, data, and methodology - Using the data set for the period of 1990-2008, this study employs panel data models, quantile regression methods, and the fixed effects method, which the constant is treated as group or country-specific. The model can also be known as the least-squares dummy variables estimator. Results - The results reveal significant chances of improvement in the well-being of the people while living in India and Pakistan as compared to the other countries of the region where India relatively stands with better chances of providing opportunities to improve the well-being of the people. Conclusions - This study recommends an increasing allocation of budget on education and health in order to enhance social well-being in the South Asian region. Inflation is the main cause of deteriorating well-being of the South Asian community by escalating the cost of living. Comprehensive study is recommended by employing the micro data models in the region.