E-commerce growth in Pakistan: A critical review in light of Abhijeet Banerjee’s poverty alleviation theory

Abstract

This review paper looks at how e-commerce has shown up as a vital means of stimulating productivity and growth in the current digital age, penetrating the markets of most of the world deep without any signs of letting up. Moreover, it also looks at e-commerce growth and its usage in Pakistan in the recent times, its potentiality, and draws a comparison with China’s successful usage of e-commerce to boost productivity and alleviate poverty, allowing rural areas also to reap the benefits the internet provides. Can Pakistan also somehow use e-commerce to do the same and lift out the millions struck in destitution, somehow fixing the economy in the process? Plagued by structural, geographical, educational, lingual, technological, and cultural issues, this paper also does a parallel analysis with Abhijeet Bannerjee’s Poverty Alleviation Theory in hopes of rooting out the shortcomings Pakistan faces. This is done with the intention of identifying what can be done to rectify these glaring issues using an approach that’s palatable to the Pakistani population.