The economic disparity across Sri Lanka’s districts

Abeynayake, NR, Shafna, AM and Weerasooriya, Senal A (2023) The economic disparity across Sri Lanka’s districts. Sri Lankan Journal of Applied Statistics, 24 (2). pp. 46-64. ISSN 1391-4987

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Abstract

Globally, there is an increasing regional economic development disparity. The region’s growth depends on strong economic development. The sustainable development of Sri Lanka could be harmed by the regional economic disparity. An essential consideration in the establishment of regional development policies is the identification and magnitude of regional economic disparities. This study looks at the current state of Sri Lanka’s regional economic development disparity. This study’s methodology in this regard involved using several economic development metrics. Data for the year 2019 was acquired through authoritative sources. The multivariate analysis technique using the principal component analysis (PCA) approach has been adopted, which assigns a weight to each dimension and indicator to create composite indexes. The economic development of the western province was higher than that of the other provinces, but there was also a notable disparity between the districts of the western province, with the Colombo district having the highest economic development index. The resulting indices enable policymakers to prioritize regions for additional efforts while also assessing the state of regional disparities. The new index also makes it feasible to classify local government entities logically to support the government’s numerous policy-making and development initiatives. To calculate an index of economic disparity similar to that, the approach would apply to any nation.