Faith as a safety net for food insecurity in Pakistan

Food insecurity remains a persistent challenge in developing economies, yet cultural and behavioral factors are often underexamined. Using nationally representative Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey data (2019 to 20), this paper examines how religiosity relates to food insecurity. We distinguish institutional religiosity, proxied by madrassa affiliation, from contextual political religiosity, proxied by constituency level religious party vote share. Using quasi experimental estimators including Propensity Score Matching, Augmented Inverse Probability Weighting, and Inverse Probability Weighted Regression Adjustment, we assess multiple food insecurity indicators spanning anxiety, dietary compromise, and material deprivation. Contextual political religiosity is consistently associated with lower food insecurity, while institutional religiosity shows a more selective pattern. The findings suggest that community embedded religious environments, rather than religious schooling alone, are more closely linked to lower food insecurity, with implications for designing culturally embedded delivery channels that complement formal welfare.