Living Standard of Twelve Selected Somali Regions

In the sense of my paper, the essence of standard of living is the material goods and necessities available to a certain socioeconomic class or a certain geographic area. The study purpose is to find out the standard of living for a panel of twelve selected regions among the eighteen regions in Somalia. The cost of minimum basket (CMB) together with estimated educational fees, high school salary and the exchange rate (ER) from periods of 2009 to 2016 are considered as the study constructs. Random effect model is applied. Cross regional analysis is also employed to check which regions do have higher living standards. The results show a positive and significant relationship between CMB and high school salary and between ER and CMB. For the cross regional analysis, Mudug, Nugaal and Bari have got higher standard of living compared to the other regions. Lower Juba, Togdheer and middle Shabelle have lower standard of living.