Pakistan Development

Consumer subsidies have been playing an increasing role in Pakistan since Independence. Largely as left-over economic controls of World War II, a number of sophisticated instruments! have been applied with different objectives at different times, surprisingly similar to those applied in Europe. It is interesting to see how South Asian countries, with their common colonial heritage of food administration and agricultural market and price regulations, developed different approaches after Independence, and to analyse the extent to which these can be explained by their different resource endowments and political ambitions and objectives.

Pakistan is the 15th largest producer of sugar in the world, 5th largest in terms of area under sugar cultivation and 60th in yield. The sugar industry is the 2nd largest agro based industry which comprises of 81 sugar mills. With this scenario, Pakistan has to import sugar which exposes it to the effects of shortage and rising prices in the world. The present sugar crisis has opened up new avenues for researcher to analyse the performance and efficiency of the firms in this sector. Total factor productivity plays a significant role in measuring the performance of a firm which ultimately affects the shareholder’s value. This paper analyses the performance of sugar firms in Pakistan and estimate/calculate the Malmquist total factor productivity growth indices using non-parametric approach. TFP growth is further decomposed into technical, scale and managerial efficiency change using balanced panel data of 20 sugar firms listed on Karachi Stock Exchange for the period 1998 to 2007. The...

The issue of the implication of interlinkage of factor markets on the allocative efficiency level of the farm households deserves a special attention in the light of the controversy among two distinct schools of thought: the Neoclassical and the Marxist. An attempt has been made in the paper to measure allocative and cost efficiencies of the interlinked holding vis-à-vis a comparable group of non-interlinked holding in the framework of Data Envelopment Analysis. Empirical evidence establishes the Neo-classical proposition that interlinked factor markets can be considered as one of the “efficiency improving institutional change” in rural agrarian economy. JEL classification: D61, C87, Q14. Keywords: Interlinkage, Allocative Efficiency, Rural Credit, Data Envelopment Analysis

Very little of the intense interest and activity in the field of family planning in Pakistan has come up in the form of publications. Since the formation of the Family Planning Association of Pakistan in 1953 and the initiative of the government in promoting a national family-planning programme in its Second Five-Year Plan, relatively few reports have been printed. Most of what has been written in Pakistan about family planning has either been reported at conferences abroad or published in foreign journals, or submitted as graduate dissertations at universities within the country and abroad1. While numerous papers presented at conferences in Pakistan have been given limited circulation in mimeographed form2, much of the preliminary data, emanating from most of the action-research projects in progress, are held up till substantive demographic changes are measured and approaches evaluated accordingly.

The paper analyses the contribution of informally employed women (for the age group of 16-60 years) to their household budget. The urban informal sector largely absorbs women workers. We examine the determinants of their contribution to their household budgets for the survival of the families. Applying the OLS model to 937 observations, it is found that women as heads of household, women’s education, and ownership of assets by woman have a positive effect on their contribution. The burden of the large family size, household poverty, and loans availed by the household are shared by the informally employed women, as these variables positively affect their contribution. Age of the woman has a non-linear effect on woman’s contribution. The contribution first increases and then decreases by an increase in the age of the woman. Married women and women living in nuclear families contribute more to the household budget. The household per capita income and number of children (5-15 years) in ...

The world in its politico-economic aspects is run by policy-makers who have an academic background in law or public administration or other related social disciplines including economics. Only rarely would a majority of the policy-makers be trained in economics. In the making of economic policy, the basic choices before the policy-makers are political and they transcend the narrow concerns of economists regarding optimal use of resources. These considerations in no way downgrade the relevance of economic analysis in economic policy-making and for the training of policy-maker in economics. Policy-makers need economic council to understand fully the implications of alternative policy options. In this book, Wolfson attempts to educate policy-makers in the areas of public finance and development strategy. The analysis avoids technicalities and is kept to a simple level to make it understandable to civil servants, law-makers and members of the executive branch whom Wolfson refers to as p...

Regionalism became the protrude trait of international politics by 1940s and 1950s. A huge number of regional organizations started coming up around this time. The major aim of regional organizations was national security and economic progress by integrating the region. India was fairly late in recognizing the importance of regional organizations. Though there were attempts made from the pre-independence era. The idea of South Asian or South East Asian unity did not catch the idea of Indian policy makers. For most part region around India was taken for granted, it was only in the year 1985 India seek to join its first regional organization in the form of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). It was the stepping stone for India into a completely platform.

The aim of the paper is to explore the variation in the quality of life by using thirty-five indicators relating to the quality of persons and the quality of conditions to rank districts and tehsils (sub-districts) of the Punjab. The study demonstrates the importance of access to ...

The subject of the paper is arranged as follows. Firstly, the basic description of sukuk, its attributes and benefits, followed by the prevailing dominant types of sukuk, the pros and cons and issues at hand in certain cases. Alternatives and close parallels to sukuk are also drawn where considered necessary.

Poverty has many dimensions, like malnourishment, no shelter, being ill and not having ability to visit a doctor, no facility to go to school, unemployment, uncertainty of tomorrow, surviving only one day at a time. Poverty is losing a kid to illness due to the infected water. Powerlessness, lack of representation and freedom is another name of poverty. Poverty is of many types varying from place to place and time to time, and, has been portrayed in various manners. Poverty is the “incapability to maintain a minimum living standard anticipated with respect to basic consumption needs or some amount of income required for satisfying them [World Bank (2006)]. The bulk of the global poor are rural and will linger on thus for numerous decades. The major portion of their expenditure is generally on staple food. They have little assets such as land and others, lack of schooling and face lots of interconnecting obstacles to develop. Approximately 1.2 billion people globally expend less than...

One of the most debatable issues surrounding globalisation is the concern that trade hurts the environment, both locally and globally. Economists argue that expanding trade from domestic market to international market not only increases market share of each country but also rising competition among the nations and improve efficiency of utilising scarce resources because each country produces those goods in which she has comparative advantages. But on the other hand, environmental economists have opposed global trade and argue that the costs of spreading trade to international markets are depleting natural resources and rising pollution emissions that ultimately deteriorates environmental quality. [Copeland and Taylor (2001), Antweiler, Copeland and Taylor (2001), Chaudhuri and Pfaff (2002), Schmalensee, Stoker and Judson (1996).]

Allama Iqbal stressed the need for khudi in terms of national identity and focus on selfreliance, without which there would have been no chance to break colonial bounds. The message still resonates today, in a period of economic crisis and lack of national agreement on tax reforms. International experience with decentralisation also emphasises the importance of significant own-source revenues in generating accountability and effective service delivery at all levels of government. Although the 18th Amendment of Pakistan Constitution makes significant strides towards clarifying spending responsibilities, the issue of subsidiarity is not effectively addressed, nor is the issue of implementable own-source of revenues. This runs the risk of generating unfunded mandates, further pressures and weakening of public service delivery, leading possibly to strengthening of ethnic and parochial divisions and centrifugal forces. Iqbal’s message is as important now as it was in the last century. JE...

Foreign aid has been contributory towards fostering broad-based development and complementing national development initiatives in the recipient countries. This paper analyses the question of aid effectiveness towards the achievement of goals in the special context of a set of social outcomes in Pakistan. More specifically, the paper focuses the core question that ‘how’ and ‘how far’ foreign aid has affected the ‘health’, ‘education’, and overall ‘human development index’ in Pakistan. Our result shows that there is feedback Granger causality between GI and ODA. That is, Economic growth induces ODA and ODA Granger cause economic growth. As far as Education index, Human development index and life expectancy index concerned, there are only unidirectional Granger causality from ODA to Education index, Human development index and life expectancy index. This is consistent with other literature that ODA contribute to human development. JEL classification: O15, P45 Keywords: Effectiveness, H...

Governance and Institutions are not ends in themselves but it is well known by now that good governance and effectively functioning institutions are required, along with sensible policies and well designed public investment, to improve resource allocation and comparative advantage, enhance productivity, facilitate more efficient markets and distribute the benefits of growth more equitably in any economy. How do Governance and Institutions interact? Governance refers to the manner in which power is exercised in the management of a country’s economic and social resources. Good governance requires checks and balances in a country’s institutional infrastructure, such that politicians and bureaucrats have the flexibility to pursue the common good, while restraining arbitrary action and corruption. The state’s monopoly on coercion, coupled with access to information not available to the general public, creates opportunities for public officials to promote their own interests, or those of ...

Total geographical area of Pakistan is 79.61 million hectares (m.ha.). Area under cultivation is 21.59 m.ha.; of which, only 5.34 m.ha. (i.e., 25 percent) is free from soil limitations and is fit for intensive agriculture [Mian and Mirza (1993)]. The remaining agricultural lands have various types of problems including formation of slow permeability, water logging, salinity and sodicity, and wind and water erosion. Thus, on an average, three out of four hectares of cultivated land in Pakistan are in poor health. This in turn is causing temporary or permanent decline in the productive capacity of the land. Therefore, poor soil health is posing serious threat to the sustainable growth of agriculture.

The Government of Pakistan believes that “high and growing” indebtedness of the government is reflected in falling investment and growth rates of the economy, leading to growing poverty of the people. This paper examines how this came to be, and whether the connections implicit in this assessment do in fact exist? On this basis, the paper also comments on the

Markets and government planning are providing alternative systems for coordinating people’s consumption of resources. The effectiveness of coordination depends on the capability of each system to signify accurate information about people’s wants and available supplies of resources. And on the incentives each provides for individuals to react to the desire of others [Hayek (1945) and Wills (2007)]. Natural resources generate public revenues and benefits. Its equitable distribution and sustainable production leads to real development and ultimately helped to poverty reduction and alleviation. Therefore, natural resource revenues necessitate distributions that favour the needs of the indigenous poor people and local sustainable development. Productive and high-value natural resources are seldom accessible to all citizens and their benefits are rarely evenly dispersed crosswise peoples and geographically across nations. It is worth mentioning that revenues collected from natural resourc...

Using primary data from two districts of Pakistan, this article analyses the supplyside determinants of child labour. The study finds that the birth-order of the child has a significant association with schooling and labour decision of child: first school enrolment of children is delayed; there exists gender disparity in favour of male children; the children from female-headed households are more likely to go to school; the education of the head of household has a positive impact on child’s schooling; among the parent’s parameters mother’s education is more important than father’s; parental education is positively associated with child schooling and negatively associated with child labour. The ownership of assets impacts the schooling positively, and labour negatively; the household size affects the schooling negatively, and work positively; and household composition also has a significant effect on schooling and child labour. The children from urban areas are more likely to go to s...

Drinking water is the basic need of human life. Safe drinking water is an essential component of primary health care and have vital role in poverty alleviation. There is positive correlation between increased national income and the proportion of population with access to improved water supply. An increase of 0.3 percent investment in household access to safe drinking water generates one percent increase in GDP. Whereas, provision of safe drinking water supply is an effective health intervention reduces the mortality caused by water-borne diseases by an average 70 percent. Inadequate drinking water not only resulted in more sickness and deaths, but also augments health costs, lower worker productivity and school enrolment [World Bank (1994)]. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimate 1.8 million people in developing countries die every year from diarrhea and cholera, Out of these 90 percent are children under the age of five years. While 88 percent of diarrhoeal diseases are attr...

In estimating trade elasticities for Pakistan, most previous researchers have employed non-stationary data and OLS or 2SLS techniques. In this paper we use Johansen's cointegration methodology to re-investigate the long-run trade elasticities and existence of the Marshall-Lerner ...