The Pakistan Development Review
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Changing Gender Relations and Its Influence on Female Migration Decision in India
Get PDFThis paper is an attempt to understand the position of Indian
women in the family and its influence on their migration decision. The
migration-empowerment relation can be explained through relative
measures like intra-household decision making indicators, and age and
educational differences. The data for the purpose of the study has been
drawn from the various rounds of NSSO and NFHS and it has been analysed
at the state level due to data limitations for explanatory variables at
the household level. The bi-variate findings show economic decision
making related to large household purchases, decisions on mobility and
spousal educational differences which exhibit a linear relation with the
women’s migration decision. The empirical findings suggest the women’s
greater involvement on own health care, spousal age and educational
differences significantly influence their migration decision. This
suggests that women’s empowerment influences their migration decision.
JEL Classification: J10, J16 Keywords: Empowerment, Migration, Women,
India, Relative Measure
The Impact and Cost of Power Load Shedding to Domestic Consumers
Get PDFThe widespread and growing phenomenon of power load shedding
has emerged as one of the principal supply-side constraints to growth of
the economy of Pakistan. Not only has this led to significant losses of
output, employment and exports but also during periods of high outages
there have been large-scale protests, particularly in Punjab and KPK.
Households have faced severe disruptions due to the high and growing
incidence of load shedding. These have led to mass protests on streets
resulting in disruption of other economic activities. As such, the
economic return of reducing outages and of facilitating the process of
adjustment to these outages is likely to be high. This paper provides an
approach and methodology for quantifying cost of load shedding to
households in Pakistan. It is organised as follows: Section 2 highlights
some key trends in the power sector of Pakistan. Section 3 will present
a detailed literature review on the methodology used for quantification
of costs due to outages. Section 4 describes the methodology used for
qualification of costs due to outages and for estimation of willingness
to pay. Section 5 presents estimates of the cost of load shedding in the
domestic sector of Pakistan. Finally, Section 6 highlights the major
policy implications emerging from the research
Energy-Cost Optimisation in Water-Supply System
Get PDFWater, being the basic requirement of life, is important to
all living organism, human health and food production. A positive
correlation between economic growth and rate of water utilisation has
also been observed in a growth model with water as a productive input
for private producers [Barbier (2004)]. In addition, high per-capita
consumption (PCC) of water is regarded as an indicator of the level of
economic development where per-capita water consumption is defined as
the average of water consumed by a person in a day. The declining
availability of water supply, mainly due to global climate change, is
one of the important issues faced by many developing countries at the
present time. It is estimated that nearly two third of nations across
the globe will experience water stress by 2025.1 Thus, the safety and
availability of clean water is an on-going concern within the global
villag
Energy Crisis and Productive Inefficiency: Micro-Evidence from Textile Sector of Faisalabad
Get PDFEnergy, being an essential component of every production
process, plays a pivotal role in the growth process of a country. The
production process has undergone a massive transition from labour
intensive to energy intensive techniques [Stern and Cleveland (2004)].
Now, it is widely recognised that industrialisation is an
energy-intensive process; hence, uninterrupted supply of energy is
necessary to keep the production process in run. In addition, high
percapita energy consumption is considered as an indicator of the level
of economic development. This positive correlation between energy
consumption and output growth (and development) led many countries,
particularly developing ones, to design policies for subsidised energy
provision with focus on supply-side in late eighties. At the same time,
some European countries (i.e. Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Sweden)
formulated energy policy focusing on demand-side (energy conservation),
and achieved smaller growth rates in energy consumption without any
reduction in economic growth [Pintz (1986)]
Policy Options for Financing Urban Transportation in Resource Constrained Environments: The Case of Lahore, Pakistan
Get PDFIn all prosperous and modern economies, cities are the engines
of growth and melting pots of diversely talented individuals. They offer
inclusive environments with openness and access to opportunities,
enabled by efficient and affordable transport systems leading to
economically productive interaction between citizens. On the other hand,
many cities in rapidly urbanising developing countries have not been
able to develop efficient spatial structures, which results in traffic
congestion and poor transport services. Their resource-constrained
governments often struggle to fill gaps in transport infrastructure
demand, which in the case of megacities requires mass transit projects.
In the case of Lahore, Pakistan, however, the Provincial and Federal
governments appear deeply committed to undertaking mass transit services
despite chronic fiscal and financial constraints. The paper first
explores Lahore’s urban form and function from the transportation and
land-use perspectives, presenting an in-depth sub-city level analysis of
spatial variations in key characteristics. Second, by undertaking a
review of transport infrastructure financing literature it evaluates the
viability of three main policy options in Lahore, including public
private partnerships, municipal finance options and reforming urban
land-use zoning. It concludes that governments in such environments
could benefit from land-financing by utilising centrally located
State-owned lands through market oriented land-use regulation reforms.
JEL Classification: R11; R58; Z18; P25 Keywords: Regional Economic
Activity, Regional Development Planning and Policy, Public Policy,
Urban, Rural, and Regional Economic
The End of Multi-Fibre Arrangement and Firm Performance in the Textile Industry: New Evidence
Get PDFUsing a sample of 321 textile and clothing companies for the
years 1992 to 2010, this paper analyses the effect of quota phase-outs
on firm-level efficiency in Pakistan following the end of the
Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA). It highlights sectoral heterogeneity
within the manufacturing industry as a result of MFA expiration. The
empirical methodology uses the structural techniques proposed by Olley
and Pakes (1996), and Levinsohn and Petrin (2003) in order to take care
of endogeneity in the estimation of production functions. The results
differ for the two industries: MFA expiration lead to an increase in the
average productivity of textile producing firms but a significant
reduction in the mean productivity of clothing producers. We offer a
number of explanations for this outcome, such as a change in the input
and product mix, entry by non-exporters in the clothing sector, and
sectoral differences in quality ladders. A number of crucial policy
lessons can be drawn from the findings of this study. JEL
Classification:F13; F14; D24; C14; O19 Keywords: Multi-Fibre
Arrangement, Trade Liberalisation, Productivity, Firm Heterogeneity,
Simultaneity and Production Functions, Endogeneity of
Protectio
Impact Evaluation of Remittances for Pakistan: Propensity Score Matching Approach
Get PDFThis study attempts to uncover the biases in the impact
evaluation of remittances when the problems relating to selection bias
and counter factual are not taken into account. Taking migration as an
intervention and foreign remittances as an input, the study measures the
socioeconomic impact using an approach which yields more accurate
non-experimental estimates in self-select cases through multiple output
and outcome indicators such as income, expenditure, saving, and capital
accumulation which, directly and indirectly, affect households’ welfare,
poverty incidence and growth prospects of a country. Using PIHS data,
the study first calculates the difference in socioeconomic
characteristics of treated or remittances beneficiary households (RBH)
and control or remittances non-beneficiary households (NRBH) ignoring
endogeneity and observable differences. Second, it calculates the
propensity score and evaluates the impact using data from common support
area for both RBH and NRBH households. Third, it evaluates the impact
using the propensity score matching approach which replicates the
experimental benchmark. The difference in the first and the third
estimates reveals the bias originating from the issues of selection and
difference in observable characteristics. The results show that after
controlling for observable characteristics of households, regional
difference, networking and applying the selection correction technique,
the average impact of remittances is significantly reduced. A
disaggregated analysis shows that the socioeconomic impact of
remittances differs by the level of skills. The impact is significant
for relatively low skilled poor households but for high skilled
households it remains significant only in case of bank deposits. The
paper concludes that estimates are biased upward if the selectivity
issue and endogeniety problems are ignored which may lead to wrong
policy implications. JEL Classification: F24, O15, P36 Keywords:
Propensity Score Matching, Remittances, Poverty, and Capital
Accumulatio
Money, the Stock Market and the Macroeconomy: A Theoretical Analysis
Get PDFThe finance-growth nexus has become a significant issue in
recent macroeconomic modelling and the centre of attention of policy
makers. Over the past few decades equity markets have experienced
phenomenal growth which has proved to be a major determinant of capital
flow to emerging market economies. Naturally, one wants to know how
development of equity markets influences the real sector and produces
macroeconomic outcomes. In this paper we construct an open economy,
structuralist model to examine the short-run and long- run effects of
both policy-induced and exogenous shocks on output, the dynamics of
stock market valuation and adjustment in monetary base. The model shows
that devaluation or capital inflow will boost the economy, while fiscal
expansion has deleterious consequences for stock market valuation and
investment. JEL Classifications: G01, G12, F32, F36 Keywords: Tobin’s q,
Effective Demand, Devaluatio
Interprovincial Differences in Power Sector Subsidies and Implications for the NFC Award
Get PDFPower sector subsidies constituted 83 percent of the federal
government’s total subsidies of PRs 558 billion in 2012. The tariff
differential subsidy (TDS) amounted to PRs 464 billion (including
arrears of PRs 312.8 billion from previous years). The TDS is provided
to distribution companies (DISCOs) to cover the difference between the
tariff schedules approved by the National Electric Power Regulatory
Authority (NEPRA) (which can differ across DISCOs) and the uniform
tariff schedule (by consumer group) notified by the Ministry of Water
and Power (MoWP) for all regions of the country. The NEPRA-approved
tariff takes account of DISCOs’ revenue requirements and various
elements of cost. In calculating the average tariff, NEPRA also takes
into account companies’ transmission and distribution (T&D) losses.
Both revenue requirements and T&D losses differ across DISCOs, which
are duly reflected in NEPRA-approved tariffs. The fact that NEPRA
approves different tariffs across DISCOs while the MoWP sets uniform
tariffs (by consumer group) implies that each DISCO receives a different
TDS from the federal government. This translates into different
subsidies for each province. By aggregating the TDS by consumer group
across all DISCOs, we can also calculate the aggregate subsidy by
consumer group