The Pakistan Development Review
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Inequality and Welfare by Food Expenditure Components.
Get PDFThis paper examines inequality and welfare in food consumption
expenditure in Pakistan. The indices are derived on the basis of Sen’s
welfare function by employing HIES, 2005-06. The empirical results show
that inequality and welfare varied widely in urban and rural areas. It
can be seen that the concentration index of non essential/luxury food
components are unevenly distributed over the total expenditure in favour
of rich families. The price elasticity of welfare indicates that rising
prices of food components have negative effect on the aggregate welfare.
The present analysis provides a basis for determining the magnitude of
inequality and welfare that can help in designing appropriate policies.
JEL classification: D12, D13, D31, I31 Keywords: Food Consumption,
Inequality, Welfare, Elasticit
Making People Employable: Reforming Secondary Education in Pakistan.
Get PDFPakistan’s education system has been the focus of various
reforms every few years, and a new exercise has been initiated recently
through the National Education Policy, 2009. While the problems are
generally well documented and stress on universal primary education
fully justified, the role of economic relevance of education and
training as a factor discouraging completion is not sufficiently
emphasised. Studies from developing and developed countries highlight
the strong linkage between education and training and employment, and
the economic and social returns of employability of trained workers. It
is argued that if one or more career based occupational tracks
(vocationalisation of upper-secondary education) is offered at the upper
secondary level (Class 8-10) as supplements to general education,
dropout can be reduced. This will result in increased employability,
productivity and competitiveness in the work environment. Co-financing
with the private sector of a Rs 48 billion programme for practical
on-the-job training is examined in the light of international
experiences. JEL classification: J24, O33, H52 Keywords: Human Capital,
Skill Bias, Labour Productivity, Education Expenditure
Growth-Poverty Linkage and Income-Asset Relation in Regional Disparity: Evidence from Pakistan and India (The Allama Iqbal Memorial Lecture)
No full textThe purpose of this paper is to discuss the importance of
incorporating asset holding and its distribution into the study of
growth-equity relationship in the context of regional disparity. We have
tried to discuss this issue by taking the Inclusive Growth Strategy
(IGS) introduced by the Union Government of India in 2006. Although it
is too early to assess the impact of IGC at this stage, the followings
are some of the important findings of our analysis. First, the
performance of the post-reform period is characterised by the higher
economic growth and declining poverty ratio on one hand, and the
increasing disparity in terms of consumption, income and asset holding
on the other. Second, the magnitude of poverty and disparity is much
more evident in asset holding, notably land, as compared with
consumption and income, among economically and socially disadvantageous
segments of rural communities. Third, if the inherent social inequality
were overcome in the growth process, access to asset, notably land, has
to be facilitated either by political process or through market
transaction. In either case, the prospective is not yet bright. The
paper strongly advocates, among others, the necessity of incorporating
incomeasset relationship and structural aspects in discussing poverty
and disparity issues in development. Keywords: Growth-Poverty Linkage,
Income-Asset Relationship, Inherent Social Inequality, Inclusive Growth
Strategy, Land Market, Capital Gain, Land Reform, Rent-land Price Ratio,
Ginicoefficient
Fostering FDI in the Agriculture Sector.
Get PDFGiven the relative importance of the agriculture sector in
many countries including Pakistan, at the core of any sustainable
development and poverty reduction strategy is the development of
agriculture. The 2008 food crisis triggered renewed interest in the
agriculture sector when food security was threatened in several
countries, and civil unrest emerged in others. Although there is
potential to exploit underutilised agricultural land, the extent of FDI
in the agriculture sector is constrained by many factors. In this
regard, development partners have an important catalytic role to play to
ensure “win-win” outcomes that will jumpstart inclusive growth in
countries that exhibit potential. The paper contends that unless the
enabling environment in countries is as good as elsewhere in the world,
the opportunity to attract FDI into the agriculture sector will be
lost
Investment, Inflation and Economic Growth Nexus
Get PDFThe paper has twofold objectives. Firstly, the impact of the
inflation rate on economic growth with the possibility of two threshold
levels for Pakistan using annual data from 1961 to 2008 is examined and
secondly, nonlinear relationship between inflation and investment has
been investigated. Inflation and growth models support the existence of
a nonlinear relationship with two thresholds (6 percent and 11 percent).
Inflation below the first threshold affects economic growth positively
but insignificantly; at moderate rates of inflation, between the two
threshold levels, the effect of inflation is significant and strongly
negative and at high rates of inflation, above the second threshold, the
marginal impact of additional inflation on economic growth diminishes
but is still significantly negative. Investment is one of the possible
channels through which inflation influences economic growth and the
analysis indicates the nonlinear relationship between these two
variables with only one threshold at 7 percent. Rate of inflation below
the threshold level has positive but insignificant impact, while above
the threshold it has strong negative and significant impact on the
investment. Therefore, it is desirable to keep the inflation below 6
percent because it may be helpful for the achievement of robust economic
growth and investment. JEL classification: E22, E31, O40 Keywords:
Investment, Inflation, Economic Growth, Nonlinear, Pakistan
Poverty Elimination through Potential Zakat Collection in OIC-Member Countries: Revisited.
Get PDFThis paper is the extended and updated version of Shirazi
(2006), which covers 38 OIC-member countries. The paper estimates the
resource required and potential zakat collection for poverty
elimination. The paper employed the poverty gap index based on US 2.0 a day estimated by the World Bank (2009). Zakat
potential has been estimated by employing Kahf (1989) method of
estimation with some modifications. The paper finds that half of the
sample countries not only meet their resource shortfall by potential
zakat collection but also generate surplus funds which are sufficient
for the resource deficit countries. The paper suggests pooling of zakat
funds from the zakat surplus countries and providing for the resource
deficit countries to eliminate the poverty. Keywords: Poverty
Alleviation, Resource Shortfall, Zakat Collection. OICMember
Countrie
Price Hikes, Economic Reforms and Causality in Money, Income and Prices: Evidence from Pakistan
Get PDFThis study extends the analysis of causality by Husain and
Rashid (2008) by examining the shift in the variables due to the price
hikes in Pakistan in the early 1970s. We investigate the causal
relations between real money and real income, between nominal money and
nominal income, and between nominal money and prices using the annual
data set from 1959-60 to 2003-04. Moreover, we examine the stochastic
properties of the variables used in the analysis, and take care of the
shifts in the series due to price hikes and liberalisation measures
through dummy variables. The results indicate significant shifts in the
variables during the sample period. In this context, the shift that
occurred due to price hikes in the early 1970s seems to be more
important to be incorporated in the analysis. The study finds the active
role of money as the leading variable in changing prices without any
feedback. In the earlier studies on income the feedback mechanism of
money is found missing perhaps because of overlooking the shift in the
macro economic variables in the early 1970s. JEL classification: E3, E4,
N3 Keywords: Money, Income, Prices, Price Hikes, Causal Relations,
Pakista
Agricultural Development and Food Security(The Allama Iqbal Memorial Lecture)
No full textIt is always a pleasure for me to participate in these annual
meetings. The knowledge and the talent displayed are immense. The
quality of discussion is high. I had never thought however that I would
have the honor of delivering the Aalama Iqbal lecture. To prepare for
this lecture I read extensively from Iqbal’s poetry. Of course I read in
translation, but even so I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the ideas
and the expression. My search for an apt couplet or set of lines for
this paper was in vain. Iqbal was speaking to his people and although he
was expansive in his view of society, it is still not meant for me to
carry the word of Iqbal to you. Nevertheless I do display at the
beginning of this paper three lines from Iqbal. He is clear on the
importance of doing for oneself and for ones country. At least in the
modern world ones efforts are so much more productive if government
provides a favourable environment for individual effort. And he would
embrace the brotherhood of mankind, leaving some potential for us to
help each other. He was very clear that learning from the West was
desirable, and he was very selective about that—science and technology
in particular. My paper is about what government must do, and
specifically the government of Pakistan must do, to create an
environment in which not just a few gather dew but in which all people
gather dew. As soon as ones concern encompasses the bulk of the
population food security comes to the fore. My paper can be seen as
addressing how all rural people can gather the dew. It has a prominent
place for science and technology
M. C. Behera. Globalising and Rural Development: Competing Paradigms and Emerging Realities, New Delhi/Thousand Oaks/London: Sage Publications. 2006. Paperback. Indian Rs 550.00.
Get PDFRural development provides an understanding which is both
broader and more specific than development in terms of economic growth.
It is broader because it entails much more than economic growth as
factors affecting it are not contained within the discipline of formal
economics. Rural development includes not only attention to production,
but also to the analysis of distributional issues and, therefore,
demands an inter-disciplinary approach in which the broader social and
political factors interacting with economic processes are subject to
examination. Even in this age of globalisation, rural development has
acquired a central role in the international development discourse. This
is because there is a shift in the development paradigm along with the
process of globalisation and nations need to formulate their rural
development strategies fitting into this international
discourse