The Pakistan Development Review
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Environmental Fiscal Reforms through Decentralisation for Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication
Get PDFMarkets 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 resources have a
long history of being mismanaged and misappropriated—with political and
economic elite often capturing a large share of the benefits while the
nations disenfranchised must often absorb inexplicably large share of
the associated social and environmental expenses. These are highly
interdependence; a sound environment is crucial to poverty reduction and
sustainable growth, particularly in low-income countries [IBRD/World
Bank (2005); World Bank (2006a) and Mustafa (2008)]
How Pakistan Is Coping with the Challenge of High Oil Prices
Get PDFGlobal oil prices have shown an almost steady rise since 2003,
with the April 2006 price double than that was in January 2004 [Bacon
(2005)]. Demand, supply and speculative factors, and their
interrelationships all leads to the steady rise in oil prices. In the
last couple of years, global demand for oil grew due to economic
strengthening in the US, as well as strong economic performance in
developing Asia, (especially PR China and India). From 1990 to 2003
world demand for oil grew at the rate of 1.3 percent while for the
People Republic of China and India (combined) at 7 percent rate and
accounted for almost 40 percent of the demand growth1 [ADB
(2005)]
Land and Water Resources of Pakistan— A Critical Assessment
Get PDFThe country’s geographical area is 79.61 million hectares
(mha), excluding the Northern Areas of Pakistan. Out of this, only 72
percent area has been reported indicating a major limitation that 28
percent area is not yet surveyed for land use classification. The
reported area is further classified into four major classes: (a) forest
area of 4.02 mha; (b) area not available for cultivation of 22.88 mha;
(c) culturable waste of 8.12 mha; and (d) cultivated area of 22.05 mha.
Out of the reported area, around 8.1 mha are available for future
agriculture and other uses, if water is made available. If rest of the
area (28 percent) is also surveyed then one can have better picture of
country’s land resources (Table 1)
The Impact of Open Sewerage Smell on House Rent in Rawalpindi
Get PDFOne of the basic problems of any developing country is to
provide shelter to the low income groups. The housing does not mean
shelter only but it includes the services related to it i.e. sanitation,
sewerage, street conditions and water etc. The government policies
related to the provision of such facilities have greater impact on the
quality of life and standard of living. The demand for housing reflects
the willingness to pay for a set of housing services. The house is a set
of many goods; the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, quality of local
services and utilities, tidiness of the neighbourhood and quality of the
local environment [Katherine (2006)]. The difference in value may be due
to housing and neighbourhood characteristics with amenity or dis-amenity
values
Address by Satyabrata Pal, High Commissioner of India in Pakistan
Get PDFMr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, The problem with speaking
at a valedictory session, without being at the earlier sessions, is that
you do not quite know what it is you are saying goodbye to. Today,
however, that is less of a problem, because none of us is bidding SAFTA
goodbye; it needs a benediction, which I hope you have pronounced, not a
valediction. Your Roundtable follows what has been described as the
smoothest SAARC summit ever. It went so well because all its members
perhaps now believe that it can help them, and that it must roll up its
sleeves and work, moving quickly from declarations to
implementation
The Future Governance Agenda for Country Assistance Strategies: An Approach to Governance Reform (The Iqbal Memorial Lecture)
No full textThe development industry is increasingly recognising that
institutional constraints in developing countries are fast becoming a
primary limiting factor for growth. Institutional decay and breakdown is
also placing the stability of democratic political systems at risk. If
this decay and breakdown is not reversed, ultimately democracy and free
markets in developing countries will also face increasing risks thereby
creating further negative impacts on institutions. Reversing this
vicious cycle must be the subject of international development
pre-eminence as all “sectors” rely on primary institutions to function.1
The framework for institutional assistance interventions to developing
countries is missing or has remained marginally addressed. The
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Poverty Reduction and Growth
Facility (PRGF) do not directly address the governance aspect of the
post colonial societies and its role in achieving poverty reduction or
millennium development goals.2 If “institution matter” what should the
international assistance approach to designing interventions that
promote governance and institutional revival be? What is the knowledge
base required to design governance interventions? What is the new
governance research that can produce that knowledge base
X-efficiency, Scale Economies, Technological Progress, and Competition: The Banking Sector in Pakistan
Get PDFThe financial sector plays an important role in economic
growth, and the banking sector as a part of the financial sector
facilitates the economic activities in the capacity of an intermediary
between lender and borrowers. That is why the researchers as well as the
policy-makers have been concerned with the issue of banking sector
efficiency. The banks transform their various inputs into multiple
financial products, and the efficient way the banking sector transform
these input into financial products may followed by macroeconomic
stability [Ngalande (2003)]. It has also important role in effective
execution of monetary policy [Hartman (2004)], furthermore, efficient
allocation by banks play a central role in economic growth [Galbis
(1977)]. There is a strong empirical support for positive link between
financial intermediation and economic growth. A wide acceptance of this
link also exists and financial development used as a determinant in
growth model over the past several decades [Gurley and Shaw (1955) and
Goldsmith (1969)]. The positive relationship could be either through
factor accumulation or through increase in efficiency [Collins (2002)].
It is the efficiency which is more important because mere factor
accumulation could not stimulate economic growth [Slutz (2001)]. The
efficient financial intermediation mechanism allocates the credit to
more productive sectors in optimal way. In addition, this efficient
financial intermediation mechanism also promotes innovations, because of
high return on investment, with positive implications for economic
growth [Luccheti (2000)]
Inaugural Address
Get PDFExcellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Assalam-o-Alaikum and Good Morning It is a privilege to be in your midst
today in the Annual General Meeting and Conference of the Pakistan
Society of Development Economists. This is the fourth time in my seven
years of public life here that I have the opportunity of interacting
with such a distinguished gathering of economists, academicians, and
scholars at this forum. I cannot help but think about my first
interaction with this gathering 7 years ago. It was the 15th AGM of PSDE
in November 1999. I had assumed responsibility as Finance Minister a few
weeks ago and I took the opportunity to present a roadmap to this very
audience. I am happy to return today to tell you what we have been able
to achieve, the challenges we face and our plans for the future. I
expect you—the research community— to help us in preparing better
policies to support the progress that we have made so far. The
economists present here know the story of our progress intimately so I
will not go into any details. You would recall that seven years ago, our
country was in the middle of a major crisis. Our economy was in dire
straits. The state of governance left much to be desired. We were also
isolated with mounting tensions on our borders. We have come a long way
since then
Governance and Pro-poor Growth: Evidence from Pakistan
Get PDFThe issue of governance has gained importance over the last
two decades and became a key component of policies for economic
development. Good governance acts as a positive force to influence
economic growth. A growing amount of available evidence suggests that
lack of quality governance hinders growth and investment, and aggravates
poverty and inequality. In fact, governance problem foil every effort to
improve infrastructure, attract investment, and raise educational
standard. As the developing countries are characterised by weak
institutions, low growth, poverty and inequality all which translate
into low levels of human development. The multiplicative effects of
these outcomes result in poverty traps that are extremely difficult to
break out. This state of affairs has forced governments to embark on a
wide range of reforms in their institutions of governance and economies
with the goal of achieving economic growth
Convergence Model of Governance: A Case Study of the Local Government System of Pakistan
Get PDFThe future of devolution plan in Pakistan may be analysed in
view of our Convergence model. This model views stability of the local
Govt. system drawn on Devolution Plan 2001. It claims that as there
would be more volatile and non-committed (floating) number of agents in
the political market and governance system, there is more probability of
divergence; i.e. the system will remain unstable. Contrary to that more
is the systematic trend in political market and governance system more
is the probability that the convergence in the system occurs and that in
turn leads to stability of the over all system. In this ‘Convergence’
Model different types of agents have been highlighted on the basis of
their political affiliation and being in competition as ruling elite
and/or their allies and non-ruling elite and/or their allies