The Pakistan Development Review
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Fatima Jinnah’s Concern for Women’s Technical Education
Get PDFMadar-i-Millat Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah is known for her
contribution to the uplift of various segments of Pakistani society
which is indicated through her speeches, statements, messages and
addresses at different functions and institutions, delivered on various
occasions. Her special concern was that women of Pakistan which formed
50 percent of the population should be moulded to play their role on
various aspects of human life. An important aspect to which she felt
attached, was the promotion of technical education in the country. Along
with men, she desired women of Pakistan should equally contribute to the
industrial development of Pakistan. This could be done by spreading
technical education amongst the girls of Pakistan. For this purpose she
delivered a number of speeches, addressed various institutions and
established various industrial homes
Distributional Impacts of Agricultural Growth in Pakistan: A Multiplier Analysis
Get PDFIn spite of substantial growth in agricultural GDP in the
1990s, rural poverty rates in Pakistan did not decline. This paper
explores the reasons for this lack of correlation between increases in
agricultural production and poverty reduction through an analysis of
growth linkages using a 2001-02 Social Accounting Matrix (SAM)-based
semi-inputoutput model. Model simulations indicate that expansion of
traditional crop agriculture can significantly benefit rural poor
farmers. However, because of skewed distribution of land and earnings
from land, landless agricultural labourers and the rural non-farm poor
(who, together, account for 61 percent of the rural poor) do not benefit
directly from growth in the crop sector. In the absence of a change in
the structure of rural incomes and employment, further measures will
likely be needed for rapid poverty reduction in Pakistan, including
greater efforts to boost the livestock sector, expansion of the rural
non-farm economy (in addition to agricultural growth-induced linkage
effects), and targeted interventions to the poorest rural
households
The Burden of Stabilisation on Provinces and Its Implications for the Social Sectors
Get PDFAn agenda of economic reform encompassing a broad range of
structural adjustment policies (SAP) is underway in Pakistan since
1987-88. These policies have an adverse impact on the pace of economic
growth and created more poverty and inequality in the country [see
Bengali and Ahmed (2002); Kemal (2003)]. These studies argues that
during the last fifteen years each government is trying to stabilise the
economy even at the cost of economic growth and delivery of social
services. The negative impact of stabilisation policies on economic
growth of the country is reflected in the decline of GDP growth from an
average annual growth of 4.6 percent during 1990s as compared to 6.5
percent during 1980s. Similarly, negligence of social services delivery
is reflected in the recent UNDP Report (2003), which, show that the
ranking of Pakistan has slipped from 136 to 141 along with the decline
in many other social sector statistics. The top government officials now
also recognise these facts and the relapse of growth oriented policy can
be heard more often. Trend in public finance statistics of the country
clearly indicate that one of the important victim of stabilisation
policies are the expenditures of provincial governments. In last several
years the significant portion of onus of containment of fiscal deficit
has been shifted towards the provincial governments. The onus of
containment of fiscal deficit by all four provincial governments during
the last decade has increased from 18 percent to 50 percent, which has
devastating impact on the service provision and poverty
reduction
The Changing Profile of Regional Inequality
Get PDFThere is a growing concern in developing and transition
economies that spatial and regional inequality, of economic activity,
incomes, and social indicators, is on the increase. Regional inequality
is a dimension of overall inequality, but it has added significance when
spatial and regional divisions align with political and ethnic tensions
to undermine social and political stability. Despite these important
popular and policy concerns, surprisingly there is little systematic and
coherent documentation of the facts of what has happened to spatial and
regional inequality over the past twenty years. This paper is an attempt
to meet this gap. It provides changing scenarios of multi-dimensional
inter-temporal spatial inequality and level of development in Pakistan
during early 1980s and late 1990s
WTO Regulations and the Audio-visual Sector— An Analytical Framework for Pakistan
Get PDFAudio-visual services play a crucial and formative role in any
society. These services are closely linked to the preservation of
cultural identity and social values, and play a major role in shaping
public opinion, safeguarding democratic system and developing creative
potential. Due to these reasons, governments of both developed and
developing countries not only provide direct and indirect incentives to
their domestic industries but also strictly regulate the content of
audio-visual media. During the Uruguay Round of WTO (World Trade
Organisation) negotiations, audio-visual service sector witnessed
limited liberalisation. Even major players such as the EU, Australia and
Canada did not make any commitments to liberalise trade in these
services. This was primarily to protect the domestic industries from
foreign competition, promote their growth and to protect the cultural
heritage of the nations from foreign influence. Many countries have
repeatedly raised concerns about the capability of the GATS (General
Agreement on Trade in Services) framework to take into account the
democratic, cultural and social aspects. Others have explained that
audio-visual sector is largely covered by domestic regulations and
normal trade rules are not applicable to these services
Utilising the Surging Potential of E-commerce: A Case of Hour Glass Supply Chain
Get PDFDecade of nineties saw two significant developments with far
reaching implications; bringing down of iron curtain and the exponential
growth of “Internet”. However, the impact of the latter has been
phenomenal. It would not be wrong to say that Internet has redesigned
the way we live and undertake economic activities. Ever since the launch
of Windows 95 and Intel Pentium chip, the Internet has grown at an
exponential rate, never witnessed before in any industry. At the turn of
the century as many as 387 million people were hooked to Internet
[UNCTAD (2003), p. 2]. As this bubble of Internet expanded, it started
engulfing every aspect of life and business. The sheer difference of
processes on Internet resulted in new terms as e-commerce and e-business
to be coined up. In five years since 1995, Internet grew from simple
information searching to controlling under sea robots. The biggest
market penetration however, has been online retail stores and business
to business (B2B) commerce. Online shopping has its potential because of
its easy access by the customers and B2B commerce has its attraction in
the savings achieved by implementing e-processes. Another advantage of
doing business on Internet is the audit trail, with which any dubious
transactions, from anywhere in the world could be traced back to its
originator
The Relationship between Economic Growth and Capital Structure of Listed Companies: Evidence of Japan, Malaysia, and Pakistan
Get PDFCorporate enterprise is a natural outcome of capitalism in the
course of economic development. The underwriter firms and banks etc.
initially meet the capital requirements of such enterprise. Later on it
is the stock exchange that carries out redistribution of shares of the
enterprise. Corporate decisions on capital structure policy have long
been a subject of debate and still remain an unresolved issue. The
traditional view of capital structure was that it results in the
weighted average cost of capital being U-shaped, which means that there
exists as an optimal mix between debt and equity, at which point a
firm’s value is maximised. However, Modigliani-Miller (1958), in a world
of no tax and no financial distress, proved that capital structure is
irrelevant to explaining firm values. When company taxes are considered,
the benefits from tax shield leads Modigliani-Miller (1963) to conclude
that the value maximising capital structure is extreme leverage. In a
subsequent paper Miller (1977), by introducing both corporate tax and
personal taxes into the model, points towards irrelevance of capital
structure for any particular firm
Pro-poor Growth: Concepts and Measurement with Country Case Studies (Distinguished Lecture)
No full textThis paper looks into the interrelation between economic
growth, inequality, and poverty. Using the notion of pro-poor growth, we
examine the extent to which the poor benefit from economic growth.
First, various approaches to defining and measuring propoor growth are
scrutinised using a variety of criteria. It is argued that the
satisfaction of a monotonicity axiom is a key criterion for measuring
pro-poor growth. The monotonicity axiom sets out a condition that the
proportional reduction in poverty is a monotonically increasing function
of the pro-poor growth measure. The paper proposes a pro-poor growth
measure that satisfies the monotonicity criterion. This measure is
called a ‘poverty equivalent growth rate’, which takes into account both
the magnitude of growth and how the benefits of growth are distributed
to the poor and the non-poor. As the new measure satisfies the criterion
of monotonicity, it is indicative that to achieve rapid poverty
reduction, the poverty equivalent growth rate—rather than the actual
growth rate—ought to be maximised. The methodology developed in the
paper is then applied to three Asian countries, namely, the Republic of
Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam
Coming of Age in Contemporary Pakistan: Influences of Gender and Poverty
Get PDFEconomic development is strongly connected to the longevity,
growth and structure of country’s population [Bloom and Canning (2003)].
Pakistan currently has the largest cohort of young people in its history
(25 million aged 15-24, Census 1998) that has serious implications for
the provision of schooling, health services and adequate jobs. Therefore
the well being of these valuable young cohorts is profoundly important
for the social and economic development and prosperity of Pakistan
[Population Council (2003)]. This demographic lift can promote economic
lift-off [Bloom and Canning (2003)]. In fact, Pakistan will face dire
consequences if this resource is not capitalised and young people remain
uneducated and unskilled [Faizunnisa and Ikram (2003)]. Work is one of
the key transitions in the lives of young people. It is an important
marker of adulthood, with strong implications for a country’s social and
economic development. Work depending on its nature and remuneration can
be the most important factor shaping adult lives. Youth employment has
many implications for the labour market, poorer households and for the
youth themselves