The Pakistan Development Review
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The Relationship between the WES Interventions and the Incidence of Diarrhoea
Get PDFAccess to clean drinking water and sanitation facilities have
a direct positive impact on health through prevention of water-borne
diseases, especially diarrhoeal morbidity of children. Lack of WES
(Water and Environmental Sanitation) services and poor hygiene practices
in Pakistan contribute significantly to the prevalence of diarrhoea, a
major cause of infant death and children less than five years of age.
The estimates show that about 30 percent of total deaths among children
are attributed to diarrhoeal disease [Gallup (2001); UNICEF (2000)], and
4.1 years in life expectancy can be added if water borne diseases are
eliminated [Ali and Haq (2003)]. Hence, reduction of diarrhoeal
morbidity stands out as an important policy goal, which can ultimately
lead to reduction in infant/child mortality. In this paper, we shall
examine the relationship of WES interventions with that of the incidence
of diarrhoea among children under age 10
An Evaluation of Karachi Export Processing Zone: A Preliminary Investigation
Get PDFThe literature on EPZs shows that these are a second-best
solution compared with generalised countrywide reforms, but that, where
countrywide reforms are difficult to implement, they can be a useful
weapon in the development arsenal [World Bank (2001)]. EPZs have been
instrumental not only in increasing exports but also attracting
export-oriented foreign direct investment (FDI). China is a classic
example to be mentioned here where the levels of FDI have gone up
massively over the last ten years. Added up with exports increase are
also the benefits of employment generation, development of backward and
forward linkages and strengthening the industrial base. The phenomenon
of export-processing zones (EPZs) is a part of broader context of
structural changes in global economic development. During the last few
decades, there has been a tremendous increase in exports of manufactured
goods especially from developing countries. EPZs have emerged as an
important channel of export generation, especially of manufactured
goods, from most of the developing countries e.g. East Asia, Mexico,
Morocco etc. Their significance cannot be undermined because of the
location-specific advantages and infrastructure facilities possessed by
them
An Analysis of Budget Deficits, Debt Accumulation, and Debt Instability
Get PDFIn Pakistan all the macro indicators have been adversely
affected by the persistently high deficits and the strategy adopted to
finance them in the last two decades. The excessive domestic borrowing
at high rates to finance deficits without any attempts at domestic
resource mobilisation and controlling of the deficits over extended
periods absorbed all available domestic and external resources. The
resulting debttrap led to increased external borrowings at high rates
with short-term maturity. This, coupled with massive exchange rate
depreciation throughout the last two decades, resulted in rapid debt
accumulation. The recent fiscal space created in the wake of events of
9/11, resulting in high reserves, follows considerable debt relief and
availability of massive funds on very soft terms. However, the decline
in budget deficit continues to occur at the expense of development
expenditure, along with some increase in tax revenues. This trend in
expenditure needs to be reversed if serious progress in debt reduction
is the aim
Sophie Laws, with Caroline Harper and Rachel Marcus. Research for Development: A Practical Guide. New Delhi: Vistaar Publications. 2003. xiii+475 pages. Paperback. Indian Rupees 450.00.
Get PDFTo implement any successful policy, research about the
subject-matter is essential. Lack of knowledge would result in failure
and, from an economic point of view, it would lead to a waste of scarce
resources. The book under review is essentially a manual which
highlights the use of research for development. The book is divided into
two parts. Part One informs the reader about concepts and some theory,
and Part Two deals with the issue of undertaking research for
development. Both parts have 11 chapters each. Chapter 1 asks the basic
question: Is research important in development work? The answer is that
it is. Research has many dimensions: from the basic asking of questions
to the more sophisticated broad-based analysis of policy issues. The
chapter, in short, stresses the usefulness of research which development
workers ignore at their own peril
Is There Seasonality in Pakistan’s Merchandise Exports and Imports? The Univariate Modelling Approach
Get PDFThis paper investigates the existence of seasonal patterns in
the quarterly merchandise export and import data of Pakistan from 1982:1
to 2002:1. Unit root tests are applied to determine whether the seasonal
component in each variable exhibits stochastic non-stationarity.
Deterministic and stochastic effects are isolated and quantified. Few
alternate DGP specifications are identified, fitted and tested for their
outof- sample forecasting performance. A tentative finding is that
deterministic effects are relatively more important than stochastic
ones. However, integrated models, i.e., ARIMA, mixed ARIMA, and
ARIMA-GARCH, outperform deterministic models with respect to
forecasting
The Supply and Demand for Exports of Pakistan: The Polynomial Distributed Lag Model (PDL) Approach
Get PDFIn the global economy, the performance of any country will
greatly depend on the performance of its exports. The trade performance
determines the prospects of change. It helps countries win friends, and
break the traditional mould of isolation and indifference. The
performance of exports of countries depends on various price and
non-price factors. In international trade transactions it is important
to recognise that these transactions require some amount of time that
occurs between the decision to buy and actual delivery of the product
from foreign country. In the Econometric modelling lag occupies a
central role. It is recognised that due to psychological, technical and
institutional reasons, a dependent variable may respond to explanatory
variables with lapse of time, in particular when dealing with
time-series trade models
Jane Smith. Empowering People. New Delhi: Kogan Page India (Pvt.) Limited. 2002. 119 pages. Indian Rs 140.00.
Get PDFManaging organisations and managing people in our
ever-changing and complex environment is a tough task, which requires
integration on the part of the management and the workforce. Empowerment
is a buzzword these days, and almost all organisations are focusing on
using empowerment as a means of adapting to an environment of
fast-changing business world. Empowerment does not only benefit the
organisation but also the individuals involved. In the process, both
those who are empowering and the ones who are being empowered share
decision-making. Thus, empowerment is a mutual process, which is vital
to the success of the organisation and all those linked to the
organisation directly and indirectly. It is surely one of the most
common business trends, and certainly an issue which all good managers
should be aware of
Openness, Institutions, and Policies: Determinants of Globalisation and Economic Growth in Developing Countries(Distinguished Lecture)
No full textGlobalisation describes the increasing integration of national
economies through international trade, capital transfers, and the
exchange of information or knowledge. This paper focuses exclusively on
trade integration. Most economists hold that reducing trade barriers has
a decisive positive effect on economic growth and poverty reduction
(“openness hypothesis”). However, some economists diagnose deficient or
weakly enforced non-market institutions as the major cause of slow
growth. The main goal of this paper is to show that these two seemingly
contrary points of view do not exclude each other. Openness is not only
influenced by trade policy but also by other policies and the quality of
institutions. Available data show a high negative correlation between
the logarithm of tariff rates and indicators of the quality of
institutions. Cross-national growth regressions demonstrate that the
explanatory power of trade protection and a combined measure of
openness, on the one hand, and institutional quality, on the other hand,
is comparable. Therefore, it is concluded that liberal trade policies
are recommendable, but must be complemented by sound macroeconomic
management, micro-policy to strengthen domestic competition, and
institutional improvements
Production of Cognitive and Life Skills in Public, Private, and NGO Schools in Pakistan
Get PDFThe share of private and NGO schools in primary education has
substantially increased over time, though the public sector is still a
major player in this area. The present study analyses the factors
determining the quality of education offered by the three types of
schools and draws policy recommendations for improving primary education
in Pakistan. The study compares learning achievement of Class 4 students
enrolled in 50 public, private, and NGO schools located across six
districts of Pakistan and in Azad Kashmir in terms of their scores in
Mathematics, Urdu, and General Knowledge tests. The analysis shows that,
practically, there is no gap between public and NGO schools in terms of
the test scores of their students. However, a significant test score gap
was found between the students enrolled in public and private schools.
This gap was largely explained by family background and school-related
variables, including teachers’ qualification and student/teacher ratio.
However, the performance of private schools was not uniform across
districts. In some districts public schools performed even better than
private and NGO schools. The findings of this study highlight the need
for improving the quality of education in public schools by recruiting
more qualified teachers and improving overall supervision. Teacher
training is the area where the public and private sectors can benefit by
pooling their resources and expertise
Net Gains from Conjunctive Use of Surface and Ground Water
Get PDFPakistan is fortunate enough because its soils, topography and
climate are generally suitable for farming but its agriculture sector
faces the problem of scarcity of the irrigation water. This paucity of
irrigation supplies has forced the farmers to use the ground water to
augment their surface supplies. The quality of ground water in Pakistan
varies from fit for irrigation to moderately saline to sodic. Thus the
tubewell owners in the marginal quality ground water areas are bound to
use the tubewell water in conjunction with the surface water on their
farms. Currently the farmers are using about 65.75 BCM of ground water
in Pakistan [Halcrow (2002)]. The international literature is filled
with the studies on conjunctive water management and its impact on crop
productivity and related issues [Gangwar and Toorn (1987); Bredehoeft
and Young (1983); Gorelick (1988); Lingen (1988); O’Mara (1988); Shah
(1988); Brewer and Sharma (2000); Datta and Dayal (2000); Raju and
Brewer (2000); Sakhtivadivel and Chawala (2002) and Chaudhary and Shah
(2003)]. In Pakistan, the review of literature shows that all of the
previous studies conducted in the arena of water management reported the
management problems leading to the inefficiencies in irrigation
application and reduction in crop productivity, [Kijne and Velde (1991);
Mustafa (1991) and Siddiq (1994)]. Few of the studies took into
consideration the impact of waterlogging and salinity on productivity at
farm level [Meyer, et al. (1996); Prathaper, et al. (1997) and O’Connell
and Khan (1999)]. None of these studies have taken into consideration
the trade-offs between gross farm income, ground water and salinity at
irrigation subdivision level