52 research outputs found
Remittances and Poverty Linkages in Pakistan: Evidence and Some Suggestions for Further Analysis
No full textGlobal remittances experienced a dramatic increase over the years, particularly since 1990 wherein the developing world emerged to be the major beneficiary accounting for 60 percent of the total amount. Because of the sheer volume, and magnitude of the remittances, and pre-eminence of these flows compared to the FDIs, development assistance and in some cases the trade related transactions, the development practitioners tended to focus and investigate the importance of remittances which are generally regarded as a dependable source for growth, improved welfare and poverty alleviation in the developing world. Given the fact that remittances flows entail wide ranging ramifications both for sending as well as receiving countries, difficult to be generalised, hence empirical evidence has been mounted though lack of consensus is visible.
Contribution of Services Sector in the Economy of Pakistan
No full textThe services sector has provided steady support to Pakistan’s economic growth. It share in GDP now stands a more than 50 percent. The paper analyses its continuation in the growth of the economy in general and the development of trade and genera tion of employment in particular. The study identifies the bottlenecks in its growth and suggest measures to remove them. A set of policy reforms has been suggested to make the sector more effective in the growth of the national economy.Services Sector, Industry, Employment, Financial Institutions and Pakistan’s Economy
Poverty Dynamics of Female-headed Households in Pakistan: Evidence from PIHS 2000-01 and PSLM 2004-05
No full textThe paper attempts to empirically test a naïve version of what is rather stylistically termed as “feminisation of poverty”, using the sub-sample of female -headed households (FHHs) from two household surveys in Pakistan. Although, the database is constrained by quality factors and small sample size, the following findings add to the richness of current research in this area: (a) The numerical incidence of poverty among households headed by females is less than that for all households in the country, at the national, urban and rural level for both the years. This can be traced to the finding that more than 70 percent of households headed by females receive remittances, (b) The incidence of poverty among FHHs during the period 2000-01 to 2004-05 did not decline as fast as it did for mixed households, nationwide. In urban areas, it did not decline at all, (c) Among the determinants of poverty of FHHs, illiteracy, dependency and rural residence exacerbate poverty, while remittances domestic and/ or foreign reduce poverty, (d) The dynamics of incidence of poverty among FHHs during the period indicated that Illiteracy as the factor exacerbating poverty became less important in 2004-05. Moreover, residence in rural areas was also a weaker factor in determining the incidence of poverty. By far the most notable contribution in reducing the incidence of poverty was self-employment in agriculture in 2004-05.
Estimating the Middle Class in Pakistan
No full textThe concept ‘middle class’ is one of the most commonly used terms in the social sciences, including economics, sociology and political science. Despite its frequent use there is, however, no consensus on what the term exactly implies and its meaning remains ambiguous depending primarily on the context in which it is used. It is viewed as the class that is between, and separates, the lower and the upper classes, that is the rich and the poor, but there is no agreement on the exact boundaries that separates them. Most of the definitions and measurements of the middle class continue to be somewhat arbitrary and vague.
Fragmented Huffman-Based Compression Methodology for CNN Targeting Resource-Constrained Edge Devices
No full textIn this paper, we introduce a fragmented Huffman compression methodology for compressing convolution neural networks executing on edge devices. Present scenario demands deployment of deep networks on edge devices, since application needs to adhere to low latency, enhanced security and long-term cost effectiveness. However, the primary bottleneck lies in the expanded memory footprint on account of the large size of the neural net models. Existing software implementation of deep compression strategies do exist, where Huffman compression is applied on the quantized weights, reducing the deep neural network model size. However, there is a further possibility of compression in memory footprint from a hardware design perspective in edge devices, where our proposed methodology can be complementary to the existing strategies. With this motivation, we proposed a fragmented Huffman coding methodology, that can be applied to the binary equivalent of the numeric weights of a neural network model stored in device memory. Subsequently, we also introduced the static and dynamic storage methodology on device memory space which is left behind even after storing the compressed file, that led to a big reduction in area and energy consumption of approximately 38% in case of dynamic storage methodology in comparison with static one. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study where Huffman compression technique has been revisited by applying it to compress binary files, from a hardware design perspective, based on multiple bit pattern sequences, to achieve a maximum compression rate of 64%. A compressed hardware memory architecture and a decompression module design has also been undertaken, being synthesized at 500 MHz, using GF 40-nm low-power cell library with a nominal voltage of 1.1 V achieving a reduction of 62% dynamic power consumption with a decompression time of about 63 microseconds (μ s) without trading-off accuracy. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature
Algebraic Representation of Social Capital Matrix
No full textThis paper proposes a mathematical model based on a Boolean algebra involving a 44 social capital matrix [Shah (2008)], that emerges through interaction within and across individuals, communities, institutions and state. The framework provides a coding system for the existence or otherwise of various categories of social interaction. The model illustrates that social interaction can be neatly described in a format that facilitates the interpretation of social intra- and interactions among the four types of players in generating economic activity.Social Capital (Matrix), Linear Space, Interactive Systems, Boolean Algebra
Determinants of Urban Poverty : The Case of Medium Sized City in Pakistan
No full textUrban poverty, which is distinct from rural poverty due to demographic, economic and political aspects remain hitherto unexplored, at the city level in Pakistan. We have examined the determinants of urban poverty in Sargodha, a medium-size city of Pakistan. The analysis is based on the survey of 330 households. Results suggest that employment in public sector, investment in human capital and access to public amenities reduce poverty while employment in informal sector, greater household size and female dominated households increase poverty. We recommend greater investment in human capital and public amenities as a strategy for poverty alleviation.Urban Poverty, Pakistan
Analysing the Terms of Trade Effect for Pakistan
No full textThe study investigates the impact of changes in terms of trade in Pakistan on its income and consumption potentials, by employing two measures of terms of trade, namely, barter terms of trade and income terms of trade. The study examines Pakistans terms of trade behaviour using time series data from 1990- 2008, and works out the losses the country had to bear owing to deterioration in its terms of trade. Paper finds that worsening of terms of trade has a negative impact on economic growth of Pakistan, as it ultimately reduces gross domestic product.Terms of Trade, Commodity Terms of Trade, Income Terms of Trade, GDP, Pakistan
Proof Without Words: Arithmetic Mean / Geometric Mean Inequality
No full textThe author proves almost wordlessly the Arithmetic Mean / Geometric Mean Inequality
Factors Determining Public Demand for Safe Drinking Water (A Case Study of District Peshawar)
No full textOvertime per capita water availability in the world as well as in Pakistan has been declining. Water sources have depleted and become polluted therefore, now water has become a scarce good. Resultantly, the inadequate water supply, sanitation, and hygiene are rooting major environmental degradation and health damages in the country. This study was undertaken to analyze the magnitude of awareness, perception, practices, and demand for safe drinking water. The study further elaborated HHs Willingness to Pay (WTP) for improved water quality and services in district Peshawar of NWFP, Pakistan. Primary data was collected from 315 HHs which consist 2455 HH members from district Peshawar. Schooling, exposure to mass media, HH income and occurrence of diarrhoeal diseases were used to measure the HHs’ response towards the health risks associated with contaminated water. Moreover, to find out public acceptability to government and private sector as service providers, HH’s were asked two separate questions regarding their maximum willingness to pay for an improved water system by either one. Out of the sample HHs, 78.4 percent were willing to accept improved water system provided by government while relatively less HHs (55.6 percent) were WTP in the case of private company as the service provider. It is worth mentioning that according to sample about 76 percent HHs were not using any method for water purification at their homes in district Peshawar. This study empirically proved that the role of awareness besides the income constraint is the key determinants of demand for safe drinking water.
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