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Book Reviews: Exploration in Development Issues, Selected Articles of Nurul Islam
Nina Gera
Published:July - Dec 2004
Nurul Islam, Exploration in Development Issues, Selected Articles of
Nurul Islam, International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington DC,
Ashgate Publishing Limited, Hants, England and Ashgate Publishing
Company, Burlington, USA, 2003, ISBN 0 7546 15952, pp 568, Price not
mentioned.
This collection of articles by a veritable stalwart in the field of
economics, covers almost the entire spectrum of development issues ranging
from Food Supply, Agriculture and the State, International Trade, Economic
Assistance and Economic Policy. It is a book decidedly not for the
uninitiated and to both comprehend and enjoy the work one has to have a
certain devotion to the subject and perhaps even a modicum of passion for
the same.
KEYWORDS:
Book review, development, Nurul Islam, development policy.
JEL:
N/A.
Health Demand and Outcomes in Pakistan
Imran Ashraf Toor and Muhammad Sabihuddin Butt
Published:Jan - June 2004
For the provision of better social services, the health sector has been
an important part of national strategy for reducing poverty and income
disparities among different income groups in Pakistan. The distribution of
access to and use of health among households has been a long-standing
concern among policy makers. In this study, government health expenditure
is treated as a fixed factor that influences household health behaviour,
conditional on such factors as household income, education, and family
size. The results of the study suggest that government health expenditure is
associated with higher use of both preventive and curative health services
by children. The results also indicate that increased government
expenditure is actually associated with lower use of health services by the
children of the poor, although this negative association is generally weak.
However, if increased government spending improves health care
opportunities for the nonpoor more than for the poor, the total effect of
government spending on the health outcomes of the poor could be less even
though they have a higher marginal product of health care inputs.
KEYWORDS:
Pakistan, health demand, social services, households, government expenditure, health care opportunities.
JEL:
N/A.
Financing of Growth Through Self-Assessment Governance and Total Quality Growth Model
J. D. Agarwal, Aman Agarwal and Yamini Agarwal
Published:Jan - June 2004
The authors gratefully acknowledge the technical support of Indian
Institute of Finance and IIF Business School. We would such as to thank
Prof. Jaurahi Ali (University Utara Malaysia, Malaysia), Prof. Manuel Jose
The paper has been accepted and presented at the 7th ISINI International Conference on
“Frontiers in Finance and Economics” at Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Lille,
France. The paper was presented in the session Chaired by Prof. Patrice Fontaine,
President, AFFI, France on 22nd August 2003 (16:00 – 18:30).
KEYWORDS:
ASEAN, economic issues, international norms and practices, Focus of Total Quality, Total Quality Management, FTE, TQM.
JEL:
N/A.
Macroeconomic Impacts of Monetary Variables on Pakistan’s Foreign Sector
M. Aslam Chaudhary and Ghulam Shabbir
Published:Jan - June 2004
This study examines the impact of monetary variables on the
balance of payments of Pakistan. Besides, exogoneity of monetary variables
is also tested. The empirical findings of the study show that balance of
payments is a monetary phenomenon and monetary policy could be useful
in improving the foreign sector. The studies so far have not confirmed this
effect. The study also shows that an increase in price level and real income
lead foreign reserves to inflow. However, an increase in the interest rate,
money multiplier and domestic credit lead international reserves to
outflow. Partial sterilisation was evident in the short run. But in the long
run, it tends to be equal to minus one, indicating no sterilisation effect on
the foreign reserve movements. The central implication derived from the
study is that an increasing government budget deficit leads to excessive
expansion in domestic credit creation and as a result a loss of foreign
reserves. The null hypothesis for exogoneity of price level, real income,
interest rate and inflation rate to foreign reserves is accepted. However,
the null hypothesis for the exogoneity of domestic credit is rejected for the
general model but accepted for the linear model. It appears that monetary
policy is effective in Pakistan
KEYWORDS:
Pakistan, monetary variables, exogoneity, domestic credit, monetary policy, balance of payments, adjustments.
JEL:
N/A.
Socio Economic Conditions of Child Labourers in Pakistan: Evidence from the Labour Force Survey
Umer Khalid & Lubna Shahnaz
Published:Jan - June 2004
Child labour has emerged as a serious, widespread and growing
problem in many parts of the world. Asia has a large number of children
employed as child labourers. Child Labour Survey 1996 reports that there are
3.3 million children working between the ages of 5 and 14 years in Pakistan.
Developed countries have linked trade with child labour through the
Harkin Bill and the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Agreement (1994),
which banned the market manufactured or mined goods produced in whole
or in part by children under 15 years of age. Pakistan is also facing
restrictions on some of its exports due to allegations of child labour.
However, Pakistan has enacted the Employment of Children Act of 1991,
which has banned employment of children below the age of 14 years.
KEYWORDS:
Child labour, socio-economic conditions, labour force survey, Pakistan.
JEL:
N/A.
Why Private Investment in Pakistan Has Collapsed and How It Can Be Restored
Kalim Hyder and Qazi Masood Ahmed
Published:Jan - June 2004
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the decline in private
investment and formulate a comprehensive strategy to overcome this
problem, which is the main cause of deceleration in the growth momentum
of Pakistan’s economy. Due to lack of investor confidence, private
investment has reached its lowest point in the recent economic history of
the private sector led growth phase (1978 to 2002) in Pakistan. This paper
argues that economic as well as non-economic factors are responsible for
this declining investment. Economic policies are formulated in such a
manner that the short-term objectives of lowering the fiscal and trade
deficits were to some extent achieved but overall economic performance and
investment were ignored. In order to control external trade deficits, a
policy of devaluation increased the cost of production through an increase
in prices of imported raw material especially of plant and machinery.
Higher real interest rates due to excessive public borrowing that were due
to the failure in reducing fiscal deficits has resulted in financial crowding
out and has corroded the savings that might be used to finance private
investment. The unexplained part of private investment that is not
determined by economic factors can be attributed to non-economic factors,
which include internal and external shocks. These shocks start from the
sanctions which were imposed after the nuclear blast. Events following that
initial shock like the freezing of foreign currency accounts, the military
coup, the harassment of the partially successful accountability drive of the
military government, the 9/11 incident, the Afghan war and tensions on
the Pak-India border have complemented the shock. A comprehensive
programme is required to boost private investment and for the restoration
of investor confidence. Therefore, an economic package is recommended in
this paper that consists of incentives that relax the supply side constraints
by reducing cost of production as well as demand-enhancing efforts. It is
the best time to introduce a strategy to increase investment activities in the
* Kalim Hyder is an Economist at Social Policy and Development Centre, Karachi,
Pakistan. Qazi Masood Ahmed is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Business
Administration (IBA), Karachi, Pakistan and is a Member of the Advisory Board at the
Social Policy and Development Centre, Karachi, Pakistan.
KEYWORDS:
Pakistan, investment, economic package, recommendations, sanctions, determinants.
JEL:
N/A.
Simultaneous Decision Making of Child Schooling and Child Labour in Pakistani Urban Households
Karamat Ali and Rana Ejaz Ali Khan
Published:Jan - June 2004
In recent years, there has been a rapidly expanding literature on
child labour that provides empirical evidence on its nature and
determinants. The previous literature on Pakistani child labour includes
Khan (1982), Hussain (1985), Ahmed (1991), Khan and Ali (1991) and
Weiner and Noman (1995), and recently Addision, et. al. (1997), Burki and
Fasih (1998), Ray (2000a), Ray (2000b), Ray (2001) and Ali and Khan (2003).
Some studies (see for instance Khan 1982; Ahmed 1991) discuss mainly the
qualitative features of child labour. The recent literature has focused
attention on the quantitative aspect, taking advantage of the increasing
availability of good quality data on child labour. Within the empirical
literature on child labour, there has been a shift in emphasis from more
quantification to an econometric analysis of its determinants. As child labour
is seen to result from the same variables influencing child schooling but in
inverse, so school enrolment is strongly correlated with child labour. Child
labour commitments are major reasons for children’s non-participation in
school. So the literature has moved to incorporate child schooling and child
labour and thus analyses schooling and child labour jointly (see for instance,
Degraff et. al. 1993; Mahmood et. al. 1994). The present study is one of
this category.
KEYWORDS:
Pakistan, child labour, household, school, determinants, education, poverty.
JEL:
N/A.
Comparative Systematic Risk Analysis: Evidence on the Banking Sector in the United States, Western Europe and South East Asia
Nawazish Mirza and Daniel Danny Simatupang
Published:Jan - June 2004
The basis for asset pricing in financial markets was provided by
Bachelier (1900) in his magnificent dissertation “Théorie de la Spéculation”
submitted at Sorbonne (Université de Paris). Although from today’s
perspective, the mathematics and economics he applied were flawed, yet the
great genius, Markowitz, declares this early work as an inspiration for his
own classical paper of “Portfolio Selection”. The risk return relationship has
always been a debatable issue in financial theory. “Portfolio Selection” came
up with a meaningful measure of quantifying the risk associated with
investment; the variance of returns. The equilibrium model of Capital Asset
Pricing (CAPM) (Sharpe 1964, Lintner 1965, Mossin 1966) further classified
the risk as relevant and irrelevant risk. According to the CAPM, the relevant
risk is the systematic risk or non diversifiable risk. The systematic risk is the
volatility of returns of a particular stock to the market returns.
KEYWORDS:
Risk analysis, comparative, financial markets, banking sector, United States, South-East Asia, Western Europe.
JEL:
N/A.
Published:Jan - June 2004
Khadija Haq, (Edited) The South Asian Challenge, Oxford University
Press 2002, Second impression: OUP Pakistan 2003, pp 333.
The South Asian Challenge is a compilation of nine essays on South
Asia by eminent economists and social science researchers. The idea was
initiated by Dr. Mahbubul Haq who had set up a South Asia Commission to
analyse and identify the challenges facing the region, in order to publish a
report on its recurrent issues of poverty and economic crises, and to offer new
directions for meaningful change. Before the Commission could draft an
outline of the Report, Dr. Mahbubul Haq passed away. Subsequently it was
decided by the Human Development Centre in Islamabad to publish this
collection of essays as a tribute to his memory and his quest for a new world.
KEYWORDS:
Book review, South Asia, South Asia Commission.
JEL:
N/A.
Published:Jan - June 2004
It is becoming obvious that all large multi-ethnic societies, after
attaining the beatific status of development, lose interest in removing
poverty. The undying myth of development, that it will remove all poverty
forever from all comers of the world, now lies shattered. It comes somewhat
as a surprise that so many people believed it for so many years with a sense
of naivety and innocence. Even affluent economies such as the US have not
been able to rid their societies entirely of the plague of poverty from within
their borders.
That said, it appears that somebody somewhere means business. The
Centre for Research on Poverty Reduction and Income Distribution (CRPRID),
an autonomous body with its own board of directors, has published its rather
glossy Human Condition Report 2003, the second in its series. The main
intent of the Report, as stated in the Forward, is to guide and influence policy
makers and be an autonomous tool for monitoring and evaluating the progress
made towards achieving the targets laid out in the Poverty Reduction Strategy
of Pakistan as well as the Millenium Development Goals.
KEYWORDS:
Book review, UN, united nations, Human Condition report.
JEL:
N/A.