S. Akbar Zaidi, Transforming Urban Settlements, The Orangi Pilot Project’s Low-Cost Sanitation Model, City Press, Karachi, 2000, Price: Pak Rs. 225/-. This book is the story of the formulation and implementation of the Orangi Pilot Project’s Sanitation Model, and it is told with clarity and intelligence. Indeed, in this age of self-seeking and egoism, indifference and callousness, it is heartening to note that at least some amongst us somewhere still show a modicum of concern for the marginalised and less privileged in our societies. It is ample indication of the author’s empathy and identification with the human condition in its entirety.
KEYWORDS: Orangi pilot project, Orangi, Pakistan, sanitation model, OPP, Water Aid.
JEL: N/A.

This study represents an attempt at estimating the farmer supply response to different economic and material incentives. Several researchers have estimated the cultivator supply response to different techno-economic factors (Cummings, 1975a and 1975b; Askari and Cummings, 1977; Cooley, 1973; Chen, Courteny and Schmitz, 1972; Ghoshal, 1975; Tweeten, 1986). However, as agriculture modernises, the relative significance of different factors affecting farm inputs and outputs changes; factors regarded as significant determinants of farmer decision at one time may not be relevant at another time. Similarly, the transformation of agriculture in the desirable direction invariably necessitates and at times renders desirable the use of new measures and policy instruments. How farmers react to changes in market forces and government measures is important to know in different ways. In fact, policy makers are interested in knowing the appropriateness, effectiveness and impact of measures for the ultimate formation or legislation of farm regulations.
KEYWORDS: Pakistan, agriculture, supply response, legislation, farming regulations.
JEL: N/A.

A firm may resort to leverage in its capital structure for a variety of reasons; to capture the benefits of the tax shield of debt, to signal to the market that it sees a bright future for itself, or as a commitment device to reduce financial slack. Unforeseen circumstances, however, may force the firm into a situation where it is unable to pay its debts. If the environment is such that the firm has a single creditor, emerging from a situation like this may not pose too much of a problem. However, problems are likely to arise if there are multiple creditors. A resource-wasting race is likely to ensue as the creditors try to “be first” to seize the firm’s assets (in the case of a secured loan) or to obtain a judgement against the firm (in the case of an unsecured loan). This race may lead to a dismantling of the firm’s assets, which may mean a loss in value if the firm is worth more as an entity than it is as a collection of pieces.
KEYWORDS: Corporate bankruptcy, bankruptcy, transaction costs, bankruptcy procedure, mechanism.
JEL: N/A.

Efficiency of financial markets implies that prices fully reflect all available information rapidly and in an unbiased manner. Thus, market prices should provide an unbiased estimate of fundamental value. Despite strong empirical evidence supporting this theory, there are questions about its validity. In recent years, a significantly large volume of empirical research has been conducted to show predictability of asset returns using publicly available information. This is popularly referred to as the anomalies literature. These studies used different explanatory variables ranging from fundamental to technical factors and showed evidence of market inefficiency. The results indicate that returns exhibit trends of momentum in the short to medium term and reversal in the long term
KEYWORDS: Market efficiency, theoretical framework, economics.
JEL: N/A.

With only half of Pakistan’s rural population provided water through government sources, many observers may well be led to believe that this is a clear case of government failure. Yet, such conclusions ignore the way development thinking has changed over time. Currently, the new way of providing infrastructure and social services relies increasingly on communities, NGOs and the private sector, with the role of government considerably curtailed. In the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (RWSS) sector, it is the Uniform Policy which now dominates planning and implementation Unfortunately, succumbing to donor pressure, an illdevised Policy has been approved for the sector which requires prerequisites which are just not available. A socially sensitive engineering department, and organised and active communities, which are the cornerstone of the Uniform Policy, do not exist. Hence the failure of the new thinking in the RWSS sector. While institutional failure and government sclerosis may be amongst the more critical causes of failed service delivery, it may perhaps be more instructive to analyse such institutions in a broader political economy perspective, where reasons for the failure of the state as much as of ‘civil’ society, may provide more useful answers.
KEYWORDS: Rural water supply, institutions, public health, public health engineering, Pakistan.
JEL: N/A.

To date no study has been made to explore the FDI motives of foreign firms in Pakistan. An attempt has been made to rectify this position through a survey of both wholly- and majority-owned multinational enterprises (MNEs) in the economy. Market size and growth variables appear to be the most cited reasons for FDI by MNEs in the sample. The use of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) also reinforces the significance of market size as the motive for FDI in Pakistan. The other underlying factors produced by the EFA are: expansion of business, low input prices, desire to lower the transaction costs and psychic distance.
KEYWORDS: Foreign Direct Investment, FDI, multinational enterprises, MNEs, Pakistan.
JEL: N/A.

The genesis of setting International Labour Standards lies in the idea that the issues related to labour and social conditions are not merely matters of state concern. The objective of establishing the International Labour Organisation in 1919 was to undertake joint international action to improve labour conditions world wide along with achieving several inter-related motives. The preamble and the first Article of the ILO’s Constitution gives expression to these ideas by the following statement:
KEYWORDS: Pakistan, labour laws, ILO, labour standards, child labour, minimum wage.
JEL: N/A.

In a rapidly changing global economy, small enterprises are increasingly a force for national economic growth. Since the 1970s, SEs and the entrepreneurs who drive them have received serious attention by planners, multilateral agencies and governments the world over. Yet there is the need for the management of the environment at the macro level to facilitate the growth of the SE sector. There is a need for setting up and managing institutions and networks which support directly, indirectly, formally, informally, the growth business at the regional and national level. This also calls for the development of entrepreneurs and their team, development of the organisation and the business. The engine of change in all the new economies has been the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) but the growth of the sector was not a response to problems of economic crises of the 1970s and 1980s but it has been observed as a trend that emerged as a wave of change. Hence the chaos and scramble to move according to the trend. The other notable contributing factor for the emergence of Small Enterprises (SEs) is the IT business industry and the worldwide trend towards the service industry sector.
KEYWORDS: Developing countries, SME, support infrastructure, development.
JEL: N/A.

S. Akbar Zaidi, Issues in Pakistan’s Economy, Oxford University Press, Karachi, 1999. 462 pp. Price: Pak Rs. 450/-. In the last five decades, Pakistan’s economy has, as they say, gone places. Undoubtedly, this economy is much more broad-based, with increases in productivity in all sectors, incomes (even if nobody believes it), trade, infrastructure, social sectors. Living standards and consumption levels and patterns are more diversified than those in the early years, though the benefits are unevenly distributed. Such disparity and imbalances created additional complications because of a rise in expectations, which is invariably faster than production capacity and income increases. Developing countries, soft societies as these are, must face problems emerging from the resulting frustrations and frictions.
KEYWORDS: Pakistan, economy, distribution, economic situation.
JEL: N/A.

This study contributes to an understanding of locational determinants of FDI in Pakistan. Although there exists a great deal of literature in this area, there is hardly any evidence of such a study in the case of Pakistan. Economy level analyses are carried out to explore the determinants of FDI through multivariate regression analysis. The results of the multivariate regression analyses reveal that market size, relative interest rates and exchange rates are the major determinants of FDI in Pakistan. The variables such as market growth and political instability were consistently insignificant in the analyses. However, mixed findings were revealed by the variables such as consumer goods imports and the political regime in Pakistan.
KEYWORDS: Locational determinants, consumer good imports, market development, transnational corporations, foreign direct investment, FDI, Pakistan.
JEL: N/A.