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The Day of the Week Effect in the Pakistani Equity Market: An Investigation
Fazal Husain
Published:Jan - June 2000
An active area of investigation in finance literature is to explore the
existence of a pattern in stock returns. A predictable pattern is evidence
against market efficiency. Even if the pattern does not seem to affect the
stock returns directly, it can provide useful clues to investors concerning
their investment decision.
One of the significant patterns identified is the day of the week
effect which implies that stock returns are not distributed identically across
the days. For example, in the U.S. capital market, rates of return on
Mondays tend to be negative while those on Fridays tend to be high. Cross
(1973), French (1980), Gibbons and Hess (1981), Keim and Stambagh (1984)
and others consistently observed lowest returns on Mondays, termed as the
‘Monday effect’.
KEYWORDS:
Equity markets, capital markets, stock returns, liberalisation, Pakistan, trading.
JEL:
N/A.
Postmodernism/Poststructuralism: A Theoretical Perspective
Saeeda Shah
Published:Jan - June 2000
In a world of multiple causes and effects, looking for black and
white is turning a blind eye to limitless shades and colours created at
diverse intersections. Any particular phenomenon is shaped by historical and
cultural specifications interacting in a complex way. Putting these into neat
categories across sharp divisions hampers the possibilities of knowledge that
can be formulated at limitless points and interstices. Traditional Western
philosophical thought was constructed around dualities and dichotomies that
imposed “homogeneity and identity upon the heterogeneity of material”
(BenHabib: 1992: 208). Post-structural epistemology involves attention to
diversity, plurality and relations of power. It offers possibilities by opening
spaces for voice/s, and provides a framework to position the ‘subjects’.
According to Gaby Weiner, two aims of post-structuralism are:
KEYWORDS:
Postmodernism, poststructualism, metanarratives, discourse formations.
JEL:
N/A.
Developed Countries’ (DC) Buyers Apply Higher Levels of Power over the Exporters from A Country such as Pakistan: A Perceptual Study
Muhammad Ehsan Malik
Published:Jan - June 2000
The power aspect in conceptualising importer-exporter interaction is very critical, but few studies are available concerning this issue in the context of export distribution channels. This article explores the power-related dimension of importer-exporter interaction.
An effort has been made to discern the pattern of perceptual differences between a number of importer-exporter pairs. It has been found that broadly speaking, the importer exercises higher levels of power over the exporter rather than vice-versa. But the perceptual differences between the importer and exporter do not follow a systematic pattern. Research efforts have significant implications for the exporters’ community, generally in developed and particularly in developing countries such as Pakistan.
KEYWORDS:
Power, behavioural concepts, distribution channels, behavioural paradigms, power framework, developing country.
JEL:
N/A.
Economic Policies Continuation: A Critical View of the Eighth Plan 1993-98
Pervez Tahir and Sara Fatima
Published:Jan - June 2000
Traditionally, five year plans suggest an indicative set of policies to
achieve medium-term targets. Operarionalisation of these policies, however,
takes place through annual plans and budgets, formulation of trade and
monetary policies and fiscal measures deemed necessary and announced during
the course of a year, the so-called mini-budgets. In recent years, while five
year plans have increasingly been seen as analytical frameworks for consistency
rather than tight blueprints for disciline, there have been demands, especially
from the private sector, that economic policies should be announced for a
medium term. Underlying this shift of emphasis are the profound changes that
have occurred in economic organisation and management in the country as
well as the broad sweep of the forces of rapid globalisation. Of the total fixed
investment in Pakistan today, over 60 per cent originates in the private sector.
Only a decade ago, the private sector share was well below 50 per cent.
Similarly, foreign investment used to be an insignificant component of foreign
inflows. It stood at over a billion dollars for three years in a row in the
nineties. The degree of openness of the economy has also increased
significantly. Exports and imports alone constitute one-third of the GDP. The
impact of liberalised financial flows is in addition.
KEYWORDS:
Policy continuity, five year plan, Pakistan, investment, governance, institutions.
JEL:
N/A.
Published:Jan - June 2000
This article is an attempt to explain why poverty has persisted to a
great extent in Pakistan, despite sustained growth of national income, and
to review two publications dealing with poverty and social development,
“Social Development in Pakistan: Annual Review 1999, Social Development
in Economic Crisis”, published by the Social Policy and Development
Centre, (SDP) and “Human Development in South Asia, 1999: The Crisis of
Governance”, published by the Mahbub ul Haq Human Development Centre
(HD).
KEYWORDS:
Pakistan, poverty, policy, neo-classical theory, labour, income distribution.
JEL:
N/A.
Book Reviews: Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, his personality and his politics
Syed M. Salim
Published:Jan - June 2000
S.M. Burke and Salim Al-Din Quraishi, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali
Jinnah, his personality and his politics, Karachi, Oxford University Press pp
412 Rs. 495/-.
A convincing vindication of the Quaid’s Conversion from Ambassador of
Hindu-Muslim unity to founding father of Pakistan.
A book which most Pakistanis have been waiting for for the past five
years or so, has at last been published by The Oxford University Press,
Karachi (1997) as part of their Jubilee Series. A dispassionate study of the
Quaid’s life and his personality illustrates that he was a luminary in three
different walks of life. Firstly, as one of undivided India’s renowned legal
practitioners; secondly, one of it’s leading legislators and, thirdly, as one of
it’s leading politicians. It is universally recognised that the Quaid attained
not only world stature, but won a permanent place in world history.
Through his dynamic and inspiring leadership, he not only won
independence from the then British colonial rule, but had the sole
distinction of altering the world map by carving into existence the largest
Muslim state of its time in the comity of nations – bigger than the United
Kingdom and France put together. It is the role of a leading politician
which this latest publication principally deals with.
KEYWORDS:
Book Review, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Hindu-Muslim.
JEL:
N/A.
Lessons of Survival in Managing Economic and Banking Crises
Abdul Raoof Butt, Abdul Raoof & Mehmood-ul-Hassan
Published:July - Dec 1999
Pakistan is enduring a serious economic downturn and facing the
probability of the collapse of the banking and financial systems. The growth
outlook is meek and risk of default is hanging over the head of the nation as
a sword. Banking and financial institutions and economic systems of Pakistan
like that of ASEAN and other crises hit countries, suffer from bad loans,
political interference, corruption, declining exports, budget and trade
deficits, internal and external debts, crashes of stock exchanges, currency
mismanagement, and double digit inflation. While 'survival of the fittest’ is
ever a self-evident truth, the lessons of the rise and fall of nations are
important for survival. In order to meet the challenge of survival, it may be
crucial to learn the underlying causes that accounted for and understand the
strategies and reforms that attempted to manage the economies of the
countries suffering from the crises.
KEYWORDS:
Banking crises, economic crises, financial systems, sustainable growth patterns, economic systems, Asia, Europe.
JEL:
N/A.
An Assessment of Basic Education under the Social Action Plan in Pakistan
Shahrukh Rafi Khan
Published:July - Dec 1999
Educational expenditure as a percentage of GDP has indeed been
protected and over the first phase of SAP (1993-1996) has increased by about
0.2 per cent of GDP. However, despite SAP protection, it declined to the preSAP level for 1998-99. While there is evidence that, in some aspects, the
gender and regional gaps have closed, the poorest continue to be excluded
from schooling, the rural female income gap in schooling has widened and, if
the poor do attend, they are the most likely to drop out. Also, net enrollment
rates for boys and girls actually declined over the first SAP period.
KEYWORDS:
Pakistan, Social Action Plan, SAP, education, poverty strategy, gender, rural enrollments (sic).
JEL:
N/A.
Published:July - Dec 1999
In this age of globalisation, multiple pressures are intensifying for the
under developed and developing countries. It is a struggle for economic
survival, where the larger fish will eat up any small fish not clever enough to
learn the rules of the game. In this market oriented competitive world,
management development has increasingly become linked with economic
output. Additionally, education is no more just an intellectual exercise. It is
compulsively being recognised as a large sector of human and financial
resources, requiring strategic management and a purposeful development of
the concerned personnel for quality and effectiveness.
KEYWORDS:
Management development, organisational theory, education, educational institutions, organisational development.
JEL:
N/A.
Published:July - Dec 1999
This paper is divided into three sections. The first section goes over
the major developments in consumer choice theory1
over time and contrasts
the approaches of Marshall, Hicks and Samuelson. In the second section is
an inquiry into the nature of utility and a hypothesis is developed in the
Marshallian tradition. The hypothesis is built on the grounds that utility is
not a homegenous concept as is conventionally believed. The last section is
concerned with identifying some theoretical and philosophical implications
of the hypothesis for economics.
KEYWORDS:
Marshall, Hicks, Samuelson, consumer choice theory, revealed preference theory.
JEL:
N/A.