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Volume
Issues
Published:July - Dec 1997
This article will attempt to answer the question why the
redistribution of land ownership (i.e. land reform) is important and even
necessary for our society's progress and development. Why there remains a
crying need to concretely study the question of agrarian land ownership and
all it implies in terms of political and economic power distribution and its
social fallout in the rural milieu. Let us begin with an examination of how
the present land ownership patterns originated and evolved.
A discussion of the pattern of agrarian land ownership must
necessarily take as its main focus the areas where agriculture is the mainstay.
That inevitably means the provinces of Punjab and Sindh. The other two
provinces, NWFP and Balochistan, with the exception of some relatively
limited areas where canal fed or barani cultivation exists, have economies
that are mixed pastoral/agricultural, an economic base reflective of their
surviving tribal structures.
KEYWORDS:
Land Reform, land ownership, agrarian reforms, Pakistan, economic distribution.
JEL:
N/A.
Published:July - Dec 1997
Child labour exists throughout the third world including Pakistan.
For some unknown reason, the Western Press has chosen to single out
Pakistan to decry the system. The May 1997 issue of the Readers’ Digest
carried a particularly vicious article entitled `No Life for a Child’ giving
harrowing tales of beatings and other forms of coercion to make little
children in Pakistan to work in factories. Advantage is taken of the fact that
there has been no census in the country for two decades to bloat the figures
of child labour. One estimate going the rounds is 15 million. But the more
popular figure is 8 million which both UNICEF and SAARC have adopted.
ILO produced a figure of 6.3 million till, in 1996 it sponsored a survey
which turned up the figure of 3.3 million. In a country with a population of
132 million, every man, woman and child of which is under a debt burden
of about Rs 13,021 per annum the figure of 3.3 million labouring children
should not take anyone by surprise. Not that this is any justification for
child labour.
KEYWORDS:
Child Labour, welfare, enforcement, ILO, UNICEF, social welfare, education.
JEL:
N/A.
Published:July - Dec 1997
Policy formulation and implementation are the chief, though not the
only, business of a modern government, implying exercise of its power. In a
democracy the people themselves grant permission to the government to
exercise power in their name. Thus through the democratic process power is
transformed into legitimate authority. However, there is a feeling that a
policy, formulated through due procedures at the highest echelons of the
government, is sometimes not implemented in the same spirit or in the
same way as was originally intended by the policy makers. Thus there If
need to locate and identify the points where such lapses take place.
KEYWORDS:
Policy formulation, policy implementation, political leadership, administrative leadership.
JEL:
N/A.
Note: How Does Environmental Economics Function?
Shamyla Chaudry
Published:July - Dec 1997
In economics we study how and why “people” whether they are
consumers, firms, non-profit organisations or government agencies make
decisions about the use of valuable limited resources. When studying the
environment from an economics perspective we are in fact primarily
focusing on how and why “people” make decisions that have environmental
consequences. Secondly, we focus on how we can manage institutions to
bring these environmental impacts more into balance with changing human
demands and the demands of the ecosystem itself.
If we follow this economic approach several answers emerge to the
basic question asked in environmental economics, that is “Why do people
behave in ways that cause environmental degradation?”
KEYWORDS:
Environmental resources, environmental economics, environmental impacts, Pakistan.
JEL:
N/A.
Structural Adjustment, Labour and the Poor in Pakistan
Shahrukh Rafi Khan and Safiya Aftab
Published:Jan - June 1997
In this paper we cite evidence regarding the likely impact of
IMF/World Bank policies on labour and the poor in Pakistan. Our findings
show that since the 1987 bout of structural adjustment, public sector
employment has decreased while wages have been frozen. Also, overall
unemployment in occupations with a high incidence of the poor has
dramatically increased and real wages of skilled and unskilled labour sharply
declined. In addition, subsidies that were critical to the consumption
pattern of the poor have been cut while the burden of indirect taxes on the
poorest income group has increased. Not surprisingly, there has been an
increase in poverty and inequality, particularly in the rural areas.
KEYWORDS:
Structural adjustment, Pakistan, IMF, International Monetary Fund, structural adjustment agreements.
JEL:
N/A.
The Catch-up Process in a Global Economy: An Analytical Approach
Irfan ul Haque
Published:Jan - June 1997
The diverse growth experience of economies across the globe is
perhaps the most intriguing question that the economics profession faces.
The economies of East Asia have grown rapidly over the past three decades,
while the economic performance of the South Asian and Latin American
countries has been relatively mediocre, although better than that of the
African countries, where the per capita incomes have been generally
declining. Among the developed countries also, there has been considerable
diversity of economic performance.
There is no dearth of research on the question, but there is little
agreement among economists on what explains the diversity of economic
growth experience. One reason for the absence of consensus is that
economic growth is a relatively recent phenomenon and we, as economists
or social scientists, still do not understand well what factors bring it about.
Sustained economic expansion and rise in living standards can be traced
back only to the late eighteenth century, i.e., the time when the Industrial
Revolution started in Great Britain. This is not to suggest that there had
been little social or economic change prior to that epoch. Quite the
contrary. Agricultural practices had been improved over time, and there is a
rich record of the mastery and ingenuity of artisans all over the world. But
such improvements in products and processes as occurred over the period
prior to the Industrial Revolution somehow did not become an economic
force, leading to a general improvement in the living standards.
KEYWORDS:
Global economy, analytics, growth, technology, total factor productivity, TFP.
JEL:
N/A.
Published:Jan - June 1997
In the post war world, numerous attempts at all levels – multinational,
bilateral and domestic – have been made to foster growth and development
in the low income world so that these countries can catch up with their
richer brethren from the industrial countries. Why has growth not been
faster? What can be done to make these countries achieve more balanced
and sustainable growth? These are important questions of the day that are
preoccupying all serious positive social science and development
policymaking. To a large extent, many of the answers that are being derived
relate to the failure of these countries to develop key institutions. Most
practitioners and thinkers are now in agreement on this issue but remain
perplexed at what is required to develop these institutions. The public
sector’s attempts at developing the institutions within its fold have not
succeeded. The fostering of non-governmental institutions also remains fairly
uneven in its results. Donor funding for institutional support too has had
very limited results despite the extensive history of sectoral and institutional
reform that has been supported by substantial financial and technical
assistance and resources.
KEYWORDS:
Growth, Development, institutions, institution-building, donors.
JEL:
N/A.
Pakistan’s Experience in Employment Generation at the Micro and Macro Levels, and Future Directions
Shahid Amjad Chaudhry & Masooma Habib
Published:Jan - June 1997
The Pakistan economy is currently going through a period of much
needed structural adjustment focusing on: (i) Reducing fiscal deficits from
about 6 to 4 per cent of GDP, which should reduce public sector
borrowing and bring down interest rates and inflation; (ii) Reducing tariffs
from an average of about 80 per cent in 1993 to about 60 per cent
currently and about 45 per cent next year – which while requiring painful
adjustments particularly in the industrial sectors, should make Pakistan
more competitive in the long term and also benefit consumers; (iii)
Reducing the size of the public sector in the economy by privatizing
nationalized banks, nationalized and public sector industry and public
utilities including power, gas and telecommunications, which should
increase the efficiency of these sectors. All these measures have
implications for employment generation. In the short term they are
slowing down the economy and therefore employment creation is not
taking place at the earlier higher rates. In the long term they should help
stabilize the economy and add significantly to economic growth.
KEYWORDS:
Pakistan economy, employment generation, employment, government policy, GDP, formal employment.
JEL:
N/A.
An Alternative Paradigm for Urban Development
Kamil Khan Mumtaz
Published:Jan - June 1997
For an increasing number of people around the world, habitation is
not a question of good or bad architecture but of shelter, food, health and
economic survival, a question of political empowerment, domination and the
control over resources, and ultimately a question of criteria and goals of
“development” and “progress”.
With their heroic manifestoes, at the beginning of the century the
modern movement had set out to transform the world. Architects, the
champions of industry and the new mass production technologies were to
bring prosperity, happiness and joy to all mankind. With mechanised
production of buildings and new modes of transpiration we were to build
clean, healthy, well designed, comfortable and aesthetically satisfying new
cities. At the center of much of these dreams were the habitation s of the
common man. Yet today, at the close of the century after some remarkable
“progress” and “development” and despite a profusion of ingenious buildings
by a galaxy of brilliant architects, the world, the real world inhabited by a
very large section of humanity, has been transformed not into the promised
paradise but into a living hell.
KEYWORDS:
Urban development, Pakistan, Lahore, poverty, technology, global warming.
JEL:
N/A.
Stabilisation and Structural Reforms for Sustained Growth
Rashid Amjad
Published:Jan - June 1997
First, an overview of the world economy to provide us with the stark evidence of the deep economic and social crisis which the world still faces despite the process of far reaching economic reforms and adjustments which many countries have undertaken over the past decade and a half, Global unemployment today, as a proportion of potential employment, is higher than at any time since the Great Depression. Of a world labour force estimated at 2.8 billion people, an estimated 30 per cent are not productively employed. More than 120 million people are registered as unemployed throughout the world, in that they seek and are available for work but cannot find it. An estimated 700 million people are underemployed, the ‘working poor’, and they form the bulk of the estimated 1.1 billion absolute poor in the world. With new entrants joining the labour force at an increasing rate, the pressures on the employment situation and poverty problem will further intensify in the coming years.
Recent economic trends are not very encouraging. In 1993, for the fourth year in succession, average world per capita income fell. In 1992-93, the employment situation worsened in most countries, whether developed, developing or in transition. Outside East and South-East Asia, even if employment levels were sustained, it was usually at the price of falling wages. Employment conditions have also changed considerably and in many cases deteriorated – the risk of job loss persists, young people especially find it more and more difficult to get employment, and the informalisation of employment in urban areas continues as more people turn towards self-employment.
KEYWORDS:
Structural reform, economy, stabilisation, employment levels, unemployment, macro-economics, macro-economic stability.
JEL:
N/A.