Foreign Aid and Growth Nexus in Pakistan: The Role of Macroeconomic Policies

Despite receiving large quantities of foreign aid, Pakistan, like many other developing countries, has remained stagnant and become more aiddependent. This grim reality has provoke d a vigorous debate on the effectiveness of aid. This study examines the effectiveness of aid, focusing on the ongoing debate on the interactive effect of aid and policy on sustainable economic growth. The empirical analysis is based on the ARDL cointegration approach, using the data for the period 1960 to 2008. The empirical findings are that foreign aid and real GDP have a negative relationship, while the aid-policy interactive term and real GDP growth have a positive and significant relationship. Interesting results emerge when aid-GDP alone is introduced into the growth equation and has an insignificant positive coefficient in the long run and a negative and weakly significant coefficient in the short run, while the aidpolicy interactive term has a positive and significant coefficient both in the short run and the long run. When we disaggregate aid in terms of the bilateral and multilateral components, bilateral aid is significantly positive in the short run and multilateral aid is insignificant, while the aid interactive term is positive in both cases. The results strongly support the view that foreign aid does have a positive impact on economic growth in Pakistan, though conditionally so, i.e., if based on sound macroeconomic policies.Foreign Aid, Macroeconomic policies, Economic Growth, Pakistan, ARDL

Capital Flows and Money Supply: The Degree of Sterilisation in Pakistan

Under the current managed float exchange rate system; the central bank may respond to an exchange market disequilibria by changing either the international reserves or the exchange rates. Under such a regime, a major policy difficulty is the interaction between exchange rate policies and monetary policies. The monetary authorities intervene in the exchange market in response to undesired fluctuations in exchange rates,1 could adversely affect monetary control and move the economy away from internal target such as price stability. Under such a policy dilemma, fully sterilised intervention2 involves a pure swap of foreign and domestic assets, which have not effect on the money supply, received greater attention by the policy-makers in early 1980s, particularly, through the experience of West Germany [Obstfeld (1983)]. Ideally, it provides an independent policy tool to deal with the exchange rate without affecting the internal policy targets. Moreover, it is argues that fully sterilised intervention insulate domestic policies completely from balance of payments considerations. Further, the effects of intervention on exchange rates are close to zero if intervention is completely sterilised. Given this conviction, it is hard to see why the central bank would intervene in the foreign exchange market and sterilised completely at the same time [Neumann (1984)]. It is further argued that sterilisation is capable to move exchange rates through either a portfolio or signaling channel. In developing countries, an intervention may not be used purely to stabilise exchange rate but to reduce its impacts of volatile exchange rates on price level.

Trade Liberalisation, Financial Development and Economic Growth

This paper empirically investigates the impact of trade and financial liberalisation on economic growth in Pakistan using annual observations over the period 1961-2005. The analysis is based on the bound testing approach of cointegration advanced by Pesaran, et al. (2001). The empirical findings suggest that both trade and financial policies play an important role in enhancing economic growth in Pakistan in the long-run. However, the short-run responses of the real deposit rate and trade policy variables are very low, suggesting further acceleration of the reform process. The feedback coefficient suggests a very slow rate of adjustment towards long-run equilibrium. The estimated equation remains stable over the period of study as indicated by CUSUM and CUSUMQ stability tests.Trade Liberalisation, financial development, economic growth, Bound Test

Trade,Financial and Growth Nexus in Pakistan

This paper empirically investigates the impact of trade and financial liberalization on economic growth in Pakistan using annual observations over the period 1961-2005. The analysis is based on the bound testing approach of cointegration advanced by Pesaran et al (2001). The empirical findings suggest that both trade and financial liberalization policies play an important role in nhancing economic growth in Pakistan in the long-run. However, the short-run responses of real deposit rate and trade policy variables are very low, suggesting further acceleration of reform process. The feedback coefficient suggests a very slow rate of adjustment towards long-run equilibrium. The estimated equation remains stable over the period of study as indicated by CUSUM and CUSUMQ stability tests.Trade Liberalization, Financial Development, Economic Growth, Bound Test

Impact of Remittances on Economic Growth and Poverty: Evidence from Pakistan

The study focused on the importance of remittances inflow and its implication for economic growth and poverty reduction in Pakistan. By using ARDL approach we analyze the impact of remittances inflow on economic growth and poverty in Pakistan for the period 1973-2007. The district wise analysis of poverty suggest that overseas migration contributes to poverty alleviation in the districts of Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan however NWFP is not portraying a clear picture. The empirical evidence shows that remittances effect economic growth positively and significantly. Furthermore the study also finds that remittances have a strong and statistically significant impact on poverty reduction thus suggesting that there are substantial potential benefits associated with international migration for poor people in developing countries like Pakistan. So the importance of remittance inflows can not be denied in terms of growth enhancement and poverty reduction that consequently improves the social and economic conditions of the recipient country.Remittances; Growth; Poverty; Pakistan

Financial Development and Economic Growth: Evidence from a Heterogeneous Panel of High Income Countries

This paper examines the empirical relationship between financial development and economic growth for high income countries. The study focuses on both indirect finance and direct finance, separately as well as jointly. Applying the methodology of Nair-Reichert and Weinhold (2001) for causality analysis in heterogeneous panel data, two sets of results are reported. First, the evidence regarding the relationship between financial development and economic growth from a contemporaneous non-dynamic fixed effects panel estimation is mixed. Negative and statistically significant estimates of the coefficient of the inflation and financial development interaction variable indicate that financial sector development may even be harmful to economic growth when inflation is rising. Second, in contrast with the recent evidence of Beck and Levine (2003), heterogeneous panel causality analysis applied on a refined model indicates that there is no definite evidence that finance spurs economic growth or growth spurs finance. Most of our findings are in line with the Lucas (1988) view that the importance of financial matters is over-stressed. The only exception is the case of activity in stock markets where our result supports the Robinson (1952) view that finance follows enterprise.

Exchange Rate Misalignment in Pakistan: Evidence from Purchasing Power Parity Theory

This paper examines the validity of the purchasing power parity to evaluate whether the Pakrupee vis-à-vis the US-dollar has been overvalued since the introduction of managed floating exchange rate. The Johansen multivariate cointegration technique is applied for the period 1982Q2-2002Q4. A single cointegrating vector is identified whose coefficients conform in broad terms to the restriction implied by the PPP theory, lending support to the interpretation of the model as describing a long-run relationship. This support is reinforced by the results derived from the adjustment coefficient, which is identifies clear short-run tendency for the exchange rate to revert to the equilibrium value defined by the estimated long-run model. Furthermore, exchange rate misalignment is also calculated using the estimated long-run relationship to evaluate whether the Pak-rupee vis-à-vis the US-dollar was undervalued or overvalued since the inception of managed floating exchange rate system. Calculated misalignment shows a substantial undervaluation of the Pak-rupee vis-à-vis the US dollar.Exchange Rate, Pakistan