Social Democratic Reform Proposals and the Future of Capitalism

This paper seeks to present an analysis of some issues raised in the debate on the future of capitalism by influential social democrats in recent years [Agleitta (1999); Habermas (1999); Rorty (1998)]. We begin with a brief description of capitalism's genesis, its characteristics and its need for moral legitimising and proceed to a slightly more extended discussion of capitalist processes at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The paper concludes with an assessment of initiatives proposed by social democratic thinkers such as Agleitta, Habermas and Rorty to strengthen capitalism and realise social democratic objectives—the universalisation of freedom and the promotion of liberal justices in rights centric societies.

Technological Capability Building in South Korea: Some Lessons for Pakistan

Recent economic upheavals raise important questions about the nature of the transformation that has taken place in the East Asian economics. Are these economics really catching up with the West? Is there growth process sustainable? Or will they suffer the type of systemic disintegration experienced by the East European countries during the 1990s—Paul Krugman (1994) and Young (1994) had demonstrated similarities in the East Asian and East European growth paths some time ago. Technological upgrading is an important element in the development of a sustainable growth strategy. This paper seeks to describe policies and initiatives taken by the South Korean government to stimulate technological learning during 1960–1990—the decades during which the South Korean economy achieved a “miraculous” transformation. The description relics mainly on Korean sources and is based on our own field research in that country. Section one describes the technological learning processes and Section Two presents a discussion of the policies that facilitated this learning. Section Three briefly addresses the question: Did this type of technological learning make a contribution towards enhancing the sustainability of Korean development processes? The concluding section briefly reflects on the lessons that seem relevant for Pakistan.

A Short Review on the Development of Salt Tolerant Cultivars in Rice

Rice is staple food for half of the world. With a population of almost 9.6 billion by the year 2050, there is a dire need of developing techniques to improve the crop plants, not only in terms of better yield but also to withstand harsh environmental conditions and stresses like drought, temperature, flood and salinity. Salinity is second to drought stress and hence it is very important to develop crops tolerant to salinity stress. This review discusses the mechanisms of salt tolerance and the recent developments in understanding the complex tolerance phenomena. One way to address the salinity issue is to develop tolerant rice varieties using conventional and modern breeding techniques for which screening the rice germplasm for the varieties with desired traits is critical. Conventional methods to develop tolerant rice varieties are discussed along with modern biotechnology techniques are also discussed. Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) and Marker Assisted Selection (MAS) are promising techniques. In addition to these modern techniques, some recent developments in the fields of transgenic plants, haploid breeding and Somaclonal variations have also been discussed. The limited knowledge about molecular and genetic mechanisms to tolerate abiotic stresses, however is a barrier to efficiently develop tolerant cultivars. A combination of conventional and modern biotechnology techniques could possibly open up the new ways

A Search for an Optimum Currency Area Partners for Pakistan

This paper empirically examines the existence of a common trend between the exchange rates of Pakistan and four regional countries (Bangladesh, India, Saudi Arabia, and Sri Lanka) with two of their major trading partners (the United States and Japan) as base countries. Results from cointegrating analysis show that the strongest evidence points to the existence of common stochastic trends between the Pakistani rupee, on the one hand, and the Bangladeshi Taka and the Sri Lankan rupee, on the other hand. There is no strong evidence for the existence of a common stochastic trend between the Pakistani rupee and the currencies of India and Saudi Arabia. Optimum Currency Area (OCA) theory seems to justify the formation of a currency union between Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. The case of a currency union between Bangladesh and Pakistan is strengthened by a shared political past and a shared history of financial institutional development. The immediate impact of the formation of such union on Pakistan’s GDP growth will however be insignificant.Currency, pakistan

A Short Review on the Development of Salt Tolerant Cultivars in Rice

Rice is staple food for half of the world. With a population of almost 9.6 billion by the year 2050, there is a dire need of developing techniques to improve the crop plants, not only in terms of better yield but also to withstand harsh environmental conditions and stresses like drought, temperature, flood and salinity. Salinity is second to drought stress and hence it is very important to develop crops tolerant to salinity stress. This review discusses the mechanisms of salt tolerance and the recent developments in understanding the complex tolerance phenomena. One way to address the salinity issue is to develop tolerant rice varieties using conventional and modern breeding techniques for which screening the rice germplasm for the varieties with desired traits is critical. Conventional methods to develop tolerant rice varieties are discussed along with modern biotechnology techniques are also discussed. Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) and Marker Assisted Selection (MAS) are promising techniques. In addition to these modern techniques, some recent developments in the fields of transgenic plants, haploid breeding and Somaclonal variations have also been discussed. The limited knowledge about molecular and genetic mechanisms to tolerate abiotic stresses, however is a barrier to efficiently develop tolerant cultivars. A combination of conventional and modern biotechnology techniques could possibly open up the new ways

Time-varying transmission between oil and equities in the MENA region: New evidence from DCC-MIDAS analyses

In this paper we use the DCC-MIDAS (Dynamic Conditional Correlation-Mixed Data Sampling) model to infer the association between oil and equities in five MENA countries between February 2006 and April 2017. The model indicates that higher oil returns tends to reduce the long-term risk of the Saudi market, but to increase it in other markets. The risk transfer from oil to MENA equities is found to be weak. The dynamic conditional correlation between oil and equities is not always positive and it unexpectedly changes sign during the sample period. However, the association always strengthens when there is a large draw down in oil prices as well as during periods of high volatility. Finally, we find that short term association occasionally breaks from the longer-term correlation particularly in Egypt and Turkey. These patterns of influence and associations are unique, and have important implications for equity portfolio managers who are interested in investing in energy and MENA equities

Testing Conditional Asset Pricing Models: An Emerging Market Perspective

The CAPM as the benchmark asset pricing model generally performs poorly in both developed and emerging markets. We investigate whether allowing the model parameters to vary improves the performance of the CAPM and the Fama-French model. Conditional asset pricing models scaled by conditional variables such as Trading Volume and Dividend Yield generally result in small pricing errors. However, a graphical analysis shows that the predictions of conditional models are generally upward biased. We demonstrate that the bias in prediction may be caused by not accommodating frequent large variation in asset pricing models. In emerging markets, volatile institutional, political and macroeconomic conditions results in thick tails in the return distribution. This is characterized by excess kurtosis. It is found that the unconditional Fama-French model augmented with a cubic market factor performs the best among the competing models. This model is also more parsimonious compared to the conditional Fama-French model in terms of number of parameters

The ribosome and its role in protein folding: looking through a magnifying glass

Protein folding, a process that underpins cellular activity, begins co-translationally on the ribosome. During translation, a newly synthesized polypeptide chain enters the ribosomal exit tunnel and actively interacts with the ribosome elements – the r-proteins and rRNA that line the tunnel – prior to emerging into the cellular milieu. While understanding of the structure and function of the ribosome has advanced significantly, little is known about the process of folding of the emerging nascent chain (NC). Advances in cryo-electron microscopy are enabling visualization of NCs within the exit tunnel, allowing early glimpses of the interplay between the NC and the ribosome. Once it has emerged from the exit tunnel into the cytosol, the NC (still attached to its parent ribosome) can acquire a range of conformations, which can be characterized by NMR spectroscopy. Using experimental restraints within molecular-dynamics simulations, the ensemble of NC structures can be described. In order to delineate the process of co-translational protein folding, a hybrid structural biology approach is foreseeable, potentially offering a complete atomic description of protein folding as it occurs on the ribosome