Business Group Affiliation and Firm Performance—Evidence from Pakistani Listed Firms

This study analyses the financial performance of business group affiliated firms relative to stand-alone firms in Pakistan. The investigations are done across the sample period of 1993-2012. The study employs ‘Chop shop’ methodology to construct the excess values (performance measure); in order to compare the results with earlier well documented studies of both developed and emerging countries. Both univariate and regression analyses clearly demonstrate that group affiliated firms are trading at discount (underperform relative to stand-alone firms) during the sample period. Despite the historical success in the past, the findings suggest that business groups evolve differently in the post financial reforms and privatisation programs era. The findings are consistent with the market failure argument and agency theory. However, the study finds a little evidence of efficient internal markets of Pakistani business groups. Keywords: Business Groups, Group Affiliation, Excess Value, Market Failure Theory, Agency Theory, Chop Shop Methodolog

Macroeconomic Factors and Equity Prices: An Empirical Investigation by Using ARDL Approach

The relationship between macroeconomic variables and the equity prices has attracted the curiosity of academicians and practitioners since the publication of seminal paper of Chen, et al. (1986). Many empirical studies those tested the relationship reveal that asset pricing theories do not properly identify macroeconomic factors that influence equity prices [Roll and Ross (1980); Fama (1981); Chen, et al. (1986); Hamao (1986); Faff (1988); Chen (1991); Maysami and Koh (2000) and Paul and Mallik (2001)]. In most of these studies, variable selection and empirical analyses is based on economic rationale, financial theory and investors’ intuition. These studies generally apply Eagle and Granger (1987) procedure or Johanson and Jusilieus (1990, 1991) approach in Vector Auto Regressor (VAR) Framework. In Pakistan, Fazal (2006) and Nishat (2001) explored the relationship between macroeconomic factors and equity prices by using Johanson and Jusilieus (1990, 1991) procedure. The present study tests the relationship between macroeconomic variables such as inflation, industrial production, oil prices, short term interest rate, exchange rates, foreign portfolio investment, money supply and equity prices by using Auto Regressive Distributive Lag (ARDL) bounds testing procedure proposed by Pesaran, Shin, and Smith (1996, 2001). The ARDL approach in an errorcorrection setting has been widely applied to examine the impact of macroeconomic factors on economic growth but it is strongly underutilised in the capital market filament of literature. This methodology has a number of advantages over the other models. First, determining the order of integration of macroeconomic factors and equity market returns is not an important issue here because the Pesaran ARDL approach yields consistent estimates of the long-run coefficients that are asymptotically normal irrespective of whether the underlying regressors are I(0) or I(1) and of the extent of cointegration. Secondly, the ARDL approach allows exploring correct dynamic structure while many econometric procedures do not allow to clearly distinguish between long run and short run relationships

Combined Endodontic and Surgical Management of Twin Rooted Maxillary Lateral Incisor with a Palatogingival Groove

A case of unusual anatomy in a maxillary lateral incisor is presented. A 20-year old female presented with failing endodontics. Clinical examination and radiographs revealed poorly obturated maxillary left lateral incisor with an untreated patent second root and a palatogingival groove. A decision was made to treat the tooth non-surgically. After removing gutta-percha from main canal, the orifice of second root could not be located from inside the chamber. After determining the position of this root to be mesial and palatal to main canal, gingival tissue was removed from mesio-palatal side and access was extended to include the cingulum and orifice was located mesio-palatally. This canal was mechanically prepared and both canals were filled with calcium hydroxide. Three weeks later when symptoms subsided, the canals were obturated using the warm vertical technique. However, patient returned after a month complaining of pain and pus discharge. The tooth was surgically retreated; the enucleation was performed without root end resection. Patient returned after two years and reported complete healing but with mild discoloration of crown which was treated with walking bleach technique.Keywords:Aberrant Anatomy; Accessory Root; Maxillary Lateral Incisor; Retreatment; Two Roots

Probing the Nature of Pakistan’s Money Supply

Historic development of monetary economics encompasses two different school of thoughts on functioning of central banks in management of money supply and the level of economic activities, indirectly. “Monetarists” argue that “Money supply is exogenously determined” while “Post Keynesians” claim endogenously determined nature of money supply. In order to explore the real scenario of endogenous nature of money supply, there is a dire need of empirical studies covering different economies at different stages of development. the present study was planned to examine nature of money supply in Pakistan. study period covered a span ranging from 1995 to 2019 and Semi-annual data is used for analysis. Three hypothesis are tested in this study. i.e. accomodationists view, structuralists view and liquidity preference view. variables of the study comprised of monetary base, bank credit, money multiplier, M2 money supply and money income. Co-integration and error correction mechanism (ECM) were applied for determining long run relationships and short run deviations. results revealed that structuralists and liquidity preference view both hold true in case of Pakistan. Liquidity preference view holds true completely; whereas structuralists view was partially supported by the results of our study. &nbsp

THE IMPACT OF MUTUAL FUND’S CHARACTERISTICS ON MANAGEMENT EXPENSES – EVIDENCE FROM PAKISTANI MUTUAL FUND INDUSTRY

Mutual funds were investigated and studied with primaryfocus on the performance of funds in Pakistan. However, a key feature i.e. management expense ratio of mutual funds has not been analyzed in detail in Pakistan. The study reviewed various factors/elements which impact on the management expense ratio(MER) of mutual funds including the life of the fund, asset size, objective of the fund and the fund family. The study examines the impact of these factors along with their relationship on the cost associated with the funds. The conclusion is that all stated factors except fund family have a significant impact on the MER

Pendekatan inkuiri dan teknik penyoalan guru: isu dan perlaksanaannya dalam proses pengajaran dan pembelajaran kimia

Peranan guru dalam sistem pendidikan khususnya di Malaysia merupakan tunjang pelaksana setiap dasar yang dirancang oleh Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia (KPM). Guru merupakan jentera penggerak bagi setiap dasar yang dirancang oleh KPM. Kini tugas guru semakin mencabar, guru bukan sahaja menjadi penyampai ilmu pengetahuan dan kemahiran kepada pelajar malahan bertanggungjawab untuk menyemai minat, memperkembangkan bakat dan kebolehan pelajar. Proses pembelajaran yang berkesan akan mengasah pemikiran analitikal, kritikal dan kreatif bagi membentuk individu yang dapat menyesuaikan diri dengan perubahan persekitaran yang semakin drastik selaras dengan hala tuju sistem pendidikan negara. Menyedari hakikat ini, kerajaan Malaysia telah memberi fokus untuk memacukan peningkatan profesionalisme guru dalam gelombang pertama Pelan Pembangunan Pendidikan Malaysia, 2013-2025 (Saedah Siraj & Mohammed Sani Ibrahim, 2012)

Green Products Buying Behaviour of Saudi Arabian and Indian Consumers: a Comparative Study

Purpose: The study's primary objective is to learn how environmental concerns affect customers' decisions to purchase green commodities in Saudi Arabia and India. This research will also shed light on the impact environmentally conscious purchasing has had on both economies. Furthermore, explored are the demographic variables (age, gender, and level of education) and factors (perception behavioural, control subjective standards, environmental concern, and environmental awareness) that influence customer usage and purchasing of green products.   Design/Methodology/Approach: Primary data was collected through purposive sampling as sample must be educated enough to understand the concept of eco- marketing. The size of the sample was three hundred forty. 140 consumers from Saudi Arabia and remaining 140 from India. Different statistical tool was applied to analyse the data.   Findings: Based on data and information to be collected must be brought into analytical study and must let us direct towards certain findings that might help us to arrive at final conclusion. In this way it will help the Policy makers and Managers to formulate the policies & strategies to encourage the green purchase. The findings provide valuable information about the driving forces behind green product purchases, both positive and negative. Considerations like Consumers' perceived behavioural have no effect on green product purchasing whereas environmental concern, and environmental awareness, and subjective norms are seen as motivators.   Practical & Social implication: The goal is to have all types of consumers buy eco-friendly goods. On the other hand, it was discovered that gender, age, and educational qualification were the demographic variables that had a relationship with people's propensity to buy environmentally friendly products

The natural history of peanut sensitization and allergy in a birth cohort

Information on the natural history of peanut-induced allergic sensitization (PAS) and clinical peanut allergy (PA) remains limited. Most previous studies selected children who were given a diagnosis of PA, which does not provide the population perspective and probably ignores those with low levels of sensitization.1,2 There are no population-based studies on the natural history of PAS or PA. To provide a population perspective, we used the Isle of Wight birth cohort (n = 1456) and determined the natural history of PAS and PA, focusing on incidence, persistence, and remission

Corporate governance and tax avoidance: evidence from an emerging market

This study investigates the impact of corporate governance practices (namely board characteristics, ownership structure, and audit committee characteristics) on corporate tax avoidance. For this purpose, this study uses generalised least squares regression on a sample of 138 companies listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange. Ten-year data from 2009 to 2018 are collected from published annual reports, comprising 1380 firm-year observations. The findings highlight that board independence, concentrated ownership, and audit committee gender diversity are negatively associated with tax avoidance. Conversely, managerial ownership and audit committee independence positively influence aggressive tax behaviour. Additional analysis reveals that these impacts are nonlinear and change with the different levels of tax avoidance. Enhanced governance stifles tax avoidance at lower levels; however, it encourages tax avoidance when firms are already aggressively avoiding taxes. This scenario represents a ‘double down’ behaviour depicted by the Pakistani corporate sector. This is one of the foremost studies to explore the impact of corporate governance on tax avoidance in Pakistan. It contributes to the literature by examining the impact of under-researched factors such as board meetings and audit committee characteristics and provides insights into the conflicting findings on board characteristics and ownership structure