16 research outputs found
State, Education, and the Market
The tail of the tail-end of the 2nd millennium has taught the humankind two valuable lessons: democracy and the market, although imperfect, have succeeded where other systems have failed. What is clear is that the most successful systems are aligned to humankind’s predispositions rather than being inimical to them. Insofar as it aligns itself with the predisposition to greed, consistently regulated capitalism terms out to be the most efficient economic system hitherto observed in human society. Likewise, democracy works by aligning many people’s desire for power with a governance system which on balance is helpful to the general population, unlike various forms of totalitarianism. But recent movements for both capitalism and democracy in many developing countries largely do not subscribe to humankind’s predispositions, rather they appear to be a part of the headlong global trend towards these paradigms. The reason being that the most important ingredient, common to both recipes, is lacking in many developing countries: that is the popular pressure and mobilisation which is sufficiently informed of its duties and rights. This ingredient is most important as it forces out the authoritarian rule whether, totalitarian or ‘democratic’, and makes democratic governance drive the market to the maximum benefit of society. The central thesis of this work is that this most important ingredient is the result of an effective and efficient system of public institutions for free and compulsory universal primary schooling which, if the resource constraint could be overcome, ought to be supplemented by free and compulsory secondary schooling. The argument is structured in five parts.
Instinctive Behaviour, Producer Surplus, and Corporate Social Responsibility
This paper addresses a phenomenon that cuts across many disciplines of the formal tradition of learning. Out of numerous multifaceted academic disciplines involved in the argument, psychology, economics and business management stand out, as reflected in the title of the study. The research on the topic is carried out by adopting an inductive approach involving intangible aspects of psychology and tangible parameters of sociology centred around the disciplines of economics and business. The author maintains that the phenomenon of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) represents a challenge of finding the resolution to the paradox of selfish and altruistic human motives. It is argued that quality of that resolution will be determined by the quality of positive laws of socio logy and the quality of intrapersonal regulation to help appreciate social responsibility in the presence of opportunities for maximising self-interest. The review of the literature on CSR underpins factors of international political economy responsible for promotion of the phenomenon in North and South during the last century and in the new millennium respectively. The findings lead to the conclusion that rhetoric of CSR in countries like Pakistan merits the analysis of both its motives and fall out within a North-South divide.Social Responsibility, Instinctive Behaviour, Positive Law, Ethical Behaviour, Stockholders, Technical Barriers to Trade
External Determinants of Growth and Growth Projections: SAARC and Pakistan
In the global trading arena, the regional integration perhaps represents the most important legacy of the 20th century. This paper focuses on the scope and promise of economic cooperation between the SAARC region countries. Descriptive statistics is used to provide the evidence for the argument that very high share of trade in the GDP of the region’s economies exposes them to external shocks in a potentially harmful manner, and these countries ought to be paying greater attention to increasing the size of their economies. In order to determine the importance of the external sector in the economies of the region, a simultaneous equations model is formulated and estimated, utilising the pooled data for the period from 1972–2001, by applying the 2SLS technique. The coefficients of two of the three external sector variables included in the model, namely, export earnings and trade balance, turn out to be significant, providing the evidence on the importance of the external sector in the economic growth of the SAARC region countries. Keeping in view that Pakistan needs to adopt sustainable growth strategies, the authors maintain that extended economic cooperation within the SAARC region is the most viable alternative for the country. The argument is substantiated with the help of inferential statistics, providing the evidence that exports to SAARC countries are positively related with the economic growth of Pakistan. The simulation output also shows that increasing and diverting the country’s exports to the SAARC region have positive impact in terms of growth projections. By estimating and simulating another model, it is inferred that in the short run, diverting exports to both the SAARC and ASEAN region countries appears to be a viable strategy to help Pakistan move towards greater integration within the SAARC region, and that the SAARC forums must make meaningful progress in terms of delivering concrete results.Trade, Economic Growth, Pakistan
Textiles Sector of Pakistan: The Challenge Beyond 2004
The world is presently looking forward to embrace the greatest
moment of modern history of humankind, turn of the millennium. For
Pakistan, however, the millennium celebrations are going to be
accompanied by over half a century of missed opportunities and a serious
challenge ahead. The focus of this study is Pakistan’s status as a
‘single commodity’ country and the life after 2004 in a post- Multifibre
Arrangement (MFA) era. This work intends to use the hindsight to argue
that MFA, a cat’s cradle of bilateral textile import quotas, was a
blessing in disguise for the value added textiles sector of Pakistan.
And the difficulties beyond 2004, when all the quotas have gone, should
not be underestimated in a bipolar (NAFTA and the EU) and deregulated
world economy . The analysis is carried out in four parts. Part I
highlights the economic significance of Pakistan’s textiles industry by
briefly analysing its contribution to different sectors of her economy.
Part II presents the past, present and future scenario of international
trade in Textiles and Clothing (T&C). The present situation of
Pakistan’s textiles industry along with its foreign exchange generating
performance in the past is assessed in Part III. Finally, Part IV
analyses the prospects and challenges faced by the T&C sector of
Pakistan
State, Education, and the Market
The tail of the tail-end of the 2nd millennium has taught the
humankind two valuable lessons: democracy and the market, although
imperfect, have succeeded where other systems have failed. What is clear
is that the most successful systems are aligned to humankind’s
predispositions rather than being inimical to them. Insofar as it aligns
itself with the predisposition to greed, consistently regulated
capitalism terms out to be the most efficient economic system hitherto
observed in human society. Likewise, democracy works by aligning many
people’s desire for power with a governance system which on balance is
helpful to the general population, unlike various forms of
totalitarianism. But recent movements for both capitalism and democracy
in many developing countries largely do not subscribe to humankind’s
predispositions, rather they appear to be a part of the headlong global
trend towards these paradigms. The reason being that the most important
ingredient, common to both recipes, is lacking in many developing
countries: that is the popular pressure and mobilisation which is
sufficiently informed of its duties and rights. This ingredient is most
important as it forces out the authoritarian rule whether, totalitarian
or ‘democratic’, and makes democratic governance drive the market to the
maximum benefit of society. The central thesis of this work is that this
most important ingredient is the result of an effective and efficient
system of public institutions for free and compulsory universal primary
schooling which, if the resource constraint could be overcome, ought to
be supplemented by free and compulsory secondary schooling
Instinctive Behaviour, Producer Surplus, and Corporate Social Responsibility
In a broader sense, CSR became an issue mainly in the recent
years. The evolution of this phenomenon is largely to be credited to the
neoliberalist era that began in the last quarter of the 20th century and
continues to dominate the new millennium. Not surprisingly, the
conceptual and operational definitions of CSR are subject to as many
controversies and disappointments as is the outcome of neoliberalist
economics manifested in looming threats to social, economic and
environmental sustainability. The scope of this study is, however, only
limited to addressing the issue of CSR. The analysis is carried out by
adopting an inductive approach while probing into both interconnected
aspects and disconnected separate currents of the phenomenon. The
interconnectivity of CSR relates the capitalist paradigm with the
individual/collective human behaviour. The disconnection on the other
hand refers to specific real world issues with local and global contexts
involving simultaneous but unequal capitalist development in the North
and the South. The paper is divided into three parts. Part 1 reflects on
the relationship between instinctive and ethical behaviour of the
entrepreneurs. The former is driven by the motivational force of
self-interest exhibited in efforts to accumulate producer surplus, while
the latter demands social responsibility under the influence of
intrinsic and/or extrinsic regulations. Part II presents a brief review
of the literature on CSR, largely relating to the corporate sector in
the North. Finally, Part III of the paper analyses the literature on CSR
in the developing countries and highlights its recent origins in a world
where Technical Barriers to Trade (TBTs) are increasingly underscoring
the North-South divide in gains from economic globalisation
External Determinants of Growth and Growth Projections: SAARC and Pakistan
The world is increasingly being divided into regions. The
regional trading blocs are becoming more and more deepened and widened
around the globe. The European Union (EU) has already reached a stage
approximating to the trading relations usually found within a country
rather than between the countries. The existence of regional economic
groups, particularly in European and American continents, pose a range
of theoretical, empirical and organisational questions for developing
countries like Pakistan who depend on the countries of these regions for
a significantly high share of their international trade. This paper
focuses on the prospects of extended economic cooperation of Pakistan
with the member countries of the South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation (SAARC).1 The argument is structured around three parts.
Part I reviews the theoretical rationale of regional economic
cooperation and the recent developments shaping the trading relations
within the cooperating blocs. Part II critically evaluates the relative
size and significance of the external sector of the SAARC region
countries, along with presenting statistical estimates of the major
external determinants of the region’s economic growth. Finally, Part III
estimates the relationship of major directions of Pakistan’s exports
with the economic growth of the country and presents the growth
projections by increasing and diverting the exports to the SAARC and
ASEAN region countries
Foreign Aid, Domestic Savings and Economic Growth (Pakistan: 1960 to 1988)
One of the core tenets of foreign aid theory, particularly as
encapsulated in the two-gap model, is that the insertion of foreign
resources via free grants, loans, direct investment etc., into a
developing economy sets in motion a causal chain of positive influences
in the following broad mannerl: aid' ~ increase in investible resources
~ increase in domestic investment ~ more rapid rate of economic growth.
Spirited and specific challenges to this approach came from many
critics, supported greatly by a number of broad theoreticaF and
empirical analyses. For a large part of the latter, the available
evidence pointed to a negative relationship between aid and domestic
savings. The evidence was largely based on crosssectional data, 'showing
that, there was, in addition, reason to suggest a negative relationship
between aid and economic growth. 3 The aim of this study is to provide
some quantitative evidence on the relationship between foreign aid,
domestic savings and economic growth for Pakistan. The analysis is
carried out in three parts. Part one contains the methodology and the
description of the data. Part two explores the correlation between aid
and several other explanatory variables with Pakistan's savings rate,
while part three attempts to analyse and explain the regression findings
in terms of the effect of aid on economic growth
Market, Regulation and Sustainability
The argument of this study is philosophically rooted in the paradoxical Grand Design. The destiny of humankind, at all levels of existence and organization, is to optimally resolve omnipotent paradoxes in the universe of tangible as well as intangible phenomena. However, the instinctive behavior of the majority of humankind inherently favors shortsighted suboptimal resolutions. This is specifically so in situations where collective wellbeing and sustainability warrant proactive behavior of free and independent individuals and groups. The study traces back the genealogy of contemporary technology and sociology, the two broad realms of human society, and identifies the market as the central force in technological development and sociological evolution since the Industrial Revolution. Market hegemony, as one of the greatest factors, is apprehended to have overwhelmed the collective wisdom and undermined the individual and group ability to take action in the face of multi-prong threat to sustainable development, which is a great peril to civilization and society. Moreover, there is also that wizardly wheel warranting to be incessantly greased with fast depleting natural resources, many of which, including atmosphere, cannot be replenished. The study maintains that the species of the Homo Sapiens Sapiens must appreciate the difference between forward looking progressive moves and the rat race. It is recommended that unbridled market power should be saddled with pragmatic regulations, specifically aiming at curbing the magical power of electronic media in promoting, glamorizing and even sanctifying consumerism which is heedless as well as headless
Productivity Constraints of Cholistani Farmers
This paper examines the factors behind low crop yield in Cholistan. Both the quantitative and qualitative analysis show how the low levels of agricultural productivity in this area may be linked to material and climatic factors. The quantitative analysis is mainly focused on physical factors. The qualitative analysis, however, emphasises that relative inefficiency of agricultural activity in Cholistan reflects the influence of physical, economic, social and, most importantly, climatic factors. The quantitative findings provide valuable insight into various ‘sources of productivity’ in terms of acreage effect, capital input effect and irrigation water availability effect. The size of the positive and significant coefficients on these variables suggest the extent to which one or the other variable effect is prominent in improving the crop yield. The qualitative analysis examines multiple interrelated factors which can be blamed on for relative inefficiency of Cholistani farmers. The hot climate of the area turns out to be the most critical variable in this analysis. Many specific technological drought-mitigating measures are proposed. However, for consistent policy formulation, a thorough study and quantitative evaluation of the potential and practicality of these measures in Cholistan is suggested.