Export potential of cottage industry: a case study of Sialkot (Pakistan)

Sialkot, the export city of Pakistan is earning $900 million per annum by exports. The major exports are the sports goods, surgical instruments, leather products, martial art instruments, musical instruments and sports wear. All these products are value-added by cottage industry. How the export potential of cottage industry in Sialkot may be increased,that is the question. The current paper estimated the export potential of the cottage industry by measuring it through Cobb-Douglas production function. The data has been collected from 354 cottage industrial units selected by random sampling. The results explain that labor, capital, experience and education of entrepreneur, and working conditions enhance the export potential of the units. The labor is more used in cottage industrial units as compared to capital so the elasticity of export production with respect to labor is higher as compared to capital. The football making units and other sports goods producing units use a minor ratio of capital and largely depend upon labor for production. Although leather and surgical producing units use higher ratio of capital in production. The education and experience of the entrepreneur also lead to increased export production. The better working condition increases the export production by raising the productivity of labor. The study proposes the education and training of the individuals involved in cottage industry and provision of good working conditions by the Export Promotion Bureau, Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry and vocational training institutes in their respective areas. The surprising results of the study are that credit availed by the units decrease the export production while distance to market from the unit raises the export production. The relationship between credit and export production explains the misutilization of credit while positive association between distance to market and export production explains the involvement of more number of household members in production in the units away from city as compared to the units situated near to market or city. The misutilization of loaning is needed to be checked.Cottage industry, Pakistan, Exports, Cobb-Douglas production function, Sialkot

Urban Informal Sector: How Much Women Are Struggling for Family Survival

The paper analyses the contribution of informally employed women (for the age group of 16-60 years) to their household budget. The urban informal sector largely absorbs women workers. We examine the determinants of their contribution to their household budgets for the survival of the families. Applying the OLS model to 937 observations, it is found that women as heads of household, women’s education, and ownership of assets by woman have a positive effect on their contribution. The burden of the large family size, household poverty, and loans availed by the household are shared by the informally employed women, as these variables positively affect their contribution. Age of the woman has a non-linear effect on woman’s contribution. The contribution first increases and then decreases by an increase in the age of the woman. Married women and women living in nuclear families contribute more to the household budget. The household per capita income and number of children (5-15 years) in the household have shown a negative effect on the contribution of women to the household budget. The household’s economic vulnerability due to unemployment of husband and lower productivity caused by lower education of husband are also largely shared by the urban informally employed women, i.e., they struggle more for family survival. However, the number of adult males in the household decreases the volume of contribution by women and the burden on women is relaxed

Health Status of currently Married Rural Working Women in Informal Labor Market

Poverty is a multidimensional concept and usually it is defined by focusing narrowly on income poverty or broadly by including lack of access to opportunities for raising standards of living. Women in developing countries particularly poor working women is suffering badly from all these ills. Poverty induces them for working. Exposure to poor working conditions and poor health due to lack of money has serious repercussions on their pregnancies. The risk of miscarriages, premature deliveries and spontaneous abortions get increased. Questionnaire was developed to analyze and explain the relationship between working women’s health related with household characteristics and environment at work place .A descriptive study was carried out in three neighboring villages of Bahawalpur. Binary logistic model is used. We explored that women’s health is significantly influenced by availability/shortage of fundamental facilities which brings the household in poor group. Our main findings are that health of working women is strictly affected negatively by number of births, number of live children and hours of economic activity, while the provision of sanitation facilities, household income and family planning methods are positively affecting women’s health. Keywords: Women Health, Rural working women, Informal sector, Premature Birth

Gender Disparity in Education-Extent, Trends and Factors

The Program of Action agreed at International Conference on Population and Development, Cairo in 1933 gave considerable attention to the need to raise education enrolment ratios for females. National Education Policy 1998-2010 expressed the feature of making arrangement for reducing gender disparities at all levels. The thrust of Social Action Programs (Phase I and II) was to reduce the gender disparity emphasizing on girls education specifically in rural areas (GOP, 1998:126,123). In the last decade the government has made efforts to decrease the disparity in education. What remained the extent and trend of disparity in the decade is the focus of the study. The possible explanations have also been presented. It is concluded that gender disparity has decreased in the last decade but at a disappointing rate and is still at an alarming level. It is comparatively low at college level.</p

Broader Definition of Child Labor-Conceptual and Empirical Analysis

Research on child labour usually works upon a definition of labour which means work outside home and which is also economically productive. But in recent years the definition of child labour has undergone a change. It has been broadened to include all that work which children undertake at home and which is economically non-productive. Taking this broader definition of child labour the present research conducted in the rural areas of Pakpatten and Faisalabad shows how many children are affected by child labour and which social, economic factors are responsible for it. The research findings show that female chaildren bear greater burden of labour and their work is not paid. The findings also dig into various social and economic factors responsible for increased child labour in rural areas.</p

Reinvestigating Sources of Movements in Real Exchange Rate

In the last decade or so, important developments have taken place in economics of exchange rate, with substantial contributions to both theory and empirical understanding of exchange rate determination. But a number of challenges remain unresolved. With regard to the effect of economic policy on exchange rate, it is clarified that not only current policy actions but also the expectations concerning the future policy affect exchange rate. In this study we investigated the sources of movements in REER (Real Effective Exchange rate). For analysis of REER determination, we pooled the cross sectional information of five developing countries for the period 1975-2010. By application of Im, Pesaran and Shin unit root test, we confirmed the non-stationarity of pooled time series and cross-section data. After confirming non-stationary of data, we applied Pedroni’s panel co-integration test to test whether real exchange rate, in long run, significantly reacts to the changes in real variables or not. We considered terms of trade, government spending, productivity shocks, trade openness and capital inflows as the key determinants of REER. Pooled Least-Square method was applied to estimate the co-integrating coefficient. Our study results indicate REER appreciates in response to changes in terms of trade, productivity and capital flows. For government consumption spending results are mixed. Trade openness explicitly depreciates the REER. All the response parameters are significant. The results are consistent with the view that changes in real variables have a significant influence on variation in real exchange rate. Key words: Exchange rate, Terms of Trade, Trade Openness, Financial Opennes

Urban Informal Sector: How much Women are Struggling for Family Survival

Abstract: The paper analyzed the contribution of informally employed women (for the age group of 16-60 years) in their household budget. The urban informal sector absorbs the women workers largely. What are the determinants of their contribution in their household budgets to make survival of the families is the core of the study. Applying OLS model on 937 observations it is found that women as head of household, women’s education, and ownership of assets by woman have positive effect on contribution. The burden of the large family size, household poverty and loan availed by the household is shared by the informally employed women, as these variables positively affect their contribution. Age of the woman has a non-linear effect on woman’s contribution. First the contribution increases and then decreases by increase in age of the woman. Married women and women living in nuclear families contribute more to household budget. The household per capita income and number of children (5-15 years) in the household have shown negative effect on contribution of women in household budget. The household’s economic vulnerability due to unemployment of husband and lower productivity caused by lower education of husband is also largely shared by the urban informally employed women, i.e. they struggle more for family survival. However, number of adult males in the household decreases the volume of contribution of woman and burden on woman is relaxed

Urban Informal Sector: How much Women are Struggling for Family Survival

Abstract: The paper analyzed the contribution of informally employed women (for the age group of 16-60 years) in their household budget. The urban informal sector absorbs the women workers largely. What are the determinants of their contribution in their household budgets to make survival of the families is the core of the study. Applying OLS model on 937 observations it is found that women as head of household, women’s education, and ownership of assets by woman have positive effect on contribution. The burden of the large family size, household poverty and loan availed by the household is shared by the informally employed women, as these variables positively affect their contribution. Age of the woman has a non-linear effect on woman’s contribution. First the contribution increases and then decreases by increase in age of the woman. Married women and women living in nuclear families contribute more to household budget. The household per capita income and number of children (5-15 years) in the household have shown negative effect on contribution of women in household budget. The household’s economic vulnerability due to unemployment of husband and lower productivity caused by lower education of husband is also largely shared by the urban informally employed women, i.e. they struggle more for family survival. However, number of adult males in the household decreases the volume of contribution of woman and burden on woman is relaxed

Capacitive sensing algorithm for elderly activity detection scheme indoor environment

The aim of this research is to assist elderlies in accomplishing their everyday tasks through facilitating their home atmosphere with sensors, actuators, and computational resources. A significant effort is needed to incorporate them to make them effective in daily life. Particularly, the tracking and detection of elderly people’s daily tasks, associated with the information of the user's location in the home environment signify the key pillars of this work. The detecting and tracking algorithm uses the sensory data to indicate an associated situation in order to allow elderly people with special requirements. Monitoring the elderly’s behaviour over a long period of time will allow prediction of their forthcoming alarming situation which allows the finding of the elderly’s behavioural deviations in their everyday routine. The proposed resolution has been methodically assessed in the laboratory

Magnetic properties for magnetic transducer

Knowing the basic terminology for describing magnetic effects and properties are essential since magnetic materials can be used in inductive sensors as in the form of core. The various types of magnetic behaviour and properties of hard and soft magnetic materials (used in inductive sensor) need to be identified in order to decide on the appropriate applications in biomedical and industrial fiel