Estimation of the Black Economy of Pakistan through the Monetary Approach

In the recent years the “black economy” has held immense attraction for academics as well as policy-makers. This is because the presence of the black economy is responsible for distortions in the official estimates of macro-economic variables like income generation, employment, rate of inflation, etc., and thus the possible effect on the economic policies cannot be ascertained properly. It, therefore, becomes imperative to investigate this area of research. Researchers have defined the underground economy in alternative ways. The underground economy defined by varied names like black, shadow, hidden, informal, clandestine, second, parallel economy has been divided in four categories for the use of a standard basis of classification.

Does Institutions effect growth in Pakistan? An Empirical investigation

This paper presents an index of institutionalized social technologies for Pakistan, covering its two main dimensions namely Risk reducing technologies and Anti Rent seeking technologies and in turn covers several social, institutional, political and economic aspects. It is also analyzed empirically whether the overall index as well as sub-indexes constructed to measure the single dimensions affects economic growth. The results show that over all, institutions promote growth in long run for Pakistan. . Therefore for a policy implication, success of any policy could be influenced by the soundness of institutions.institutions; social technologies; pakistan; index; GMM; social capital; growth; narmalization; weighting; aggregation; rent seeking; risk;

The Causal Relationship between Institutions and Economic Growth: An Empirical Investigation for Pakistan Economy

This paper investigates relationship between institutional quality and economic performance in Pakistan using the Johansen-Juselius cointegration technique and the Granger causality test. The study results indicate that Institutions and growth are cointegrated and thus exhibit a reliable long run relationship. The Granger causality test findings indicate that the causality between Institutions and growth is uni-directional. However, there is no short run causality from Institutions to growth and vice versa. Therefore, as a policy implication that institutional quality may cause to the sustainable increase in country’s income in the long run, and success of any policy could be influenced by the soundness of institutions.institutions; social capital; growth; cointegration; index;granger; error correction; Johansen; pakistan

Institutionalized Social Technologies Index: A Global Perspective

This paper presents an index of institutionalized social technologies covering its two main dimensions namely Risk reducing technologies and Anti Rent seeking technologies and in turn covers several social, institutional, political and economic aspects. Specifically it attempted to classify and measure various types of institutions based on a theoretical framework, these institutional indicators are then aggregated to measure cross country institutional qualities of 141 countries. We also test provide a comparison with other major indices.institutions; social technologies; social capital; index; weighting; world; aggregation; principal component; rent seeking; risk; corruption; property rights; index; normalization

Institutions and Economic Growth: A Cross country Evidence

The role of institutions in promoting economic growth and development has generated considerable interest among researchers and practitioners in recent years. This paper explores the role of state institutions in promoting growth using a GMM econometric model. Specifically it attempted to test impact of two dimensions of institutions on growth using recently developed index of institutionalized social technologies and its sub indices namely Risk reducing technologies and Anti rent seeking technologies. The result suggests a strong causal link between institutional quality and economic performance, and also confirms conditional convergence as predicted in the modern theories of growthinstitutions; social technologies; index; GMM; social capital; growth; rent seeking; rent seeking; risk; corruption; property rights

Abstracts 4th pediatric neurology conference children medical center, lahore february 2013

Clinical data of 100 patients being treated as TBM (group A) admitted in the Neurology department, and another 100 patients with diagnosis of meningitis, encephalitis or cerebral malaria (group B) were evaluated. History, clinical examination and relevant investigations were evaluated and Kenneth Jones criteria were applied to both groups. All children were followed and their outcome was also studied

Measurement of Cost of Capital for Foreign Direct Investment in Pakistan: A Neoclassical Approach

Capital can move inside and outside the boundaries of a country in search of the highest financial return and greatest security for its operation in the host regions. High return from investment is linked with the incentive mechanism offered by the host country in attracting FDI to fill the investment gap and diffusion of other skills. To attract the foreign investors, the successive governments in Pakistan, offered various investment incentives in the form of tax concessions (tax expenditure) and direct expenditure on infrastructural provisions. The taxation policy of Pakistan has great relevance for Transnational Corporation’s (TNC) involvement in production activities. It is perceived to be a significantly influential factor in determining the inflow of foreign investment through the cost of capital and the resulting after tax return. Stimulating foreign investment, mainly through the large TNCs, requires cost minimising devices, which are reflected in fixed cost of a long-term investment project. The cost of fixed assets in such projects depends upon the rate of return, the price of capital goods and, most importantly, the tax treatment of generated income. Foreign investors are generally pursuing two sets of objectives that are related to their decision to invest. First, they prefer for locational advantages like market size, access to raw material and the availability of skilled labour. Secondly, they have their concern with the incentives offered by the host countries through their fiscal policies. These policies attract the investment considerations of the foreign investors. TNCs search the second set of objectives only if the first set is fulfilled. This paper uses the Jorgenson’s (1963, 1967) Neoclassical Investment Model to explore the cost implications that are concerned with the importing capital and the return after being treated for fiscal provisions.

Why Private Investment In Pakistan Has Collapsed And How It Can Be Restored

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the decline in private investment and formulate a comprehensive strategy to overcome this problem, which is the main cause of deceleration in the growth momentum of Pakistan’s economy. Due to lack of investor confidence, private investment has reached its lowest point in the recent economic history of the private sector led growth phase (1978 to 2002) in Pakistan. This paper argues that economic as well as non-economic factors are responsible for this declining investment. Economic policies are formulated in such a manner that the short-term objectives of lowering the fiscal and trade deficits were to some extent achieved but overall economic performance and investment were ignored. In order to control external trade deficits, a policy of devaluation increased the cost of production through an increase in prices of imported raw material especially of plant and machinery. Higher real interest rates due to excessive public borrowing that were due to the failure in reducing fiscal deficits has resulted in financial crowding out and has corroded the savings that might be used to finance private investment. The unexplained part of private investment that is not determined by economic factors can be attributed to non-economic factors, which include internal and external shocks. These shocks start from the sanctions which were imposed after the nuclear blast. Events following that initial shock like the freezing of foreign currency accounts, the military coup, the harassment of the partially successful accountability drive of the military government, the 9/11 incident, the Afghan war and tensions on the Pak-India border have complemented the shock. A comprehensive programme is required to boost private investment and for the restoration of investor confidence. Therefore, an economic package is recommended in this paper that consists of incentives that relax the supply side constraints by reducing cost of production as well as demand-enhancing efforts. It is the best time to introduce a strategy to increase investment activities in the economy because of the high level of foreign exchange reserves, the rescheduling of foreign debt and the drastic reduction in interest rates which have reduced the debt servicing cost. Investor confidence can be restored by accelerating economic activities through following policies that can reduce the cost of imported raw material, bring down the real interest rates in the economy, increase expenditures on infrastructural development activities and that can also increase the availability of conditional subsidised credit for the export oriented small scale industries so that there is an improvement in the quality of the final product. This would make it more competitive in foreign markets.Private Investment; Development; Growth; sector wise Investment

Determinants of Total Factor Productivity in Pakistan

The role of productivity in accelerating the pace of economic growth is well recognized in economic literature and this paper shows that Pakistan’s case is no exception. The purpose of the paper was also to see the effect of government fiscal policy, monetary policy and other economic measures on TFP. It shows that these policies affect TFP through human capital endowments of employed labor force, providing better physical infrastructure and other facilitation to incorporate technology in the production process. Using data of the Pakistan economy from 1973 to 2006 both at aggregate and dis-aggregated levels i.e. Agriculture, Manufacturing, Construction, Electricity and Gas, and Other Sectors, the paper has tried to explain TFP for seven sub-periods equally divided into five years.Productivity; Growth; Human Capital; employment; TFP;

Provincial Finance Commission: Options for Fiscal Transfers

The Provincial Finance Commissions were constituted in all four provinces of Pakistan in 2001. The Commissions were asked to formulate a formula for the distribution of resources among the districts in their respective province to ensure smooth functioning of the local governments and to minimise the poverty and income inequalities among the districts. This paper analyse to what extent the existing development transfers are based on the existing level of deprivation in the districts by looking at the Rank Correlation between them. This paper also runs different simulations to suggest different options for the provincial governments to improve the distribution formulas.