Remittances and Poverty Linkages in Pakistan: Evidence and Some Suggestions for Further Analysis

Global remittances experienced a dramatic increase over the years, particularly since 1990 wherein the developing world emerged to be the major beneficiary accounting for 60 percent of the total amount. Because of the sheer volume, and magnitude of the remittances, and pre-eminence of these flows compared to the FDIs, development assistance and in some cases the trade related transactions, the development practitioners tended to focus and investigate the importance of remittances which are generally regarded as a dependable source for growth, improved welfare and poverty alleviation in the developing world. Given the fact that remittances flows entail wide ranging ramifications both for sending as well as receiving countries, difficult to be generalised, hence empirical evidence has been mounted though lack of consensus is visible.

Key Fundamental Factors and Long-run Price Changes in an Emerging Market-A Case Study of Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE)

Share prices are the most important indicator readily available to the investors for their decision to invest or not in a particular share. Theories suggest that share price changes are associated with changes in fundamental variables which are relevant for share valuation like payout ratio, dividend yield, capital structure, earnings size of the firm and its growth, [Wilcox (1984); Rappoport (1986); Downs (1991)]. Linter (1956) linked dividend changes to earnings while Shapiro valuation model (1962) showed dividend streams discounted by the difference in discount rate and growth in dividend should be equal to share price. This predicts direct relation between pay out ratio and the price-earning multiple. Conversely it means that there is an inverse relation between pay out ratio and share price changes. Several eventbased studies established direct relation between share price changes and either earnings or dividend changes [Ball and Brown (1968); Baskin (1989)]. Sharpe (1964) and Hamada (1972) suggested direct relation between share price changes and capital structure. Beaver, Kettler and Sholes (1970) showed that firms appear to pay less of their earnings if they have higher earning volatility. This suggests payout ratio as relevant factor for share price changes. Investigations of share price changes appear to yield evidence that changes in fundamental variable(s) should jointly bring about changes in share prices both in developed and emerging markets. However, the actual fundamental factors found to be relevant may vary from market to market. For example, changes in asset growth of firms are significant in the case of Japanese shares while earnings appear to be universally a relevant factor [Ariff, et al. (1994)]. However, it is widely agreed that a set of fundamental variables as suggested by individual theories is no doubt relevant as possible factors affecting share price changes in the short and the long-run.

Do Google Trends and Shariah Compliant Stocks Co-Integrated? An Evidence from India

The objective of the study is to understand the dynamic relationship between Shariah-compliant stocks and the Google search value index (GSVI). The search strength is identified by the search volume of Shariah-compliant stocks on Google. The sample for the study consists of Shariah-compliant stocks commonly available in all the three Shariah indices in India, sample stock data has been extracted on a weekly basis from Sept 2014 to Sept 2019. The results of the study are based on the diagnostic analysis suggests that there is no serial correlation as demonstrated by LM residual test, CUSUM test shows stability in data, coefficient Wald test is showing there is no short-run causality running between selected Shariah-compliant stocks and GSVI. The outcome suggests that there is a long-run equilibrium relationship existing between Shariah-compliant stocks and the Google search value index. Trace statistics has five co-integration equations and Max-Eigen statistics has one co-integration. The vector error correction model (VECM) suggests the acceptability of the model. There are many potential investment opportunities for investors in the Islamic stock market of India. The motive of Shariah is to provide an avenue for ethical and viable investment to the investors. This study will not only be advantageous for the Muslim investors but also the other investors, industrialist, Shariah-compliant advisor as well.

Ali Khan and Ismail Sirageldin. Research in Human Capital and Development. Vol. 2. Greenwich (Connecticut)/London (England): JAI Press Inc. 1981. pp.223.

The book under review contains a collection of papers which examine the role of human capital formation in economic development. Most of the articles included in the volume lie at the frontiers of the current research. A good review of the book requires a comprehensive discussion of a vast literature, but the concise, though terse, review contained in the introduction by the editors Khan and Sirageldin is difficult to improve upon in this context, and is therefore not attempted. The first article by Takayama and Hamda is an extension of Sen's ordinal approach to poverty and is also an improvement over earlier efforts of Takayama to link Sen's ordinal measures of poverty to the measure of inequality - Gini Index. The departure from Sen's poverty measure involves a shift from poverty distribution to censored income distribution. Using censored income distribution truncated by the poverty line, Takayama and Hamda demonstrate that any ordering of inequality based on this distribution can be extended to any ordering of poverty