Qualitative telephone interviews: Strategies for success

The use of the telephone in qualitative interviews is discouraged by traditionalists who view it as an inferior data collection instrument. However these claims have not been supported by empirical evidence and qualitative researchers who have used and compared the telephone to the face-to-face mode of interviewing present a different story. This study attempts to build on the limited existing research comparing the issues involved and the data collected using the telephone and face-to-face interview modes. The study evaluates the criticisms of traditionalists in the light of existing research. The study then presents the observations of the researcher based on a research project that involved 43 telephone, 1 Skype and 6 face-to-face interviews. These observations as well as the limited prior research are used to develop strategies for the effective use telephone interviews in qualitative research. The study concludes that for certain studies the telephone if used with the strategies recommended here provides qualitative researchers with a sound data collection instrument

Long-run trend, Business Cycle & Short-run shocks in real GDP

Gross domestic product may be considered, a combination of three processes viz., long-run trend, business cycles and short-run shocks. The series of GDP can be decomposed in to its three components by using some statistical method. Such a decomposition of real GDP of Pakistan reveals that the Pakistan’s economy has a declining growth in long-run trend since early 1980s that however, is expected to start rising in 2001-02. Pakistan is also facing a recessionary phase of third business cycle, which is expected to end in 2004-05.business cycles; growth; pakistan

Structure and Performance of Commercial Banks in Pakistan

Commercial banks undertake business of risk in an environment of asymmetric information. This is why, the industrial economists who are interested in theory of incomplete information and principal-agent framework have found the banking industry a promising field of research. There are number of studies on the behavior of commercial banks in various countries under structure-conduct-performance paradigm of industrial economics. However, there is hardly one in the context of Pakistan. This study attempted to analyze the structure and performance of commercial banks in Pakistan under the framework of industrial organization.commercial banks; Pakistan; Structure conduct performance;

Predicting Money Multiplier in Pakistan

The paper has developed time-series models for the monthly money multiplier and its components, viz., currency-deposit ratio, reserve-deposit ratio, etc. A comparison is made between the predictive performance of the aggregate multiplier and the component models. It is found that the projected values of the multiplier on the basis of the aggregate model are closer to actual values as compared to those worked out on the basis of the component models. Thus, for the purposes of projecting the money multiplier, it may be preferable to focus on the aggregate money multiplier model. Stability tests, applied to the identified models for each component and the overall multiplier, suggest that all the models are stable.

Islamic Economics system In the Eyes of Maulana Maududi-An Analysis

Attempt has been made to investigate the Islamic Economics System from the perspectives of Maulana Maududi. He is one of the greatest thinkers that Islamic world has ever produced. He was a great scholar, and has written a large number of books, articles and booklets on different aspects of Islam. Economics has been one of the fields of his interest. It may be said that at least in the Sub-Continent, he was the person, who has established “Economics of Islam” as a separate branch of knowledge. In this context, he has highlighted the characteristics, principles and objectives of this system. On the pattern set by him, a large number of Muslim economic thinkers have followed his line of thinking. According to Maulana Maududi basic principles of Islamic economic systems are: private ownership, limits of halal and haram, economic equality, free economy and welfare role of state. Whereas this system is established to achieve the objectives of human liberty, simultaneous development of material and moral growth, establishment of justice, equal distribution of wealth, fulfillment of basic needs of people and co-ordination between different groups of society.Islamic economic system, Principles, Objectives.

On the Secure and Reconfigurable Multi-Layer Network Design for Critical Information Dissemination in the Internet of Battlefield Things (IoBT)

The Internet of things (IoT) is revolutionizing the management and control of automated systems leading to a paradigm shift in areas such as smart homes, smart cities, health care, transportation, etc. The IoT technology is also envisioned to play an important role in improving the effectiveness of military operations in battlefields. The interconnection of combat equipment and other battlefield resources for coordinated automated decisions is referred to as the Internet of battlefield things (IoBT). IoBT networks are significantly different from traditional IoT networks due to battlefield specific challenges such as the absence of communication infrastructure, heterogeneity of devices, and susceptibility to cyber-physical attacks. The combat efficiency and coordinated decision-making in war scenarios depends highly on real-time data collection, which in turn relies on the connectivity of the network and information dissemination in the presence of adversaries. This work aims to build the theoretical foundations of designing secure and reconfigurable IoBT networks. Leveraging the theories of stochastic geometry and mathematical epidemiology, we develop an integrated framework to quantify the information dissemination among heterogeneous network devices. Consequently, a tractable optimization problem is formulated that can assist commanders in cost effectively planning the network and reconfiguring it according to the changing mission requirements.Comment: to appear in IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1703.0122