LUCRATIVENESS OF ISLAMIC VS CONVENTIONAL MUTUAL FUNDS IN PAKISTAN

The purpose of this study is to conduct a comparative riskadjusted performance, selectivity skills and market timing abilitiesanalysis of Islamic and Conventional mutual funds in Pakistan. Thestudy utilizes various risk-adjusted performance measures to evaluaterisk and return characteristics. The study also used techniqueproposed by (Treynor and Mazuy 1966) and (Henriksson and Merton1981) to appraise selectivity skills and timing abilities on the dataset ranging 2009-2013 of Islamic and Conventional mutual funds. Inthis study, four categories Aggressive Fixed Income, Asset Allocation,Equity and Balanced open end mutual funds are analysed. On thebasis of evidences found, only few mutual fund managers from Islamicand Conventional mutual funds hold better stock picking skills. Themutual fund managers of both Islamic and conventional mutual fundsare found to be a poor market timer in Pakistan. Islamic mutualfunds have earned better returns than conventional mutual funds.Therefore, risk adjusted performance of Islamic mutual funds is betterthan conventional mutual funds

Firm Size as Moderator to Leverage-Performance Relation: An Emerging Market Review

Present study explored leverage-performance relation while the moderating firm size in developing countries like Pakistan. Data is collected for 304 Pakistani non-financial firms for the period of 2005-2013. It is found that overall leverage-performance relation is negative for all types of firms. However, such losses are more prominent for small size firms. Results also showed that the leverage-performance relation is nonlinear for medium and large size firms.However, in practice these firms are not targeting optimal level and over-leveraging that ultimately decrease their profits.So, financial managers of small size firms should avoid debt financing while for large and medium size firms,managers need to adjust their debt ratio toits optimal level. Keywords: Leverage, Performance, Capital Structure, Moderation, Firm Size JEL code: G32

How Knowledge and Financial Self-Efficacy Moderate the Relationship between Money Attitudes and Personal Financial Management Behavior

This study finds the impact of money attitudes on the personal financial management behavior and check the moderating effect of financial knowledge and financial self-efficacy on their relationship. The sample for this research was young adults (University students) who were also employed. From five universities where two universities were from the public sector  and three were from private sector 500 respondents were selected through purposive sampling. Hierarchal Regression and factor analysis were employed to derive the results. The following are the results which are generated from this research study. Money attitudes and Financial Knowledge have a significant positive impact on the personal financial management behavior of young adults, and financial knowledge has a positive moderating impact on the relationship of money attitudes & personal financial management behavior. It was found that 20.9% Personal Financial Management Behavior is explained by money attitudes at significance level of 5 %. Financial Self-efficacy has a positive impact on the personal financial management behavior and it has positive moderating impact on the relationship of money attitudes & personal financial management behavior

Foreign Direct Investment and Economic Growth: Evidence from Pakistan

This study finds the relationship between FDI and other indicators of economic growth i.e. employment rate, exports and foreign reserves with GDP through Johansen cointegrration and VECM over the period of 1963-2014. Unit root was checked through ADF test and all variables are integrated at 1st different. The results confirmed that an increase in FDI has positive impact on the economic growth of Pakistan both in the short and long run. Our results are likely to provide an opportunity to frame some policy implications. Hence the authorities should positively concentrate on maximum utilization of resources to increase FDI in order to increase GDP growth rate

How Knowledge and Financial Self-Efficacy Moderate the Relationship between Money Attitudes and Personal Financial Management Behavior

This study finds the impact of money attitudes on the personal financial management behavior and check the moderating effect of financial knowledge and financial self-efficacy on their relationship. The sample for this research was young adults (University students) who were also employed. From five universities where two universities were from the public sector  and three were from private sector 500 respondents were selected through purposive sampling. Hierarchal Regression and factor analysis were employed to derive the results. The following are the results which are generated from this research study. Money attitudes and Financial Knowledge have a significant positive impact on the personal financial management behavior of young adults, and financial knowledge has a positive moderating impact on the relationship of money attitudes & personal financial management behavior. It was found that 20.9% Personal Financial Management Behavior is explained by money attitudes at significance level of 5 %. Financial Self-efficacy has a positive impact on the personal financial management behavior and it has positive moderating impact on the relationship of money attitudes & personal financial management behavior

Does corporate governance reduce overinvestment? The mediating role of information asymmetry

This study investigates the direct and indirect relationship between corporate governance and agency cost using bootstrap analysis. For a sample of 155 firms during 2009-2015, this study finds statistically significant both direct effect of corporate governance on agency cost of overinvestment, and an indirect effect mediated by information asymmetry, with favoring the indirect effect as more important in reducing agency cost. The direct effect shows that despite increasing corporate governance mechanism, the agency cost of overinvestment is rising. However, the indirect effect suggests that the corporate governance mechanism promotes transparency by exerting pressure on management to produce information that investors and other stakeholders can use. This creates a monitoring channel that reduces information asymmetry, thus reducing the ability of management and majority shareholders to expropriate the firm's resources that mitigates overinvestment of free cash flow. The results provide implications for regulators that theeffectiveness of corporate governance practices should be watched carefullyto reduce managerial opportunism and controlling shareholders' expropriation in firms. Moreover, the regulatory authorities should collaborate with firms' management to frame disclosure policies that investors can use as a monitoring device to make firmsunable to overinvest free cash flow