Structural Adjustment, Industrialisation, and Export Promotion

The main objective of this paper was to explore if trade liberalisation has ushered in the large scale de-industrialisation that is feared by some to follow in its wake and whether it has been successful in enhancing export promotion. We relied on several different kinds of evidence to demonstrate that de-industrialisation has not coincided with the intensive structural adjustment period while export growth has. However, both industrialisation and export promotion in Pakistan have been below potential, below the mean for low income countries and have not even kept pace with progress in this regard in the low income country group. We were not able to establish, possibly due to the paucity of time-series observations, that either industry or exports generated positive externalities for or used resources more productively than the rest of the economy.

Has Aid Helped in Pakistan?

This paper has a two-fold objective: first, to examine the terms on which Pakistan receives aid and whether its debt situation is sustainable, and second, to examine the impact of aid and debt on economic growth. It is found that there is little encouraging that can be said about how the terms on which Pakistan has received aid over time have changed, and its current debt situation is not sustainable. Also reported is the analysis done elsewhere which shows that aid has a negative (Granger) causal impact on GDP, and aid has a robust negative impact on economic growth after controlling for supplyside shocks. We provide various reasons for this negative association.

Structural Adjustment, Industrialisation, and Export Promotion

The main objective of this paper was to explore if trade liberalisation has ushered in the large scale de-industrialisation that is feared by some to follow in its wake and whether it has been successful in enhancing export promotion. We relied on several different kinds of evidence to demonstrate that de-industrialisation has not coincided with the intensive structural adjustment period while export growth has. However, both industrialisation and export promotion in Pakistan have been below potential, below the mean for low income countries and have not even kept pace with progress in this regard in the low income country group. We were not able to establish, possibly due to the paucity of time-series observations, that either industry or exports generated positive externalities for or used resources more productively than the rest of the economy

Muhammad Nejatullah Siddiqui. Issues in Islamic Banking: Selected Papers, Leicester: The Islamic Foundation. 1983 , I 52pp.Author and Subject Indexes.

The book under review is a compilation of the author's articles and lectures that highlight the prominent developments in the literature on the subject of Islamic banking and inform the reader of the current state of debate on it. One of the earliest and main contributors to this topic is the author himself. The focus of this review will mainly be on "Economics of Profit-Sharing", which is the title of the fourth chapter of the book and is among his latest contributions. This chapter is a significant contribution as it is the first attempt to formalise the concept of profit sharing into an analytical model and, therefore, demands closer scrutiny. However, in the remaining chapters of the book, the author has drawn attention to some of the fine points made in the literature on this topic. Since some of these points appear to be controversial to me, I will briefly discuss them before moving on to the analytical chapter of the book

Has Aid Helped in Pakistan?

This paper has a two-fold objective: first, to examine the terms on which Pakistan receives aid and whether its debt situation is sustainable, and second, to examine the impact of aid and debt on economic growth. It is found that there is little encouraging that can be said about how the terms on which Pakistan has received aid over time have changed, and its current debt situation is not sustainable. Also reported is the analysis done elsewhere which shows that aid has a negative (Granger) causal impact on GDP, and aid has a robust negative impact on economic growth after controlling for supplyside shocks. We provide various reasons for this negative association

Data Mining for Marketing

This paper gives a brief insight about data mining, its process and the various techniques used for it in the field of marketing. Data mining is the process of extracting hidden valuable information from the data in given data sets .In this paper cross industry standard procedure for data mining is explained along with the various techniques used for it. With growing volume of data every day, the need for data mining in marketing is also increasing day by day. It is a powerful technology to help companies focus on the most important information in their data warehouses. Data mining is actually the process of collecting data from different sources and then interpreting it and finally converting it into useful information which helps in increasing the revenue, curtailing costs thereby providing a competitive edge to the organisation

Intelligent Decision Support Systems- A Framework

Information technology applications that support decision-making processes and problem- solving activities have thrived and evolved over the past few decades. This evolution led to many different types of Decision Support System (DSS) including Intelligent Decision Support System (IDSS). IDSS include domain knowledge, modeling, and analysis systems to provide users the capability of intelligent assistance which significantly improves the quality of decision making. IDSS includes knowledge management component which stores and manages a new class of emerging AI tools such as machine learning and case-based reasoning and learning. These tools can extract knowledge from previous data and decisions which give DSS capability to support repetitive, complex real-time decision making.  This paper attempts to assess the role of IDSS in decision making. First, it explores the definitions and understanding of DSS and IDSS. Second, this paper illustrates a framework of IDSS along with various tools and technologies that support it. Keywords: Decision Support Systems, Data Warehouse, ETL, Data Mining, OLAP, Groupware, KDD, IDS

The Impact of the GOP's Wheat Pricing Policy on Flour Prices

The GOP attempts to influence flour prices by fixing its own wholesale price for wheat-the "release price"-at below market levels. We will try to determine who benefits from this intervention. In other words is the open-ended subsidy passed on to consumers, does it end up as excess profits for flour millers or is it dissipated in the pure economic waste of excessive investment in mills .. The analysis has implications for alternative subsidy options which will be considered. The paper is divided into three sections. We will begin with a brief institutional description which will set the framework for the following economic and statistical analysis

Creating Business Intelligence through Machine Learning: An Effective Business Decision Making Tool

Growing technological progressions have given rise to many issues concerning the contemporary decision making in business, which is a difficult phenomenon without Business Intelligence/ Machine Learning. The linking of machine learning with business intelligence is not only pivotal for business decision making but also for the business intelligence in totality, owing to the reason that in absence of machine learning, decision making couldn’t take place efficaciously. Machines need to learn, re-learn, and then only they can help your learning process. The below paper seeks to make this concept simple/ easy by removing the ambiguities using a general framework. In order to prove the impact of machine learning on business intelligence, we need to forecast the trends, what is going around the world – business has to stay updated, then only it can be a successful endeavour.  The paper posits the basic theories and definitions of business intelligence and machine learning. To learn from the past and forecast the future trends, many companies are adopting business intelligence tools and systems. Companies have understood the brilliance of enforcing achievements of the goals defined by their business strategies through business intelligence concepts and with the help of machine learning. It describes the insights on the role and requirement of real time BI by examining the business needs. Keywords: Business Intelligence (BI); Machine Learning (ML); Artificial Neural Networks (ANN); Self-Organizing Maps (SOM); Data Mining (DM); Data Warehousing (DW)