Welfaremindedness in Trade Policy Decision Making Process: A Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis from Developing Nations

The proposition of free trade has been one of the most important tenets of economists for the past two centuries. They have been of the view that free trade will be in benefit of nations in most of the cases. But “new trade theory” and “infant industry argument” does not support this principle of trade. Therefore now economists are trying to seek out not only economic rather political determinants of protection in nations. So this study has basically tried to see how government maximizes welfare of the society in designing trade policies specifically in developing countries. Moreover the whole developing region has been divided regime wise, domestic institutional wise and  income wise. Both quantitative and qaualitative analysis has been performed. Grossman Helpman model has been employed for estimating these welfare estimates. Time span of the study is from 1995-2010. And GTAP7 has been used for extracting data for intermediate inputs. Welfare mindedness has been calculated with lobby and without lobby formation in an economy. Results are very much close to the present world scenario that more rich and democratic nations are more welfare concerned than poor and autocratic nations. More over parliamentary democracies proved more welfare oriented than presidential democracies

Terrorism or Political Terrorism Vs Tourism: New Evidence from Developing Countries

In the 21st century, tourism emerges as a significant income generating sector as well as weapon for growth and survival for various countries[1]. Tourism is the largest global industry with continuously growing global market which will triple in size by 2020[2]. Besides, numerous natural and human-caused disasters, the threat that accompanies political turmoil, tends to frighten potential tourists more severely. Such uncertainties in an economy can impede the flow of tourism. Terrorism risk tends to intimidate the traveling public more severely—as demonstrated by the realignment of travel flows and cancellation of vacations during periods of heightened terrorist activity. The tourism industry is highly vulnerable to such disturbances—whether social or political (i.e., riots, insurgency, terrorism, crime, political upheaval, war, regional tensions). This study also aims at finding a nexus between Terrorism and tourism based on new evidence from developing nations. Moreover developing nations have been further divided into two panels i.e. Politically Free , and Politically Not Free nations. This classification has been made to see whether political environment also affects terrorism activities in nations or not. Similarly another important aspect of this study is to see whether simply terrorist’s activities or Political terrorism[3] is a hurdle for the development of an economy. For this purpose different variables related to political terror and failures have also been used. Moreover time span for the study is from 1995-2011. Both parametric and non-parametric approaches have been employed. For evaluating the impact of Terrorist activities, data has been taken from World Governance Indicators(WGI), while data for tourism is from World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). Keywords: Tourism, Economic Development, panel Data [1] E. T. Heath, “Globalization of the Tourism Industry: Future Trends and Challenges for South Africa,” South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences, vol. 4, pp. 542-569, 2001. [2] World Tourism Organization, World Tourism Barometer. [3] E. Neumayer, “The impact of political violence on tourism: Dynamic cross-national estimation,” Journal of Conflict Resolution vol. 48(2), pp. 259-281, 200

Role of Institutions and Economic Growth in Asian Countries

For the past two decades, researchers have been focusing on the most important question related to economic growth, that is, what actually determines the growth of nations. In many empirical studies, geography, human capital, physical capital, trade integration, population and information technology have been found to be the major contributors to the development of economies[1]. But recently empirical research has started focusing on the role played by ‘institutions’. Therefore, development is no longer viewed as an outcome of capital accumulation but as a process of organizational change. However in growth literature this finding can be something new but economists acknowledge the supremacy of such organizations i.e. economies can be prosperous if they are free from government interventions.Thus role of institutions has been an important point of focus for economists for the past two decades. This study aims to examine the relationship among these institutions and economic growth in Asian countries. Study covers the time period from 1995-2010. Fixed effect model has been applied.  Results show that financial and legal institutions inter alia are more effective in increasing the economic growth as compared to other formal and informal institutions. We conclude from our findings that enforcement of sound financial and legal system can help to increase economic development. Key Words: Institutions, Financial Markets, Legal system, Economic Development, Formal Institutions, Informal Institutions, Legal institutions, Financial Institutions, Property Rights [1] Temple (1999) for references to the relevant empirical growth studies

AN ATTEMPT TO CRYSTALIZE THE BLACK-BOX MYSTERY: Institutional Quality or Constitutional Rights

This study deals with deeper analysis of the role of domestic institutional framework in policy making process of developing nations. Grossman-Helpman (1994) model of ‘protection for sale’ has been used to extract the extent of welfarism in government decisions related to trade policy, i.e., how much the government puts weight on welfare of the society when designing a trade policy. Findings of the study report that it is not about the type of political regime actually, rather it is about the types of political institutions under different constitutional structures, i.e., parliamentary or presidential systems which matters in promoting welfarism in government policies. These findings facilitates in drawing the conclusion that not only the democracy, rather parliamentary natured are welfare-enhancing for developing nations when taking any policy decision. Moreover, the results also support that de jure (constitutional rules) institutions play more imperative role in decision making as compared to the de facto (governance) institutions

New Direction to Evaluate the Economic Impact of Peace for Bilateral Trade among World Economies

Earlier researchers have been working to relate globalisation, trade or free trade as an instrument for bringing peace and reducing conflict in the world. But this study attempts to open up a new debate that how social unrest in terms of lack of pace in nations leads to failure of economic policing and outcomes. In past, few researchers have tried to show peaceful environment as a generator for economic progress by building theoretical models, but limited empirical analysis has been conducted so far. This brings a novelty in the present study that for the first time a large set of data covering 155 nations has been used to explore the relationship between these two desired variables i.e. trade related variables and peace, in new direction and employing new indicators defining extent of peace in nations. Panel co-integration technique has been applied along with Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS) and Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) models to know the parametric and non-parametric point estimates of variables. Data has been extracted from Economic Institute of Peace and World Bank for the time period 2008-2014. Results showed that lesser number of attacks are associated with more volume of trade among nations and better relations with neighbouring countries are linked positively with trade performance of nations. Nations involved more into hostility acts like conflicts are unable to maximise the benefits from bilateral trade. JEL Classification: F10, D74, L33, C23. Keywords: Globalisation, Trade, Conflict, Terrorism, Panel Mode

Impact of CEOs Pay Disparity on Stability of Banks: Evidence from Pakistan

This study is carried out to investigate the nature of association between Banks’ stability and the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) pay difference as compared to other executives for a sample of 17 Pakistani commercial banks, over the period of 9 years (2005 to 2013). The study finds that as compared to other executives, CEO pay difference has a significant but negative association with stability of banks performance, i.e., higher pay difference between CEO and other executives induced greater risk practices in banks. Hence, banks with lower stability must try to reduce the compensation gap between the CEO and his executive team, so that safe policies could be implemented

Association of CYP2C19*2 and *17 genetic variants with hypertension in Pakistani population

Purpose: To investigate the association of *2 and *17 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of CYP2C19 gene with hypertension in Pakistani population. Methods: The study was conducted on 527 hypertensive patients and 530 unrelated healthy controls from selected regions of Pakistan. DNA was extracted from leukocytes and all patients and controls were genotyped for two SNPs (rs4244285 and rs12248560) of CYP2C19 gene by allele specific polymerase chain reaction (AS-PCR). Results: Multi-allelic polymorphism in CYP2C19 identified four distinct phenotypes known as ultra-rapid metabolizer (UM), extensive metabolizer (EM), intermediate metabolizer (IM) and poor metabolizer (PM) in hypertensive patients and controls. For CYP2C19*2 polymorphisms, overall wild type and mutant allele frequency were 75 and 25 % in hypertensive patients, and 64.2 and 35.8 % in controls. For CYP2C19*17 polymorphisms, the overall wild type and mutant allele frequency were 66.6 and 33.4 % in hypertensive patients and 75.6 % and 24.4 % in controls. Significant difference in allele frequencies for CYP2C19*2 and *17 was demonstrated between hypertensive and non-hypertensive subjects. Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on CYP2C19 frequencies in hypertensive Pakistani patients. The finds should help clinicians to determine a suitable optimal dosage of some drugs in order to reduce side effects

Barriers & facilitators to physical activity in people with depression and type 2 diabetes mellitus in Pakistan: A qualitative study to explore perspectives of patient participants, carers and healthcare staff

Background The health benefits of physical activity in adults with depression and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) are well established, however people with depression and T2DM do not generally reach recommended levels of physical activity. Evidence on how to support physical activity in this group is limited; this is particularly the case in low- and middle-income countries. To develop interventions to promote physical activity, it is important first to understand the barriers and facilitators in this population. Methods A qualitative study was conducted in Pakistan using semi-structured individual interviews. Adults diagnosed with depression and T2DM, their carers, and healthcare staff were included. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Inductive thematic analysis was used to identify themes. Results Twenty-three participants (12 male; 11 female) were recruited. Five themes were generated from the data: 1) Cultural and religious norms and practices influence physical activity behaviours 2) Availability of resources and the potential for incorporating physical activity into routine life determine physical activity behaviours 3) Available healthcare resources can be used to promote physical activity 4) Patients’ individual-level characteristics affect their physical activity behaviours 5) Technology-based interventions may be used to promote physical activity. Conclusion Individual, cultural, and healthcare system level barriers and facilitators can affect the participation of people with depression and T2DM in physical activity. Religious, social, cultural, domestic, and occupational activities provide opportunities to perform physical activities. Furthermore, harnessing routinely available healthcare resources and the use of technology-based interventions can facilitate the promotion of physical activity

Correction to: Novel mutation G324C in WNT1 mapped in a large Pakistani family with severe recessively inherited Osteogenesis Imperfecta

In the original publication of this article [1], there are two errors in the article which the cDNA position of the pathogenic variant WNT1 p.Gly324Cys should be c.970G>T instead of c.1168G>T