Infectious disease outbreak and trade policy formulation

This paper provides a framework to understand why a country might resort to a policy like an import ban when at risk from infectious disease outbreak overseas. Superior import-competing domestic production technologies, and over-reliance on taxing the public for government revenue, could lead to blocked trade. The results of the two-country political economy model lend support to the wide use of public health interventions to minimize infections, and highlight their role in promoting open trade policies.Trade openness, infectious disease outbreak

Invisible Children: A Case Study Of Street Children Education In Pakistan

The chaotic issue of street children is rampant across the globe especially in developing nations like Pakistan. The presence of around 150 million street children worldwide highlights the gravity of the situation, out of which 1.2 million are living in Pakistan. The extreme poverty, unequal distribution of wealth, high inflation and large families push children to the street. The need for survival compels these children to engage in hazardous labor, begging, trash collection, prostitution, and drug addiction. They receive no protection from state and faces dangerous risks on streets. However, the state is under the obligation to provide protection as well as free and quality education to all. At present, there is no as such particular policy develops regarding the education of these children. Hence, they remain deprived of their fundamental right to education. So, the study focuses on the current status regarding the education of street children; educational interventions carried out by the government of Pakistan and NGOs; and challenges experienced by NGOs regarding such interventions in the country. This research is based on case study methodology and a qualitative in its nature. The study concludes that deficient in implementing and translating existing policies into practice, inadequate laws, funds, and public institutions response combined with public detest makes these children deliberately invisible to state. In addition to that, the government is also hampering the work of NGOs providing free education to street children. The study recommends that the Pakistani government should develop tangible policy, laws, and funds for the education of these children. In addition, the government should facilitate NGOs working to fulfill the educational needs of street children. With the help of education, street children will be able to understand risks, challenges and prepare themselves to counter while living and working on the streets

Determinants of Rural Poverty in Pakistan: A Micro Study

Using micro survey data obtained from a Punjab village we study a large number of rural-specific and household-specific variables besides landholding, in an attempt to determine their role in raising levels of living of rural masses. We investigated the reasons as to how some of the landless households managed to escape poverty whereas some cultivating households failed to do so. The main factors responsible for this outcome were found to be favourable/unfavourable distribution by size of landholding, household size, educational attainment, dependency ratio, participation rates, female-male ratio, and age of the household head. The landless households escaping poverty, however, remained in a low-income category. Whereas our analysis highlighted the importance of institutional setting for a better distribution of assets and access to resources, at the same time it pointed to the fact that numerous non-farm activities also enable the rural households to generate incomes and thus avoid poverty.

Impact of Village-specific, Household-specific, and Technological Variables on Poverty in Punjab

Rural poverty remains a serious problem in Pakistan, with more than 30 percent of rural population living in absolute poverty. In rural Pakistan there is a big gap between rich and the poor. While the stake of competition for position and status concerns the rich, the struggle for survival in the midst of increasing crises embarrasses the poor. The rural poor—the pauperised class—are week and powerless with inadequate command over resources relative to needs. In fact, the polarisation process which is making the rich richer and poor poorer is a consequence of poverty. Neither the poor nor the outside well wishers have the power to break the vicious deprivation trap. It is consensus that rural social structure is responsible for rural underdevelopment. A number of attempts can be seen in the literature having discussed the different dimensions of the above phenomenon related to developing economies in general and to Pakistan in particular, The present study is the continuity of the above efforts. However, this study discusses the enigma of poverty based on a village study. Within above setting, a village survey has been conducted in the Southern Punjab. The study analyses the determinants of rural poverty in the above village and its relation with productive assets, tools and instruments, gender, rural employment, household size, earner size, education level, etc. The analysis explicitly takes into account such attributes as the village specific, household specific and technological variables.

Climate change and its risk reduction by mangrove ecosystem of Bangladesh

Climate change is amongst the most dreaded problems of the new millennium. Bangladesh is a coastal country bounded by Bay of Bengal on its southern part and here natural disasters are an ongoing part of human life. This paper discusses about the possible impact of climate change through tropical cyclones, storm surges, coastal erosion and sea level rise in the coastal community of Bangladesh and how they cope with these extreme events by the help of mangrove ecosystem. Both qualitative and quantitative discussions are made by collected data from different research work those are conducted in Bangladesh. Mangrove ecosystem provides both goods and services for coastal community, helps to improve livelihood options and protect them from natural disaster by providing variety of environmental suppor

Surmising Consumer Demand System & Structural Changes Using Time Series Data

Consumer demand for food and non-food items in Pakistan has attracted the attention of various researchers. They have employed different parametric approaches, like single equation, double log models, linear expenditure system and extended linear expenditure system. Most of the studies were based on household income and expenditure survey data. Like other household surveys, HIES data do not give information about prices, due to which price elasticities could not estimated. This task could not be accomplished partly because, in order to examine the existence and the nature of structural change and estimation of price elasticities, time series data was required. In this context the present study is a step ahead. In this analysis time series data has been used on meat group from 1950-51 to 2003-2004. We estimated the linear approximation of almost ideal demand system (LA/AIDS). The model is used to estimate the parameters of meat demand equations. Furthermore, the existence and the nature of the structural change is checked by using LA/AIDS. The results from LA/AIDS model show a shift in consumer demand in case of chicken in 1991-92. Price and expenditure elasticities have also been calculated. The estimates of price and income elasticities are also consistent with economic theory.Consumer Demand: Empirical Estimation: LAAIDS: Time Series Data: Pakistan

Foreign Direct Investment and the Robustness of Host-Country Commitment

This paper presents a model of a forward-looking government wooing foreign direct investment by enacting policies that reflect its commitment to the foreign enterprise. The ease with which the government is able to spend or carry out economic reform to complement the foreign venture evolves over time and influences the likelihood of its sustained commitment. The domestic and external strength of the government, the stability and not necessarily the level of returns from the project, venture-specificity of government spending or reform, and public and elite attitudes toward foreign commercial entry determine how invested the government remains in the long term success of the enterprise. More committed governments tend to be stronger and prefer robust investor-regime relationships. Reform that is not designed too narrowly to favor the investor is also less likely to be reversed later. Like pro-FDI public sentiment, a noisy policy environment induces deeper government commitment

Attitude towards Interest-free Financing among Small Traders and Farmers in Multan

It is frequently asked whether the modern economy can function without interest. This question has acquired some urgency in wake of the recent ruling of Supreme Court banning interest in Pakistan. In this respect every expert has his own opinion. Some pronounced that great harm will result from the banning of interest. Others have the opinion that such pronouncement is based on lack of understanding of the modern economic system, as well as the nature of the Islamic prohibition of interest. However, the banning of the rate of interest has affect on the economic activity, i. e. especially on the small traders and farmers. It is commonly argued that this change in capital market has two important effects on the economy. It increased the capital supply while price reduces, thus improving efficiency. And it makes also possible to produce more with relatively less cost, thus has positive effect on the growth of the economy.

Virtual excitations in the ultra-strongly-coupled spin-boson model: physical results from unphysical modes

Here we show how, in the ultra-strongly-coupled spin-boson model, apparently unphysical "Matsubara modes" are required not only to regulate detailed balance, but also to arrive at a correct and physical description of the non-perturbative dynamics and steady-state. In particular, in the zero-temperature limit, we show that neglecting the Matsubara modes results in an erroneous emission of virtual photons from the collective ground state. To explore this difficult-to-model regime we start by using a non-perturbative hierarchical equations of motion (HEOM) approach, based on a partial fitting of the bath correlation-function which takes into account the infinite sum of Matsubara frequencies using only a biexponential function. We compare the HEOM method to both a pseudo-mode model, and the reaction coordinate (RC) mapping, which help explain the nature of the aberrations observed when Matsubara frequencies are neglected. For the pseudo-mode method we present a general proof of validity, which allows for negative Matsubara-contributions to the decomposition of the bath correlation functions to be described by zero-frequency Matsubara-modes with non-Hermitian coupling to the system. The latter obey a non-Hermitian pseudo-Schr\"odinger equation, ultimately justifying why superficially unphysical modes can give rise to physical system behavior.Comment: 21 page