What makes an International Financial Centre (IFC) Competitive? An empirical study of the determinants responsible for the competitiveness of an IFC

International Financial Centres (IFCs) serve as focal points for implementing international agreements and other transactions between financial sectors located around the world. The competitiveness of an IFC depends on its function to provide easy access to the capital, stability in financial markets and a dynamic business eco-system. The purpose of conducting this study is to identify the most relevant determinants that significantly affect the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI) ranking of the countries across the world. First published in 2007, the GFCI is considered as the primary source for ranking IFCs globally. GFCI is an index which ranks financial centres based on over 61,499 assessments of financial centres across the world provided by 10,252 respondents to an online questionnaire of GFCI (GFCI33, 2023). The collected date represents 153 key indices provided by sources including the World Bank, the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development, and the Economist Intelligence Unit. It utilises qualitative (online questionnaires) and quantitative (economic indices) dataset to publish reports biannually. Through this paper, an attempt has been made to conduct an empirical study of the determinants responsible for the competitiveness of an IFC based on GFCI ranking. To facilitate this study, extensive data has been collected for 196 IFCs (unique financial jurisdictions) along with 238 key factors (determinants) over a period of fourteen years (2007 till 2020). In addition to revisiting some of the existing empirical studies on this subject, this dissertation attempts to further build on the existing empirical research and analyses the impact of unique key factors on the GFCI ranking through the application of a panel regression. From extensive set of variables, the study adopts 17 most relevant determinants (summarised below) by using a Decision Tree approach. The variable of Business Regulations is constructed by using the Ease of doing business index source from the World Bank (GFCI 33). The variable of corporate taxes is constructed by the sum of tax bases and tax rates dataset source from KPMG (GFCI 33). Indexed sourced from Transparency International is used to construct the variable of Corruption Perception Index (GFCI 33). The variable of Credit Market Regulations is constructed by international consortium group by measuring the deposit based financing source from World Bank (GFCI 33). Government size, Property Rights and the Legal System, Reliable Money, Freedom to Trade Internationally Regulation, and Gender equality in legal rights are five broad categories used to construct Economic Freedom Overall Index Variable source from Fraser Institute (GFCI 33). The study adopts the variable of freedom of trade which is sourced from WTO constructed upon non-tariff barrier in exports and imports of a country (GFCI 33). The variable of Global Competitiveness Index is constructed by the macroeconomic and the micro/business aspects of competitiveness into a single index (GFCI 33). The data on volume of high tech exports is modelled and calculated as a function of foreign demand and of price competitiveness in order to construct variable of High Tech Exports source. The variable of inflation is constructed by using Consumer Price Index (CPI). The variable of Internet uses as a percentage of population is derived by dividing the number of Internet users by total population and multiplying by 100. The variable of Labour Market Regulations is constructed through using of the Rigidity of Employment Index. The variable of Legal System Property Rights is constructed by encompassing index of Legal verification and guarantee systems, fair legal rules, and formal compensation mechanism. The variable of quality of roads is constructed through collecting data on the transportation infrastructure and financial spending by using (IRI) International Roughness Index (GFCI 33). Spending, revenue, and employment are all ways to construct the variable of size of a government. An aggregate of money growth (money supply growth minus real GDP growth), standard deviation of inflation (GDP deflator), CPI inflation in most recent year, and freedom to hold foreign currency in bank accounts are used to construct the variable of the sound money index. The index is measured on a scale of 0 (worst) to 10 (best). The variable of percentage of Urban Population is constructed by Individuals living in urban areas as a percentage of total population. A long and solid life, being educated and have a respectable way of life are the three indicators to construct the variable of HDI. The results of the Panel regression show that all the variables positively impact the GFCI ranking except business regulations, labour market regulation, legal system property rights and HDI. This dissertation also establishes to arrange the IFCs in groups (Clusters) based on similar shared characteristics. This has been possible by adopting criteria of developing a centroid for each cluster against each determinant for a number of observations (Years). As a result, each cluster includes all those countries that are experiencing similar characteristics throughout the range of observations (years). By introducing the Elbow method of clustering, the study has identified five optimal groups (clusters). In order to deal with complexities of missing values in the dataset and arranging the IFCs in these five optimal groups based upon a centroid (mean) value, this study has undergone an appropriate clustering methodology using the Majorisation-Minimisation Algorithm named as K-POD means clustering. It is evident that each centroid is seen as representing the average observation within a cluster across all the variables in the analysis. All the observations in a cluster ranging between maxima and minima centrifuge around centroid value. The distances between cluster centroids show how far apart the centroids of the clusters in the final partition are from one another. The study suggests that by minimising the hurdles created by business regulation laws, labour market regulation procedures and legalised process of property rights, the GFCI ranking will improve for the countries. It will help to pave the path of financial stability and creation of wealth. Similarly, by providing better health and education facilities, the Human development Index will help positively to improve the GFCI ranking of countries

Study protocol of DIVERGE, the first genetic epidemiological study of major depressive disorder in Pakistan

INTRODUCTION: Globally, 80% of the burdenof major depressive disorder (MDD) pertains to low- and middle-income countries. Research into genetic and environmental risk factors has the potential to uncover disease mechanisms that may contribute to better diagnosis and treatment of mental illness, yet has so far been largely limited to participants with European ancestry from high-income countries. The DIVERGE study was established to help overcome this gap and investigate genetic and environmental risk factors for MDD in Pakistan. METHODS: DIVERGE aims to enrol 9000 cases and 4000 controls in hospitals across the country. Here, we provide the rationale for DIVERGE, describe the study protocol and characterise the sample using data from the first 500cases. Exploratory data analysis is performed to describe demographics, socioeconomic status, environmental risk factors, family history of mental illness and psychopathology. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Many participants had severe depression with 74% of patients who experienced multiple depressive episodes. It was a common practice to seek help for mental health struggles from faith healers and religious leaders. Socioeconomic variables reflected the local context with a large proportion of women not having access to any education and the majority of participants reporting no savings. CONCLUSION: DIVERGE is a carefully designed case-control study of MDD in Pakistan that captures diverse risk factors. As the largest genetic study in Pakistan, DIVERGE helps address the severe underrepresentation of people from South Asian countries in genetic as well as psychiatric research

Self-reported health and smoking status, and body mass index: a case-control comparison based on GEN SCRIP (GENetics of SChizophRenia In Pakistan) data

Introduction Individuals with schizophrenia are at a high risk of physical health comorbidities and premature mortality. Cardiovascular and metabolic causes are an important contributor. There are gaps in monitoring, documenting and managing these physical health comorbidities. Because of their condition, patients themselves may not be aware of these comorbidities and may not be able to follow a lifestyle that prevents and manages the complications. In many low-income and middle-income countries including Pakistan, the bulk of the burden of care for those struggling with schizophrenia falls on the families.Objectives To determine the rate of self-reported physical health disorders and risk factors, like body mass index (BMI) and smoking, associated with cardiovascular and metabolic disorders in cases of schizophrenia compared with a group of mentally healthy controls.Design A case-controlled, cross-sectional multicentre study of patients with schizophrenia in Pakistan.Settings Multiple data collection sites across the country for patients, that is, public and private psychiatric OPDs (out patient departments), specialised psychiatric care facilities, and psychiatric wards of teaching and district level hospitals. Healthy controls were enrolled from the community.Participants We report a total of 6838 participants’ data with (N 3411 (49.9%)) cases of schizophrenia compared with a group of healthy controls (N 3427 (50.1%)).Results BMI (OR 0.98 (CI 0.97 to 0.99), p=0.0025), and the rate of smoking is higher in patients with schizophrenia than in controls. Problems with vision (OR 0.13 (0.08 to 0.2), joint pain (OR 0.18 (0.07 to 0.44)) and high cholesterol (OR 0.13 (0.05 to 0.35)) have higher reported prevalence in controls. The cases describe more physical health disorders in the category ‘other’ (OR 4.65 (3.01 to 7.18)). This captures residual disorders not listed in the questionnaire.Conclusions Participants with schizophrenia in comparison with controls report more disorders. The access in the ‘other’ category may be a reflection of undiagnosed disorders

Statistical Assessment of Toxic and Essential Metals in the Serum of Female Patients with Lung Carcinoma from Pakistan

Lung cancer (LC) is the number one cancer killer of women both in the USA and around the world. Besides cigarette smoking, an important feature in the etiology of LC is its strong association with exposure of toxic metals. The primary objective of the present investigation was to assess the concentrations of toxic/essential elements (Ni, Ca, Se, Zn, Co, K, Cr, As, Cu, Na, Fe, Hg, Cd, Mg, Mn, and Pb) in the serum samples of LC female patients with female controls by atomic absorption spectrometry after wet-acid digestion procedure. Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) was also measured in the serum of the patients using immunoradiometric method. Comparative appraisal of the data revealed that concentrations of Cr, Mg, Cd, Pb, Hg, As, and Ni were noted to be high significantly in serum of LC female patients, while the average Fe, Co, Mn, Na, K, Zn, Ca, and Se were observed at higher levels in female controls (p < 0.05). The correlation study revealed significantly different mutual associations among the elements in the both donor groups. Markedly, variations in the elemental levels were also noted for different types (non-small cell lung cancer and small cell lung cancer) and stages (I, II, III, & IV) of LC patients. Multivariate analyses showed substantially diverse apportionment of the metals in the female patients and female controls. Hence, present findings suggest that the toxic and essential metals accumulated in the body may pose a high risk for LC progression in Pakistani females. © 2019, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature