Health Care Services and Government Spending in Pakistan

The study has been carried out to measure the incidence of government spending on health in Pakistan at provincial, both rural and urban level; using the primary data of the Pakistan Social Standard Living Measures Survey (PSLM), 2004-05, and by employing the three-step Benefit Incidence Approach (BIA) methodology. The paper reviews the national policies emphasising health services as well as the trend in access to and public sector spending on health care facilities in Pakistan. The study explores the inequalities in resource distribution and service provision against the government health expenditures. The rural areas of Pakistan are the more disadvantaged in the provision of the health care facilities. The expenditures in health sectors are overall regressive in rural Pakistan as well as at provincial and regional levels. Mother and Child subhead is regressive in Punjab and General Hospitals and Clinics are regressive in all provinces. Only the Preventive Measures and health facilities sub-sector is progressive in Pakistan. Public health expenditures are pro-rich in Pakistan.health, Expenditure, Public Policy, Gini, Concentration Coefficient, Mother and Child, Preventive Measures, Hospital and Clinics

Health Care Services and Government Spending in Pakistan

The study has been carried out to measure the incidence of government spending on health in Pakistan at provincial, both rural and urban level; using the primary data of the Pakistan Social Standard Living Measures Survey (PSLM), 2004-05, and by employing the three-step Benefit Incidence Approach (BIA) methodology. The paper reviews the national policies emphasising health services as well as the trend in access to and public sector spending on health care facilities in Pakistan. The study explores the inequalities in resource distribution and service provision against the government health expenditures. The rural areas of Pakistan are the more disadvantaged in the provision of the health care facilities. The expenditures in health sectors are overall regressive in rural Pakistan as well as at provincial and regional levels. Mother and Child subhead is regressive in Punjab and General Hospitals and Clinics are regressive in all provinces. Only the Preventive Measures and health facilities sub-sector is progressive in Pakistan. Public health expenditures are pro-rich in Pakistan.Health, Expenditure, Public Policy, Gini, Concentration Coefficient, Mother and Child, Preventive Measures, Hospital and Clinics

Public Provision of Education and Government Spending in Pakistan

The study has been carried out to measure the incidence of government spending on education in Pakistan at the provincial (both rural and urban) level, using the primary data of the Pakistan Social Standard Living Measures Survey (PSLM), 2004-2005, and by employing the three-step Benefit Incidence Approach methodology. The paper reviews the national policies emphasising provision of education in Pakistan, as well as the trend in coverage and public sector spending on education facilities in Pakistan. The study examines the inequalities in resource distribution and service provision in relation to the government education expenditure. The rural areas of Pakistan are the more disadvantaged in the provision of the education facilities. Overall, the expenditure on the education sector is progressive, both at the regional and the provincial levels. However, variation exists in the shares of different income groups’ benefit from the provision of educational facilities created by public expenditure.Education, Public Expenditure, Public Policy, Gini Coefficient, Concentration Coefficient, Benefit Incidence Approach

"Dark Matter: Some Reflections on the Current Account Debate"

The United States has a large and persistent current account deficit. Yet, U.S.'s income receipts from the rest of the world have exceeded its income payments to the rest of the world for many years. This appears to be paradoxical because for a country with a negative net foreign assets position, such as the U.S., international income payments to the rest of the world are likely to exceed its international income receipts. Hausmann and Sturzenegger (2005) offer an explanation of this apparent paradox. They argue that U.S. current account statistics do not properly measure U.S.'s net foreign assets position and that its actual net foreign assets position is measurably better than the officially estimated position primarily due to the existence of intangible corporate capital invested overseas. In their view the debate about the sustainability of the U.S. current account deficit and the negative net foreign assets position is moot because these deficits and debts are either non-existent or fairly small. This paper critically evaluates Hausmann et al's claims and examines the implications of their hypothesis. It offers, within an analytical framework, alternative explanations that are more consistent with the stylized facts.

Public Provision of Education and Government Spending in Pakistan

The study has been carried out to measure the incidence of government spending on education in Pakistan at the provincial (both rural and urban) level, using the primary data of the Pakistan Social Standard Living Measures Survey (PSLM), 2004-2005, and by employing the three-step Benefit Incidence Approach methodology. The paper reviews the national policies emphasising provision of education in Pakistan, as well as the trend in coverage and public sector spending on education facilities in Pakistan. The study examines the inequalities in resource distribution and service provision in relation to the government education expenditure. The rural areas of Pakistan are the more disadvantaged in the provision of the education facilities. Overall, the expenditure on the education sector is progressive, both at the regional and the provincial levels. However, variation exists in the shares of different income groups benefit from the provision of educational facilities created by public expenditure.education, public expenditure, Public Policy, Gini Coefficient, Concentration Coefficient, Benefit Incidence Approach

Causes of Students’ Dropout at Elementary Level in Southern Districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

The purpose of the paper was to explore the causes of students’ dropout at elementary level in the southern districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. All the teachers working at elementary level in the southern districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa constituted the population of the study. A sample of 171 teachers from 57 elementary schools was selected through two-stage sampling technique. The study was descriptive in nature and a self-developed questionnaire was used for data collection. For statistical analysis, descriptive statistics i.e., mean and standard deviation were used. The findings revealed that there are so many factors that contribute to dropout at elementary level. These factors are; ineffective curriculum; strict school’s discipline and regulations; lack of proper physical and educational facilities; lack of parental educational support; poor parental socioeconomic status; domestic issues; parental illiteracy; unfavorable school environment; poor attendance; and Students’ disruptive behaviour; lack of motivation and encouragement; teachers’ discriminative and autocratic attitudes; frequent teachers’ absenteeism; and students’ company with unwanted children; poor health condition etc. based on findings, it was recommended that curriculum should be reviewed and redesigned in the light of emerging needs of students and society. Awareness regarding importance of education in society should be ensured through electronic as well as print media to reduce the dropout rate. An encouraging, friendly and facilitated environment may be provided inside the school for students. Keywords: Causes; Dropout; Student Related Factors; School Related Factors; Teacher Related Factors; Family/Society Related Factors; Elementary Leve

Development and Identification of Metrics to Predict the Impact of Dimension Reduction Techniques on Classical Machine Learning Algorithms for Still Highway Images

We are witnessing an influx of data - images, texts, video, etc. Their high dimensionality and large volume make it challenging to apply machine learning to obtain actionable insight. This thesis explores several aspects pertaining to dimensional reduction: dimension reduction methods, metrics to measure distortion, image preprocessing, etc. Faster training and inference time on reduced data and smaller models which can be deployed on commodity hardware are a critical advantage of dimension reduction. For this study, classical machine learning methods were explored owing to their solid mathematical foundation and interpretability. The dataset used is a time series of images from several camera feeds observing the traffic, weather and road conditions along highways. The time-series nature of dataset gives rise to interesting questions which are investigated in this work. For instance, can machine learning models trained on past data be used on future camera feed data? This is highly desirable and yet difficult due to the changing weather, road conditions, traffic conditions and scenery. Can dimension reduction models obtained from past data be used for reducing dimensionality of future data? This thesis also examines the difference between the performance of machine learning methods before and after application of dimension reduction. It tests some existing metrics to measure quality of dimension-reduced data set and introduces several new ones. It also examines the application of image pre-processing methods to boost the performance of classifiers. The classification performance with and without random sampling has been studied as well

Riba in Islamic finance: Some fresh insights

Abstract. In present-day Islamic finance, all forms of interest are considered riba, which is prohibited in the Qur’an. However, this definition of riba creates several problems in everyday business transactions. The Islamic financial institutions are obliged to adopt such operational procedures that closely resemble interest, the while they claim to be operating on interest-free basis. The paper delves into the Qur’anic text relating to riba and suggests an alternative understanding which can help resolve various controversies relating to riba and interest. It attempts to formulate a contemporary definition of riba which accommodates the current practice of Islamic financial institutions.Keywords. Riba in Qur’an, riba and interest, cash and credit prices, time value of money, riba and inflation, definition of riba, Islamic financial institutions.JEL. D64, E40, G21, Z12