Suchergebnisse

Corruption is not a new phenomenon; we are living with it since the birth of government's institutions. Corruption has two dimensions; public sector corruption and private sector corruption. The public sector corruption means, "misuse of public office for private benefits". For cross country analysis, public sector corruption is mainly focused. In this study, we have analyzed the 41 developing countries to investigate the determinants of corruption. Corruption determinants are sub-divided into economic determinants and non-economic determinants. The economic determinants include economic freedom, globalization, level of education, distribution of income and average level of income. The non-economic determinants list consists on press freedom, democracy and share of population affiliated with particular religion. The empirical findings of the study indicates that; all economic determinants are negatively related to the perceived level of corruption except distribution of income and non-economic determinants are not significantly explaining the variations in the level of corruption. This shows that the socio-political and religious norms are so weak that they can not affect the corruption level in these countries. The contribution of religion in people's practical life is very little, so the cultural values of developing countries are not religion based. Therefore, perceived level of corruption is not affected by the religion. This study concluded that government should focus the economic factors to curb the level of corruption.

All political decision making processes reflect the interaction of different utility maximising actors: politicians, voters, bureaucrats and interest groups. Theoretical literature on the subject is not conclusive, and thus far, little empirical work exists. This study presents an econometric analysis of the allocation of development aid to Pakistan based on a political economic framework of aid allocation. Looking at bi- and multilateral aid to Pakistan from 1960 to 2002, results suggest that aid flows to Pakistan are highly motivated by special interests within donor countries and international financial institutions (IFIs). Looking more specifically at bilateral aid, and especially aid by the single largest donor to Pakistan, i.e. the US, analysis suggests that Pakistan and Indian ethnic lobbies could play a role in aid flows, and in the passage of two important amendments, the Pressler and Brown Amendments, in US aid authorisation bills regarding aid to Pakistan. Analysis of multilateral financial flows to Pakistan shows that Pakistan receives a large amount of lending but with considerable variations over time. To some extent personal contacts of Pakistani international civil servants appear to play a role in multilateral lending to Pakistan, along with major shareholders economic interests

This paper analyzes the determinants of international financial institutions (IFIs)'s lending decisions to Pakistan. At the example of three major IFIs, the World Bank, IMF and ADB, this paper suggests that political economic factors, notably bureaucratic interest of international civil servants and major shareholders' economic interest belong to the most relevant determinants of international lending. Pooled Tobit estimation analysis for the period ever since when these institutions established their lending instruments to developing countries, confirm this hypothesis. Recipients' need is shown to have some relevance as well but not as strong as bureaucratic interest. Further analysis suggests that IDA and ADB lending is more interest oriented than lending by the IBRD and IMF.

This study is an attempt to check some political factors determining budget deficit in Pakistan. It examines the short and long-run relationship between the Budget deficit, democracy and cabinet size for Pakistan's economy. The bounds testing approach to co-integration and (ECM) error-correction models, developed within an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) framework is applied to annual data for the period 1976 to 2009 in order to investigate whether a long-run equilibrium relationship exists between the budget deficit and these factors. The result of the bounds test indicates that there exist long-run relationship between the budget deficit and political variables. The results provide strong evidence that large government size will significantly add to the budget deficit. The democracy can help in reducing budget deficit but shows a weaker influence in case of Pakistan for the sample period.

Variations of bilateral aid flows are difficult to explain on the basis of official development objectives or recipient need. At the example of US aid to Pakistan, this paper suggests alternative political economic explanations, notably the relevance of ethnic lobbying and the relevance of US business interests. Time series regressions for the period from 1980 to 2002 and logistic regressions based on votes for the Pressler and the Brown Amendment confirm the significance of these political economic determinants. While in case of the Pressler Amendment, the direct influence of population groups of Indian and Pakistani origins seems to have played a predominant role, the role of ethnic business lobbies appears to have dominated in the context of the Brown Amendment. Time series analysis also provides some evidence for the impact of US business interests based on FDI and exports, but these effects appear to be comparatively small.

Maternal mortality is a critical global public health issue, particularly in developing countries like Pakistan. Interventions to improve mothers' usage of skilled birth attendant (SBA) may reduce maternal mortality. The aim of this work to conduct the spatial analysis of socioeconomic inequality of opportunity in access to SBA in districts of Punjab, Pakistan and explore the circumstance variables that contribute the most to the socioeconomic inequality. The study is conducted by using Punjab's Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2017-18 and the data analyzed are taken from women of 15 to 49 years with a live birth in the last 2 years. The Human Opportunity Index is used to measure the coverage rate, inequality, and universal access of opportunity across the districts of Punjab. Further, Shapley Decomposition is utilized to identify the contribution of the circumstance factors to the inequality. It is noted that most of the southern districts of Punjab have poor coverage rates and low universal access to SBA and northern districts have high coverage and universal access for the SBA. There is also higher inequality in southern districts of Punjab. Further, in decomposition analysis, it is found that household wealth status, ANC, birth order, birth interval, household head education, ethnicity, media access and residence were the most significant factors leading to socioeconomic inequality of opportunity across the districts of Punjab. Based on the findings, it is suggested that the government should prioritize equitable resource allocation, particularly in southern Punjab.

AbstractFood insecurity tends to be more prevalent amid crises. Several households employ various coping strategies to soften the crisis's financial impact and access adequate food for consumption. This study investigates the impact of various coping strategies on household food insecurity in Pakistan. The study endeavours to identify a more effective coping strategy for reducing food insecurity amid an economic crisis. The study uses nationally represented data surveyed to 'evaluate the socio‐economic impact of a pandemic on the well‐being of people'. We applied the Ordered Logit and Inverse Probability Weighting model to estimate the aftermath of coping strategies on food insecurity levels. The study's findings suggest that a household that used coping strategies amid crisis is a vulnerable household and more likely to have food insecurity status. Moreover, the study suggests that the coping strategies' extent (quantity) is positively associated with the likelihood of food insecurity. Finally, the study's aftermath suggests that amongst the different coping strategies, the erosive coping strategy has a lower likelihood of incidence of food insecurity than other strategies. However, within the erosive coping strategies, a household sold real estate asset has less likelihood of being food insecure than other erosive coping strategies. Moreover, spending savings or investments and liquidating real estate are crucial in determining the household's food security status amid the crisis. The study's key findings put forth some potential policy implications related to strategies that can hedge against the crisis and promote resilience in the face of food insecurity.

Diversity and socioeconomic deprivation have been widely discussed as determinants of social cohesion. These two factors are considered to be a threat to social cohesion. The existing literature identifies the problem, however, the literature suggesting the solution is very limited. The most important determinant which can cure the problems of social cohesion is the better quality of institutions, however, there is hardly any literature on this aspect. The current study has investigated the impact of political institutional quality on social cohesion by employing the fixed‐effect model for estimation. The analysis is conducted for 135 countries, using five‐year average panel data. The results suggest that political institutional quality augments social cohesion, gender equality, and per capita income also augment social cohesion. Ethnic diversity, income inequality, and globalization are a threat to social cohesion. Moreover, the threat to social cohesion is greater when there are low political institutional quality and high ethnic diversity, and income inequality as compared to a situation where there are high political institutional quality and low ethnic diversity, and income inequality. The results further suggest that the harmful effects of ethnic diversity, inequality, and globalization can be, not only overcome by institutional quality but can also be put to use to enhance social cohesion.

This study scrutinizes the effect of external and internal remittances on the outcomes of the labor market of Pakistan. The study uses data from PSLM – HIES 2018-2019. The labor participation analysis used the IV Probit model, while the labor supply analysis utilized the IV technique. The Multinomial Logit model with endogenous covariates is employed for the employment choice. The results reveal that an individual from a remittance-receiving household is less likely to participate in labor vis-à-vis an individual from a non-receiving household. The external and internal remittance inflow increases the labor supply for the labor-participating individual. In addition, more external remittances increase the likelihood of participation in self-employment than wage employment, which supports the positive effect of remittance inflow on labor supply. The higher internal remittances are associated with an increase in the likelihood of participation in farming. In short, our analysis supports the fact that the effect of external remittance is more pronounced on labor market outcomes than internal remittances. The study's findings assist the labor economist in observing the obstacles in the labor force participation and policymaker to understand the entrepreneurial level and economic activities in the remittance-receiving households to turn the effect of remittance into a job creator. JEL Classification: C39, C24, J22, F24.

Purpose of the study: The empowerment of women is an important aim for them to be fully engaged in economic life and to achieve sustainable growth worldwide. One form of empowerment is to provide women with basic facilities. Methodology: The study also analyzed the impact on women's empowerment by primary data taken via multi-phase cluster sampling methods of household socio-economic and cultural characteristics in Punjab. Given the diversity of nature and context, the 6-dimensional empirical polychoric principles of empowering women generate a stringent cumulative index of women's autonomy. Main Findings: The empirical findings show that empowering women and their six-dimensional effects are positive for women's years and jobs, legal advertisements, health care institutions, social participation, safe, smooth surroundings, communication, politics and residential negative participation, unpaid housekeeping, and the fear of violence. The results show that women's empowerment is positive. Applications of this study: This study can be more effective in the manner that to offer women free advice about their rights through electronic media, the government should establish an integrated legal cell with the local government. Novelty/Originality of this study: This research contribution in the field of women empowerment that how women can deal with legal advisory, to get jobs, protection in health and institutions.