Suchergebnisse

The tail of the tail-end of the 2nd millennium has taught the
humankind two valuable lessons: democracy and the market, although
imperfect, have succeeded where other systems have failed. What is clear
is that the most successful systems are aligned to humankind's
predispositions rather than being inimical to them. Insofar as it aligns
itself with the predisposition to greed, consistently regulated
capitalism terms out to be the most efficient economic system hitherto
observed in human society. Likewise, democracy works by aligning many
people's desire for power with a governance system which on balance is
helpful to the general population, unlike various forms of
totalitarianism. But recent movements for both capitalism and democracy
in many developing countries largely do not subscribe to humankind's
predispositions, rather they appear to be a part of the headlong global
trend towards these paradigms. The reason being that the most important
ingredient, common to both recipes, is lacking in many developing
countries: that is the popular pressure and mobilisation which is
sufficiently informed of its duties and rights. This ingredient is most
important as it forces out the authoritarian rule whether, totalitarian
or 'democratic', and makes democratic governance drive the market to the
maximum benefit of society. The central thesis of this work is that this
most important ingredient is the result of an effective and efficient
system of public institutions for free and compulsory universal primary
schooling which, if the resource constraint could be overcome, ought to
be supplemented by free and compulsory secondary schooling.

The world is presently looking forward to embrace the greatest
moment of modern history of humankind, turn of the millennium. For
Pakistan, however, the millennium celebrations are going to be
accompanied by over half a century of missed opportunities and a serious
challenge ahead. The focus of this study is Pakistan's status as a
'single commodity' country and the life after 2004 in a post- Multifibre
Arrangement (MFA) era. This work intends to use the hindsight to argue
that MFA, a cat's cradle of bilateral textile import quotas, was a
blessing in disguise for the value added textiles sector of Pakistan.
And the difficulties beyond 2004, when all the quotas have gone, should
not be underestimated in a bipolar (NAFTA and the EU) and deregulated
world economy . The analysis is carried out in four parts. Part I
highlights the economic significance of Pakistan's textiles industry by
briefly analysing its contribution to different sectors of her economy.
Part II presents the past, present and future scenario of international
trade in Textiles and Clothing (T&C). The present situation of
Pakistan's textiles industry along with its foreign exchange generating
performance in the past is assessed in Part III. Finally, Part IV
analyses the prospects and challenges faced by the T&C sector of
Pakistan.

The world is increasingly being divided into regions. The
regional trading blocs are becoming more and more deepened and widened
around the globe. The European Union (EU) has already reached a stage
approximating to the trading relations usually found within a country
rather than between the countries. The existence of regional economic
groups, particularly in European and American continents, pose a range
of theoretical, empirical and organisational questions for developing
countries like Pakistan who depend on the countries of these regions for
a significantly high share of their international trade. This paper
focuses on the prospects of extended economic cooperation of Pakistan
with the member countries of the South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation (SAARC).1 The argument is structured around three parts.
Part I reviews the theoretical rationale of regional economic
cooperation and the recent developments shaping the trading relations
within the cooperating blocs. Part II critically evaluates the relative
size and significance of the external sector of the SAARC region
countries, along with presenting statistical estimates of the major
external determinants of the region's economic growth. Finally, Part III
estimates the relationship of major directions of Pakistan's exports
with the economic growth of the country and presents the growth
projections by increasing and diverting the exports to the SAARC and
ASEAN region countries.

One of the core tenets of foreign aid theory, particularly as
encapsulated in the two-gap model, is that the insertion of foreign
resources via free grants, loans, direct investment etc., into a
developing economy sets in motion a causal chain of positive influences
in the following broad mannerl: aid' ~ increase in investible resources
~ increase in domestic investment ~ more rapid rate of economic growth.
Spirited and specific challenges to this approach came from many
critics, supported greatly by a number of broad theoreticaF and
empirical analyses. For a large part of the latter, the available
evidence pointed to a negative relationship between aid and domestic
savings. The evidence was largely based on crosssectional data, 'showing
that, there was, in addition, reason to suggest a negative relationship
between aid and economic growth. 3 The aim of this study is to provide
some quantitative evidence on the relationship between foreign aid,
domestic savings and economic growth for Pakistan. The analysis is
carried out in three parts. Part one contains the methodology and the
description of the data. Part two explores the correlation between aid
and several other explanatory variables with Pakistan's savings rate,
while part three attempts to analyse and explain the regression findings
in terms of the effect of aid on economic growth.

This paper examines the factors behind low crop yield in
Cholistan. Both the quantitative and qualitative analysis show how the
low levels of agricultural productivity in this area may be linked to
material and climatic factors. The quantitative analysis is mainly
focused on physical factors. The qualitative analysis, however,
emphasises that relative inefficiency of agricultural activity in
Cholistan reflects the influence of physical, economic, social and, most
importantly, climatic factors. The quantitative findings provide
valuable insight into various 'sources of productivity' in terms of
acreage effect, capital input effect and irrigation water availability
effect. The size of the positive and significant coefficients on these
variables suggest the extent to which one or the other variable effect
is prominent in improving the crop yield. The qualitative analysis
examines multiple interrelated factors which can be blamed on for
relative inefficiency of Cholistani farmers. The hot climate of the area
turns out to be the most critical variable in this analysis. Many
specific technological drought-mitigating measures are proposed.
However, for consistent policy formulation, a thorough study and
quantitative evaluation of the potential and practicality of these
measures in Cholistan is suggested.