In Pakistan, most of the media attention and research effort directed at public finance goes into highlighting and analysing budgetary policies of the federal government. This virtually exclusive focus on the highest tier of government obscures the fact that provision of social services like health and education that directly touch the life of millions of ordinary mortals is primarily the responsibility of the provincial governments. The haze, hence generated, provides a perfect backdrop for the book under review which is devoted entirely to the study of provincial government finance with special reference to its impact on the maintenance and expansion of social services
Jamaica, known in the world for her rich deposits of bauxite ore, is a small Caribbean country with an area of 10991 square kilometers and a population of just over two million individuals. This beautifu11and, which was described by Columbus as "The fairest isle that eyes have beheld" has developed a remarkably diversified manufacturing sector starting from a modest industrial base. Jamaica's manufacturing industry enjoyed a respectable growth rate of about 6 percent per annum during the good old days of the euphoric '50s and '60s. However, those bright sunny days ''when to live was bliss" were followed by the chilling winter of much subdued progress. The rise and fall of growth have aroused considerable interest among economists and policy• makers. The book under review probes the causes of this behaviour by analysing key characteristics of Jamaican manufacturing sector and tracing its path of evolution.
The present study measures time poverty and its incidence across gender, occupational groups, industries, regions, and income levels using Time Use Survey (TUS) 2007, the first nationwide time use survey for Pakistan. In the entire TUS sample, the incidence of time poverty is 14 percent. Women are found to be more time poor than men whether employed or not. This is because of certain women-specific activities that they have to perform irrespective of their employment status. Working women are far more time poor than those not working.. Women accepting a job have to make a major trade-off between time poverty and monetary poverty. People working in professions and industries that generally require extended work hours and offer low wage rates are more time poor. This entails a situation of double jeopardy for workers who tend to be money and time poor at the same time. The close association of time poverty with low income found in this study corroborates this conclusion. Government can help reduce time poverty by enforcing minimum wage laws and mandatory ceiling on work hours in industries with high concentration of time poverty. Eradication of monetary poverty can also eliminate the need to work long hours at low wages just to survive. A fair distribution of responsibilities between men and women.is also needed. Keywords: Time Poverty, Gender Disparities, Time Use, SNA Activities, Time Use Survey, Pakistan
Economists agree that both monetary and fiscal policies can influence the pace of aggregate economic activity. However, their relative importance still remains a widely debated and complicated issue. Given the mushroom growth of different types of economic models, it seems almost impossible to decide their relative importance, at a purely theoretical level. So in this paper, we have tried to deal with this issue empirically in the context of Pakistan. In surveying the literature, we can find a number of empirical studies on this issue, but most of them are for the developed countries. Similar studies for the developing countries are rare. We have been able to find only two such studies for Pakistan, one by Hussain (1982) and the other by Masood and Ahmad (1980). The study by Hussain (1982) covers the period from 1949-50 to 1970-71, and the data used in this study pertain to united (East and West) Pakistan. So the results of his study can hardly be of much relevance to present Pakistan. Masood and Ahmad (1980) use data for present Pakistan from 1959-60 to 1976-77 in their study. They regress induced' expenditures on autonomous expenditures and money supply and assess the relative importance of the two exogeneous variables, on the basis of t-values and beta-coefficients. Their definition of induced and autonomous expenditures seems to be a little arbitrary. Agricultural income, an independent variable in their regressions, turns out to be a dominant variable in a number of equations. The negative sign of the autonomous expenditures in some regressions is difficult to justify. Their efforts, to determine the lag structure, have also been unsuccessful. Although their data are from many individual sources, they have not applied any formal tests to check the consistency of the data and the possible structural change that might have taken place due to the separation of East Pakistan.
In today's globalized world, it has become a necessary norm to be part of a regional integration process for neighbouring countries in any region of the world. Central Asia is a good example to understand with its rich past and unexplored perspective. This phenomenon can be better understood by examining the quest of Central Asian republics (CARs) for regional integration and the role of BRI in this process. For that, this paper explores the historical dynamics and drivers of regional integration in Central Asia with a special focus on the role of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) which aims to improve regional infrastructure, commerce, and investment, has the potential to redefine the direction of regional integration in Central Asia in the face of shifting global power dynamics. Furthermore, Liberal Intergovernmental theory helps explain the Central Asian Republics' core actions and the impact of their domestic policies providing a details view of what drives regional integration in Central Asia. The study explores the historical dynamics and drivers of regional integration in Central Asia, focusing on the role of the BRI in reshaping these dynamics at domestic and external levels, using qualitative and thematic analysis of secondary sources.
The share of private and NGO schools in primary education has substantially increased over time, though the public sector is still a major player in this area. The present study analyses the factors determining the quality of education offered by the three types of schools and draws policy recommendations for improving primary education in Pakistan. The study compares learning achievement of Class 4 students enrolled in 50 public, private, and NGO schools located across six districts of Pakistan and in Azad Kashmir in terms of their scores in Mathematics, Urdu, and General Knowledge tests. The analysis shows that, practically, there is no gap between public and NGO schools in terms of the test scores of their students. However, a significant test score gap was found between the students enrolled in public and private schools. This gap was largely explained by family background and school-related variables, including teachers' qualification and student/teacher ratio. However, the performance of private schools was not uniform across districts. In some districts public schools performed even better than private and NGO schools. The findings of this study highlight the need for improving the quality of education in public schools by recruiting more qualified teachers and improving overall supervision. Teacher training is the area where the public and private sectors can benefit by pooling their resources and expertise.
In this study an attempt has been made to estimate the incidence of federal taxes, for the fiscal year 1978·79, on households belonging to different incomebrackets. All the major direct and indirect taxes have been studied. The tax system turns out to be slightly progressive for the country as a whole. For urban areas, it is slightly progressive, and for rural areas it is slightly regressive. Indirect taxes, a major source of the federal government tax revenue, are generally slightly regressive.
In the realm of monetary economics, the question of the appropriate definition of money is both crucial and controversial. Various definitions of money offered by monetary economists differ widely. While narrowly defined money consists of currency and demand deposits only. other broader definitions of money include a host of other assets as well. The choice of the most appropriate monetary aggregate is an empirical issue and needs to be settled empirically. In the literature a number of methods are available for defining money empirically. To mention only two of them, Meltzer (1963) and Laidler (1966) consider that definition o f money the most appropriate which gives the most stable demand function for money while Chetty (1969), Moroney and Wilberatte (1976), Boughton (1981) and Husted and Rush (1984) infer their definition of money on the basis of the degree of substitutability between narrowly defined money and other financial assets. Although the two methods are closely linked, the latter has the advantage of providing a direct measure of the degree of substitutability between various financial assets and also allows for defining money as a sort of weighted average of these assets based on this substitutability rather than a simple-sum aggregation.
The role of monetary sector in determining the level of key macro-economic variables like income, employment and prices is well established in the economics literature. The importance of monetary economics has inspired many economists to undertake research in this field and most of their work on Pakistan relates to empirical estimation of the two key relationships in the monetary sector, namely, demand and supply functions for money.
The main objective of the tax system of a country is to generate enough revenue for the government, and it is always desired that taxes should be such that there is less burden on the poor and more on the rich. Such an attribute of the tax system becomes even more desirable for a country like Pakistan where the present distribution of resources is highly unequal and a large proportion of the population is living at the subsistence level. As in many other developing countries, in Pakistan also indirect taxes dominate in terms of their contribution to total tax revenue. It is argued that indirect taxes arc generally regressive since they arc levied on consumption, and people in the lower-income classes devote relatively greater proportion of their incomes to consumption. In this study, we have tried to estimate the incidence of the federal taxes on households in different income groups. We accomplished this by calculating effective tax rates (percentage of income contributed to taxes) for them.
The idea of Eurasian integration has come up as a strategic goal of major powers in recent years. Russia's Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and the European Union's (EU) Eastern Partnership Program(EPP) with the objective of expanding a sphere of influence and China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to create economic integration through transportation infrastructure and trade are three major strategies for this purpose. This study highlights that China's growing presence in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is a clear indicator of its growing influence. Therefore, the article aims to appraise China's rise in Eastern Europe through its BRI and Eurasian integration strategy. Secondly, it presents a comparative analysis of multiple Eurasian integration strategies. Through a prism of "New Regionalism Theory," this study delves into exploring the factors behind China's effort to create regional integration in the whole Eurasia. The findings of the study show that the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a unique idea in the sense that it aims at not only the integration of geographically adjacent regions but also creating physical connections in faraway regions. This convergence will not only bring more financial opportunities for the regional states but also manifest a great probability for China's emergence as the greatest Eurasian power.
The idea of Eurasian integration has come up as a strategic goal of major powers in recent years. Russia's Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and the European Union's (EU) Eastern Partnership Program(EPP) with the objective of expanding a sphere of influence and China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to create economic integration through transportation infrastructure and trade are three major strategies for this purpose. This study highlights that China's growing presence in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is a clear indicator of its growing influence. Therefore, the article aims to appraise China's rise in Eastern Europe through its BRI and Eurasian integration strategy. Secondly, it presents a comparative analysis of multiple Eurasian integration strategies. Through a prism of "New Regionalism Theory," this study delves into exploring the factors behind China's effort to create regional integration in the whole Eurasia. The findings of the study show that the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a unique idea in the sense that it aims at not only the integration of geographically adjacent regions but also creating physical connections in faraway regions. This convergence will not only bring more financial opportunities for the regional states but also manifest a great probability for China's emergence as the greatest Eurasian power.
Primary education is at the base of the pyramid of education, and is regarded as a fundamental human right today. In addition, it has several tangible social and economic effects. As an essential component of human capital, primary education plays an important role in the economic growth and development of a country.1 Its impact on several other socioeconomic variables has also been documented in the literature. To quote a few examples, Butt (1984) has found that five or more years of a farmer's education lead to increased farm productivity, reduced use of farm labour, and increased use of yield augmenting inputs. Azhar (1988) also reports a significant relationship between the number of years of schooling and increase in farm output due to increased technical efficiency. Studies of the rates of returns to education attribute a positive value to the rate of returns to primary education.2 This means that by acquiring primary education one can increase one's earnings.
