Archives

The motive of present paper was to test the predictability of equity fund performance on the basis of fund variables. In this respect, five equity fund variables were selected namely past fund performance, flow, expense ratio, age and size. The data of seventeen equity funds for the time period June 2010 to June 2017 was collected. Moreover, Arellano and Bond (1991) dynamic panel data approach was employed to examine the predictability of fund performance. Results indicated significant negative influence of past fund performance and expense ratio on future performance of equity funds, however, no significant influence of past fund flow, age and size on future performance of equity funds was found. Overall results suggest that investors can predict future performance of equity funds on the basis of past performance and expense ratio. Moreover, predictability of performance can help investors in making optimal investment decisions. This study is novel in its nature as it examined the predictability of Pakistani equity fund performance by using dynamic panel data approach. Hence the research can be extended in other types of fund operating in Pakistan.

This study examined the impact of reduction in energy poverty on environment. Energy poverty is defined in several ways like; percentage of household expenditure on energy uses or alternatively in terms of access to clean energy products and services such as electricity, natural gas and LPG etc. Pakistan Social and Living Standard Measurement (PSLM) data for 2013-14 is utilized to compute Multidimensional Energy Poverty Index. The index, based on data for different fuels for heating, lightening and cooking, is computed to assess incidence of energy poverty. The list of fuel includes firewood, coal, kerosene oil, Gas (Cylinder), Gas (Pipeline), electricity from regular distribution system of WAPDA and from Generators. Multidimensional Energy Poverty Index (MEPI) is showing that 69.67 percent households are deprived of clean fuel for cooking and 47.11 percent are deprived of clean fuel for heating. However, for lighting only 9.04 percent households do not have access to clean source. Furthermore, study finds that CO2 emissions can be reduced significantly through improving access (access through subsidization, regulation and increasing supply) of low income group to the energy mix of high income group. If highest income groups’ energy mix is available to poor, for cooking and heating purposes, the emissions will decline to 755.869 metric ton (per month) from current of 2039.520 metric ton (Per month). Per household will also decline by 44.69 kgCo/kwh if highest income group energy mix is available to all households .

This study aim was to examine the impact of reward and motivation to the satisfaction of job in private schools Kohat. Questionnaire was used as tool for collection information. Sample was the employee employees of secondary schools. Sample size was 120. SSPS was used for analyzing information. The result showed the relationship among the variables. The management should make mandatory on the job training and follow reward ad motivation principles for satisfaction of employees’ jobs.

There has been Investigation of relationship among money supply, budget deficit and inflation in this research study. Data for the period 1990-2017 has collected from the state bank of Pakistan and World Bank economic indicators on their website. In analysis, we have used unit root test, regression analysis and co-integration test for applying to the information gathered through secondary resources. In findings, we have key outcomes that money supply and inflation have different effects on the fiscal deficit. Our result has supported a positive relationship in between fiscal deficit and money supply. We had also explored the negative relationship between inflation and fiscal deficit. This mention that government has to implement such policies, which can control the inflation and money, supply both for reduction in fiscal deficit. Increase in inflation, decrease in money supply and later increase in fiscal deficit make bad impact to the Economy of Pakistan.

In many developing countries, the problem of income inequality and unemployment is rising very fast while at the same time, most of the individuals living in these economies do not have access to basic necessities. Such a situation causes economic and social restlessness and calls for a change in economic strategies. For solutions, the concept of inclusive growth is emerging as a keynote discussion among economists around the world. Human and physical infrastructure is one of the strong candidates that can help fight against unemployment and poverty and takes the economy towards the road to inclusive growth. This paper examines their potential to contribute to more sustained and broadly based economic growth of Pakistan. Inclusive growth is measured by calculating the growth rate of human development index (HDI) based on UNDP’s (2011). Empirical findings of this study suggest that human and physical infrastructure positively and significantly affects inclusive growth. Thus, investment in human and physical infrastructure needs to be planned to support key growth corridors that foster economic advancements and help the masses to contribute to economic growth and benefit from it as well.

The strategic objective of e-government is to promote efficient provision of public services. This study explores the effect of e-government on economic growth. A macroeconomic production function is used to examine the impact of e-government on economic growth. The archive data of 147 nations across the world over the years of 2003 to 2012 is employed and OLS and IV econometric techniques are used. The results exhibit that an increase in e-government adaption leads to high economic growth. The empirical findings of this research are robust to various control variables, to endogeneity problem and to different specifications of the model.

This study aimed to investigate the role of the High performance work practices (HPWP) on Value Co creation (VCC) with mediating role of work engagement (WE). Primary data were collected based on 250 employees working in automobile sector. The data was analyzed using statistical tool like Mean, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), correlation and validity analysis in SPSS v.21 and AMOS v.21. The findings of the study disguised that high performance work practices is an important factor to value co creation hence work engagement also proved to be important indicator to boost practices of employees in organization. The data collected through on site survey technique. The sample was drawn from Pakistan especially from automobile sector. Implication is first, that organizations in addition to investing in different initiatives should also invest particularly for value co creation to achieve purpose through high performance work practices in automobile sector. Second, to advance effectiveness and acceptance of work engagement in organization, manager needs to ensure employee is integral part of organization which will enhance their practices and value co creation for customers.

The study investigates the association of educational expenditure and income inequality with economic growth in Pakistan, by using the annual time series data from 1980 to 2019. The ARDL bound testing co-integration approach confirms that there is long run relationship between the variables. The study includes economic growth as dependent variable whereas, education and income inequality as repressors. The results indicate that education is positively and significantly correlated with economic growth. While income inequality is negatively and significantly correlated with economic growth in long run and short run. According to the finding it is recommended that development in education sector is efficient policy to increase Economic growth and to improve the income distribution in Pakistan.

This paper examines how the economic growth of different sectors affects poverty in Pakistan uses the time series data over the period 1973-2016. The ARDL co-integration approach has been applied to investigate the impact of sectoral growth on aggregate as well as disaggregated poverty in the long run and short run. The results indicate that industrial growth reduces total, rural and urban poverty significantly while the performance of services sector affects the composition of poverty insignificantly. The agricultural sector growth has a negative impact on aggregate poverty while it has an insignificant impact on disaggregated poverty.

This paper critically evaluates the concept of Musharakah Mutanaqisah financing and its related issues. In recent years, Islamic banks and financial institutions have frequently practised Musharakah Mutanaqisah as an investment and financing tool, along with Muzarbah, Murabahah and Ijarah. Musharakah Mutanaqisah is a partnership contract between two parties, wherein one partner gradually buys the whole property. After the formation of partnership, the transaction starts and sale and purchase of the property take place between the partners. It is imperative that this buying and selling should not be stipulated in the partnership contract. Moreover, the buying and selling agreement must not be conditional to the partnership contract. The researcher concludes with a few suggestions and recommendations to improve and get acceptance of this product in future.

This study attempts to explain the factors of satisfaction in the patient's perspective from the private healthcare sector of Lahore. The data was collected from in-patients of eight major hospitals in Lahore city of Pakistan. The study distributed 450 questionnaires among patients of different hospitals for data collection and received 322 fully filled questionnaires for data analysis. The study applied different statistical tools to analyze the data. The findings show that among all six variables, physical facility is the most influential predictor of patient satisfaction in the private healthcare sector of Lahore. The analysis further explored that all hypotheses of the study are proved to be true and significant.

This study has chosen top three economies of the world to explore the relationship between energy consumption and economic growth by using annual data from 1985-2020. The results of ARDL approach shows that energy has a positive and significant impact on the economic growth of USA, China and Japan. Japan is the largest beneficiary in the short run as well in the long run, followed by USA and China.

This study investigates the income elasticity of health in rural areas of Pakistan. It was conducted during 2019-20 to find out the responsiveness of health expenses proportionate to the earnings of rural people of the country. Multistage sampling technique was used for data collection from 180 respondents from two districts, i.e., Toba Tek Singh district from Punjab province and Tando Allahyar district from Sindh province. The respondents were categorized into three income groups – low, medium, and high – and were interviewed to find out that what portion of income of each group is being directly or indirectly on their health and wellness. The findings show that the low, medium, and high-income groups were spending about 17.7, 7.7 and 4.2 percent of their income on health and wellness, respectively. Further, it was observed that with the increase of income, the low income group will spend another 8.8 percent on health as compared to the medium, and high-income groups, who will lower the expenses on health by 0.6 and 0.09 percent, respectively. Due to large family size i.e., 9.7 persons per family, most of them were unable to fulfill the basic nutritional requirements in daily food. Moreover, in case of emergency, low-income group either uses home-made medicines (totkas) or pays visits to the unauthorized doctors called hakeem. While medium and high-income groups prefer to visit the private hospitals, due to insufficient healthcare facilities at the public hospitals.

This study aims to analyze the impact of different deriving forces like trade balance, capital, inflation rate, exchange rate and government fiscal measures on economic growth of Pakistan during the period 1977 to 2019. The empirical results are tested through ARDL co-integration method which indicates that capital, inflation rate, exchange rate and tax revenues have significant long term and short term relationship with economic growth.

This research aims to investigate the nexus between urbanization environmental degradation and economic growth in BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) economies. This relation is still under question. Some researcher shows positive affiliation of urbanization with economic growth and environmental degradation while some show negative. But truth is that urbanization environmental degradation and economic growth are correlated to each other. For the analysis, data is taken from the period 1990 to 2018. Two models are created the first model shows the urbanization nexus with economic growth and the second is showing the nexus of environmental degradation and economic growth. The GDP is the dependent variable in both model and independent variable are labor force participation rate, carbon dioxide emission, gross fixed capital formation, trade openness, exchange rate, school enrollment, real interest rate, urbanization growth, and poverty headcount. Annual data is collected from the world indicator file. To check the correlation between variables, panel co-integration analyses such as Pedroni co-integration test, and Kao residual co-integration tests are applied. Panel co-integration tests are employed on two models separately. Both FMOLS models estimated the relevance. A causality test is also applied. The concluding effect shows that in BRICS urbanization has a positive effect on economic growth and a negative effect of environmental degradation on economic growth. The current study base on the least considered variables panel cointegration test FMOLS technique is used.

Since the 1990s, developing countries shifted their trade policy from inward-oriented strategy to outward-oriented strategy because of the conditions imposed by international lending institutions for granting loans to developing countries. The current study aims to investigate the impact of trade liberalization on employment and wages within the 30 developing countries over the period 2000 to 2019. To investigate empirical connections between trade, employment and wages, reduced form equations of labor demand and wages have been devised. The study has applied Generalized Method of Moments estimation techniques to estimate labor demand and wage equations to tackle the problem of endogeneity. The empirical findings of the study predict that trade liberalization has significant adverse effect on both labor demand and wages. However, the magnitude of the influence of trade on both one is small. Similarly, wages, employment level, output and real exchange rate are affecting employment and wages significantly. While ILO ratifications are significant only when KOF trade globalization is used as measure of liberalization, and time trend is significant only when weighted tariff rate is used as a measure of liberalization. To craft a multilateral and effective policy development, both real output and workers’ skill should be the focus of economic managers of the developing economies to reap the benefits of trade liberalization.

Kasur is well-known for its enormous leather industry, however the city pays a high price in terms of water pollution as a result of this business. Water within a broad radius of this leather manufacturing sector has been designated unfit to drink. As a result, this contaminated water has a negative impact on human health. This research is a small attempt to investigate the problems produced by water contamination. Surveillance was carried out in Kasur for this aim, and the results were assessed. Both males and females had a high prevalence of morbidity from various diseases, according to the findings.

Determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) is the key area of research in development economics. Earlier studies did not give due weight to the segregation of analysis across economic, social, and institutional factors for FDI. This study specifically attempts to explore the intervening role of social and institutional factors which affects the relationship between economic factors and inward FDI. For this purpose, three segregate models relating to economic, social, and institutional factors along with a composite model comprised of all these factors are taken into consideration in this study. Panel data utilized is related to South Asian countries from 2008 to 2016. In the light of Breusch-Pagan LM Statistics, Pooled OLS estimates are preferred for analyses. This study leads to the conclusion that in segregation analysis economic factors and institutional factors have an important role in attracting FDI, but social factors have no significant role in this regard. The intervening role of social and institutional factors is not found in this study. The only factors which are recognized in the composite analysis are economic. Enlarged market size having an efficient financial market with no inflationary pressure is found to be an economic environment in the South Asian region which is helpful for attracting FDI. The rule of law is not found to be an effective characteristic for inward FDI.

This study examines the relationship between inflation, Money supply, interest rate and unemployment in Pakistan using annual time series data from 1987 to 2019. Inflation is used as the dependent variable and money supply (M2), unemployment and interest rate as the independent variable. Discount rate is used as the proxy of the interest rate. The results of ADF unit root test shows that variables have different order of integration. The study used ARDL cointegration approach to test the long run and short run for the existence among the variables. The results found that there is long run as well as short run relationship among the variables.

In this article the reader’s will able to read opinion and context regarding children of female prisoners in the prison and outside the prison regarding education with or mental health, which taken as the hidden consequences of the circumstances. The emphasis lies into the fact that a voice of gross attention with loud should be given by the civil society and social activists. This study encompasses the key issues regarding the children within jail or outside the jail of incarcerated mothers; the survey has been made for these children for opinion and condition analysis for the impact upon their lives of incarcerated mothers. The situation of these children is the ignorance is the blessing. Our concerns are vital that this vice of attention should be taken by all and sundry.

Tourism is the flourishing sector in Pakistan because there are multiple religious, archaeological and beautiful adventure places. This study explores the different determents of tourism demand based on the asymmetric effect of energy prices and the symmetric effect of the exchange rate, globalization, and governance during 1980-2020. The domestic pump diesel prices in liters have been used as the proxy to measure energy prices. The Non-linear ARDL econometric approach finds that positive shocks of energy prices decline tourism while negative shocks of energy prices increase tourism demand. While the deprecation in the exchange rate, massive globalization, and good governance significantly enhance tourism demand in Pakistan. The study recommends that Pakistan government should promote cheaper energy resources to promote tourism demand.

The paper examined the relationship between External debt and Foreign aid in the Economic Growth of Pakistan. We have used the data of all variables from 1980-2019.GDP has been used as a proxy variable in this study. The explanatory variables are a foreign direct investment, external debt, and foreign aid. Since we have time series data, the augmented Dickey-Fuller Unit Root test is used to ascertain stationarity. Some variables are stationary at a level, and some are stationary at the first difference, so we applied ARDL and found that foreign aid and foreign direct investment are positively related to growth. At the same time, external debt has shown a negative impact on the economic development of Pakistan.

This study explores the effectiveness of non-development and development expenditure's impact on economic growth. The researcher used gross domestic product growth as the proxy of economic growth, military expenditures that indicate the non-developmental expenditures, developmental expenditure, total expenditure by government and gross domestic savings. Time series data have been used from 1988 to 2020 in this study and the target country has Pakistan. In this paper, the Auto-Regressive Distribution Lag Model has been estimated to check the effectiveness and long-run relationship. The main findings suggest that a long-run relationship exists between non-development expenditure, development expenditure and economic growth. Development expenditure, non-development expenditure and savings have a positive and increasing impact on the economic growth of Pakistan. So, in Pakistan development expenditure and non-development expenditure both are equally important for economic growth.

The study empirically analyzes the impacts of public spending and efficiency of financial intermediaries on economic growth in selected five SAARC countries using panel data from 1994 to 2018. Financial intermediaries like banks provide different services to the community and earned valuable deposits. On the basis of deposits, it offers credit facility to the community and business units. Domestic credits to private sector and financial system deposit shows worth of financial intermediaries in the economy. Credit to private sector is important for private sector development and for consumer financing which increases aggregate demand hence economic growth. Similarly, financial system deposits (LNFSD) represents more reserves of financial institutions/system which shows more availability of loan lending facility for private sector/ investor which results in higher production/growth in the economy. Government expenditure is one of the prime tools of fiscal policy which shows important role in achieving the goals of growth and stability in the economy in many developing countries. When there is rise in government expenses, it results in creation of jobs, provision of better infrastructure and improvement in services by government in the economy.

The study investigates the impact of globalization and democracy on the aggregate level of social spending for Pakistan for the period 1972-2020. The investigation includes how governments react to the challenges of globalization with welfare policy decisions that are located more toward reducing cost ("efficiency theory") otherwise ensuring individuals' government assistance ("compensation theory"). Empirical evidence based on Johansen Cointegration and VECM indicate the long-run and short-run dynamics between globalization, democracy, and social spending. The normalized cointegrating results show that the globalization variables (trade and financial openness) are inversely related to social spending, reflecting the existence of the “efficiency thesis”, while democracy has a positive association with social spending. The other control variable results also indicate a significant impact on social spending, specifically debt service and inflation rate have a negative impact while the economic development and unemployment rate have a positive and significant relationship with social spending in the long run.

This study aims at evaluating the validity of the “Triple (Current Account, Budget & Financial) Deficit Hypothesis (TDH)” the extension of the “Twin Deficit Hypothesis (TDH)” for the of South Asian countries i.e., (Bangladesh, India, Pakistan & Sri-Lanka) by using the panel data for the era of 2000-2021. First, the stationarity is to be tested of the “Current Account Deficit (CAD)”, the “Budget Deficit (BD,)” and the “Financial Deficit (FD)”. However, the results show that although other variables are stationary at the 1st difference I(1) except one i.e., , the CAD is non-stationary at a level I(0). All variables, however, are stationary at the 1st difference. Furthermore, the co-integration test indicates that co-integration exists among the series means that long-term association is present among the variables. The findings of the “VECM Granger Causality Test” demonstrate the existence of a two-way causal link between CAD & BD and between CAD and Financial deficit which indicates that the improvement in the current account balance (CAB) while the fiscal adjustment is not totally controlled by policy and necessitates CAD adjustment, it also demands fiscal austerity. As a result, we can draw the conclusion that the "Triple Deficit Hypothesis [TDH]" holds to the South Asian region.

The main objective of this study is to estimate a significant model to forecast Pakistan’s yearly economic variables of imports and exports. The data have been collected from the World Bank website ranging from 1962 to 2020. Imports and Exports of Pakistan are observed and analyzed by using time series analysis techniques by utilizing the Box-Jenkins methodology and Vector autoregressive model through Eviews-10 software. These methods were used for analysis, estimation, and forecasting purposes. The empirical analysis involved using the ADF (Augmented Dickey-Fuller) unit root test to check the stationary of the data. We used multivariate and univariate time series models. Before forecasting we check the correlation among the variables and apply the VAR model. it checks the forecasting accuracy by using RMSE, and MAE. We conclude that VAR model is the best technique for the forecasting of imports and exports.

Infant mortality is a common problem of the developing countries. Though Pakistan has reduced the infants’ death number from 106 deaths in 1990 to 62 deaths in 2018 in every 1000 infants, still stands among the highest infant death rate countries in the world. The present study is an attempt to assess the role of mothers’ empowerment (measured with Women’s Empowerment Index), utilization of child healthcare services and demographics in the infant mortality rate in Pakistan. The convenient sample of 300 ever married women of reproductive age (21-49), having at least one child, was taken from three city districts of Punjab, Pakistan (viz., Multan, Khanewal, & Dera Ghazi Khan). The result of the Ordinary Least Squares technique indicated that two dimensions of women/mothers’ empowerment viz., economic and familial, mother’s age at marriage, mothers’ education, antenatal care, postnatal care, and vaccination status had negative impact on infants’ mortality rate in Pakistan. The recommendations have been given in the light of the results attained.

The world was running in the usual way that suddenly on 20 December 2019 two patients with a freaky disease came to Wuhan hospital in China. Initially, doctors did not take this disease seriously. However, with time, the number of patients with this disease increased. Then this disease outbreak all over China within 2 to 3 months condition which initiated in Wuhan city until March it engulfed entire China. All the big cities, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen Guangzhou, and Wuhan were completely shut down, and businesses of the people’s completely shut down. Colleges and Universities have been closed with no transportation including air transportation and no delivery system. In short, all the departments and institutions were badly suffered gradually. The whole of China was engulfed in this disease like a swamp. On April 23, China started normally working with the measurement by wearing masks, taking the initial COVID-19 test and keeping a distance of 1 meter from person to person. It was revealed that the disease spreads by touching, breathing and other things. The latter condition becomes airborne; therefore, all the possible measures were adopted to control the disease outbreak.

This study examines the existence of the Ricardian Equivalence Hypothesis (REH) in the combined case of Group of Seven (G7) and South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries. This study is done under the assumption that the combined case of developed and developing economies will give evidence of REH. A panel data set from 2001 to 2019 is utilized for seven variables; Disposable Income, Household Final Consumption Expenditure, Government Budget Deficit, General Government Gross Debt, General Government Total Expenditure, General Government Revenue, and Wealth. The stationarity of these variables has checked by five different unit root tests; IPS, Fisher and Choi based ADF, and Fisher and Choi based PP. In the light of the Hausman test, we have adopted the random effect model to precede Panel Least Square (PLS). After applying PLS, the Wald test has rejected all restrictions which were applied to prove the existence of REH in developed and developing economies. Results showed that fiscal policy should be one of the stabilization policies in this understudy economic world to control the revenues and expenditure side.

Due to technological improvement, there has been a significant and quick change in the patterns of all economic activity. Even for the cost-effective and efficient use of the other four components of production, such as labour, energy has become a significant issue (land, labor, capital, and organization). Due to the extreme use of energy, the global environment is deteriorating, and international economies are desiring an environmentally sustainable approach to economic growth. Using Annual data from 1981 - 2018, the current study tries to explore the influence of energy usage and environmental deterioration in Pakistan Economy. The stationarity is checked using the Augmented Dickey and Fuller unit root approach. Long-term relationships between variables are provided by the auto regressive distributive lag model. ECM calculates and displays changeable short-run behaviour. GNP and CO2 emissions have been employed as proxy variables for economic development and environmental damage, respectively. Export, GFCF, and population density are the additional factors utilised to further explain and analyse the link between variables. Export, GFCF, and CO2 have a significant influence on economic growth, however energy consumption and population have an unfavourable association with Pakistan's economic growth. ECM returns a positive and substantial value, indicating that if a shock to the independent variable happens, the equilibrium will diverge.

Foreign direct investment, commodity production sector, and inflation play an incredibly important part in the economic growth of any country developing nations, particularly. In developing countries like Pakistan, foreign direct investment is frequently regarded as a major component of economic progress. The agriculture sector in Pakistan is extremely important to the economy, contributing 18.9% of GDP and employing 42.3 percent of the workforce, and also Industry is regarded as the most important industry for economic development. In Pakistan, as in most emerging and developed countries, inflation is a big issue. The basic motive of this research is to investigate the effect of foreign direct investment, commodity production, and inflation on the GDP rate of growth in Pakistan, by taking time-series data from 1990 to 2019, by world development indicator, and economic surveys of Pakistan. GDP rate of growth is used as dependent while, FDI, commodity production, consumer price index, interest rate, Gross capital formation, and labor force participation rate are used as explanatory variables. Based on the unit root analysis, we applied Nonlinear Autoregressive distributed lag model. And the finding revealed that a positive shock in foreign direct investment and commodity production has a positive and significant impact on Pakistan's economy, but the negative shock has a negative but insignificant influence on the economic development of Pakistan. Although the consumer price index has a negative but significant impact on the GDP growth rate

The purpose of this research is to assess the effect of several macroeconomic variables in preventing Pakistan from reaching its optimum level of growth by utilizing its resources efficiently. The independent variables are a set of variables that include employment, political stability in the absence of violence and terrorism, the log of CPI, and current account data from world development indicators and world governance indicators from 1996 to 2021. The findings show that political stability and employment have a positive connection with GDP, but current account and log CPI have a negative link with GDP.

This study focused on investigating the existence of Okun’s law in the SAARC region using panel data from 1990 to 2020. For empirical investigation, the study used the panel least square method. Results indicated negative but differentiated results from other studies in magnitude comparison. These findings supported many other studies in computing negative relation but is contradictory to Okun’s law prediction of (1:3) as a decline in GDP by 3% due to unemployment increase by just 1%. Still, in the case of SAARC countries, one percent rise in unemployment decreases GDP by just 0.047 percent. These findings conclude that SAARC countries are labour-abundant countries and most of the labour force engaged in agro based sector with decreasing marginal productivity. These findings also draw attention towards the shifting of labour force from lower marginal productivity to higher marginal productivity i.e. from agriculture to industry and hence total factor productivity.

Divert the public attention toward real problems in the form of obesity. To inform the public how obesity is bad for their health & age so they try to minimize obesity levels seriously. Awareness of knowledge that obesity is associated with other diseases is very dangerous. Awareness of how Obesity affects lifestyle and health. How Obesity effect work performance (WP) & work efficiency & obesity impacts income. Quantitative research method is implemented via survey strategy. The technical research approach using a self-made questionnaire & live conversations with participants was implemented. 250 respondents were targeted in a district of Pakistan & its related rural area, 200 responded including 175 males & 25 females respectively. According to the final results from a health perspective most affected group was 55+ years old people & less affected were 15-25 years old which means health complications are increased with age in Pakistan, On the other, if we have a glimpse into the causes of the obesity, most affected groups its habits 15-25 and 26-35 peoples habits are not upto mark standard high consumption of junk food, bad dietary habits, bad sleeping habits, in exercise is god, but the group age by 55+ years habits are good but they are very keen to watch TV shows & new media & less exercise. And if we compare economically the 55+ years people are richer & the first group 15-25 years have low income because most of the people are a student or either depends on their parents. So the economically wealthier people are more obese in general research & survey perception.

This study examines the investment appraisal of banana orchards cultivated in the Sindh province of Pakistan. Sindh is a major banana producer province in the country which produces 87 percent of Pakistan's total banana production. A sample of 240 farmers was selected through a purposive sampling technique from three districts of Sindh, Khairpur Mir’s, Hyderabad, and Thatta. A structured interview schedule was used to collect data from the respondents. The results show that the majority of the farmers were illiterate with sufficient farming experience. The average productivity per acre was (425.39 maunds) this was higher than the national average production, where the rate per maund was Rs.1308.87. Moreover, net present value (NPV) results show that the business is profitable as the sum of all discounted net returns is a positive number. Despite high potential and favorable climate conditions, the investment in this agribusiness is low. Thus, the government has to arrange awareness seminars and meetings on investment in banana orchards for the farmers. This will help to extend the banana cultivation in Sindh and other provinces of the country. In this way, the country can export quality fruit and can earn much more profit.

This study investigates the relationship between market capitalization and economic growth in Egypt from 2002-2021. It estimates the mediating role of market capitalization in economic growth and other macroeconomic variables. The study found mixed order of integration among variables, with most being marginally significant. Factors such as FDI, gross fixed capital formation, consumption expenditures, GDP per employed person, and market capitalization positively impact GDP growth rate. The study recommends implementing policies to attract and facilitate foreign direct investment, encourage domestic and foreign investment in physical assets, and boost consumer spending. Policies should also focus on fostering a robust and transparent financial market.

Irrigation systems play an important role in the national economy from the food and water security perspectives. The chief objective of any such system is the provision of equitable, reliable, and timely supply of irrigation water to the farmers. Traditionally the water sector is managed by the centralized irrigation bureaucracy with marginal involvement of the water users in Punjab. There had been many efforts by the Government of Punjab, in collaboration with donor agencies, to reform the irrigation system. The first major reform, led by the World Bank, was the introduction of the Punjab Irrigation and Drainage Act 1997 (PIDA) to revamp irrigation networks, decentralization of decision-making, creation of water markets and inducting water-related public utilities. It promoted the internationally tested and trialled best model of Irrigation Participatory Management (IPM) that essentially involves the water users in the decision-making conduits. The users took this reform as a positive step towards an equitable and timely supply of water for agricultural purposes, however, the irrigation bureaucracy viewed it as a power-stripping intervention. For 22 years of the reform period, this reform gained some initial successes but failed to institutionalize the user’s angle. Quoted as the reform is wrought with snags, it fell short of achieving its desired outcomes, and was finally replaced with the Punjab Khal Panchayat Authority Act 2019 (PKPA). With this new enactment, the role of the water users was merely reduced to helpers of the irrigation managers rather than partners in management, O&M and upkeep of distributaries and outlets. This research endeavour analyzes introduction of this reform, its uptake and failure that ultimately led to its reversal and recommends for re-introduction of such reforms by placing the user’s perspective at the centerstage for ensuring the prospects of equitable and timely supply of water to the farmers.

The study examines the relationship between economic growth and Islamic baking performance in Pakistan from 2006-2022, using data from the World Development Indicators. The study has used Islamic banking performance as dependent variable while, GDP growth rate, CPI, and FDI are independent variables. It employs the Augmented Dicky Fuller unit root test and ARDL cointegration approach to analyze long-term and short-term relationships. The ARDL cointegration analysis reveals a long-term relationship between variables, with an increase in GDP growth rate, CPI, and FDI causing a decrease in Islamic banking performance. The ECM term confirms no short-run relationship, rejecting the assumption of a short-run relationship.

The present study was conducted by a team of agriculture economists from SSRI Quetta during the year 2020-21 at Jaffarabad, Nasirabad, Mastung, Pishin, Killa Saifullah and Loralai districts of plain and upland Balochistan which are the main canal and tubewell irrigation systems. The purpose of the survey was to find out the farmers’ perception about project interventions, quantify increasing agricultural area and production by effective utilization of irrigation water through improvement of watercourses in the study area. This study is based on primary and secondary data. Primary data was collected through a well-structured and pre-tested questionnaire from respondents (intervention of new water structures). A sample of 150 interventions of new water structures respondents was selected randomly and interviewed, out of which, 25 new water structures respondents from each districts.

This research is important for enhancing our understanding of the economic dynamics in Pakistan and can contribute to evidence-based policy decisions for sustainable economic development. Previously, numerous investigations put more accentuation on the total public use as the significant wellspring of financial progress that is temporarily. Government expenses are essential and basic requirements of each state. This investigation analyzed government consumptions sway on financial progress. In this research time series data is used from1990-2019 in context of Pakistan. The variables which included in the study are economic growth rate as annual percentage of GDP used as dependent variable, while public expenditures on education, public expenditures on health, development expenditure, and Gross capital formation used as independent variables. To examine correlation among government expenses and financial evolution estimation techniques like ARDL model and CUSUM, CUSUM Square tests are utilized. This investigation supports us to comprehend permanent association among public spending and financial evolution. This exploration accomplishes amalgam outcomes, according to these outcomes’ development expenditures are directly and significantly related to economic growth. Moreover, impact of education expenses and gross capital formation on economic growth is positive but insignificant. This study shows that health expenditure has important but undesirable influence on GDP. Moreover, this research suggests that government expenditures can be used in appropriate way; inappropriate use of government expenditures would not be favorable for Pakistan economy.

In recent years, Pakistan's economy has shown astounding performance and a heavy amount of foreign direct investment (FDI) has been attracted to Pakistan. Therefore, the researcher believes that it is time to study the connection between corporate governance (CG) and firms' capital structure (CS) from Pakistan’s economic perspective. The study uses panel data of 350 non-financial companies listed on PSX with eleven years starting from 2010 to 2021. To resolve the unobserved heterogeneity and endogeneity problems in the panel data series, the researcher applies a one-step dynamic GMM model approach. The study uses static (random effect & fixed effect) estimation techniques for checking robustness. The results of the dynamic GMM model show that the board size, female directors, and outside independent directors have a positive and significant impact on CS. At the same time, CEO duality is reported as a statistically insignificant impact on CS and validates the agency theory. This study uses internal CG mechanisms it does not include external likewise media exposure, government rules, a takeover of the new government market competition, etc. To the best of the researcher’s knowledge, this study contributes as well as extends the literature on CG mechanism and CS by proposing new evidence on the impact of CG on CS. The researchers conclude that a higher amount of debt substitutes for weaker governance mechanisms in resolving agency problems because of the role of debt in reducing agency costs.

As the nations have evolved towards development, it is highly evident that not only economic development is necessary rather sustainable development should be achieved. But due to immense ignorance in the past the nations today faces huge detrimental effects specially on health due to the pollutants that have been created by the human induced activities. This paper focuses on investigating the impacts of air pollutants, climate change and GDP per capita on the life expectancy of the people of four countries: Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and China. A panel data study has been conducted from the year 1972-2021. Furthermore the combined panel ARDL model and country wise ARDL model has been implied to check the long-run and short-run association of air pollutants, climate change and GDP per capita on the life expectancy as well as co integration in the model. As a result it is found that climate change (oghg) has zero impact on life expectancy of selected countries, however, among the air pollution gasses methane gas is the gas effecting life expectancy of all selected countries in long-run while carbon dioxide is effecting life expectancy of Pakistan and China and nitrous oxide is effecting the life expectancy of Bangladesh only. Therefore, the results shows that India’s life expectancy is least effected by air pollution. Moreover the error correction term of all the selected countries is statistically significant and negative indicating long-run cointegration among climate change, environment and life expectancy in all selected countries.

This empirical research investigates the economic effect of portfolio investment on employment and economic growth in Pakistan. The study employed the Augmented Dickey-Fuller test and the Johansen co-integration technique on annual data sets from the year 1982 to 2019. The variables include labor force, trade openness, employment, portfolio investment, secondary school enrolment, inflation, and gross fixed capital formation. This study's significant findings suggested that portfolio investment has a confident impact on economic growth (GDP) and employment. The GDP growth rate is positively related to the labor force, portfolio investment, gross fixed capital formation, and secondary school enrolment, but have a negative relationship with inflation. Employment has a constructive association with portfolio investment, inflation, trade openness, and secondary school enrollment while a negative relationship with the GDP growth rate.

Extreme weather patterns, including droughts and floods, are a result of Pakistan's present climate crisis and reduce agricultural production. A serious food security issue arose in Pakistan in 2022 as a result of widespread flooding. The achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG-2)—which seeks to eradicate hunger, ensure food security, enhance nutrition, and support sustainable agriculture—is hampered by this in Pakistan. Given this, an econometric model will be used to examine the impact of the changing climate on Pakistan's supply of food. The study will look at data, policy papers, and published works about how environmental degradation affects food safety, specifically "Food Availability" in Pakistan. Conversations with experts are going to be conducted as part of the procedure as well. Given its main findings, the project will provide suggestions to players on climate-smart policies for farming, regenerative cultivation methods, and approaches to mitigate the consequences of greenhouse gas emissions on food security.

The study was designed to determine onion productivity and its market structure in the Sindh province of Pakistan. Data, collected from 240 respondents through multistage purposive techniques. They earn a low income of about US$ 1.33 (without paying implicit costs), the lowest in Pakistan's agribusiness. It was also estimated that the onion growers and retailers incurred more profit as compared to the other intermediaries. A constrained market structure like poor infrastructure, transportation, and high commission charges decrease the profit of onion growers. Furthermore, this study presents significant evidence for agribusiness and policymakers to increase the production and marketing efficiency of the onion.

COVID-19 pandemic was one of the few incidents in the human history that have profound impact on the all sectors of human life. This pandemic has transformed education sector through re-orienting and re-shaping it. The post-pandemic paradigm shift has been swiftly altering all segments of life. The process of transition is rapid and impulsive in the field of higher education. This study had been designed to analyze the paradigm shift in higher education due to COVID-19 with a focus on the online dimension. This study was guided by two main objectives; to analyze the paradigm shift in higher education in pre and post COVID era and to find out challenges faced by people in the wake of new paradigm shift. This study employed Google Trends data on Comparison of five major teaching platforms; Coursera, EdX, Google Classroom, Google Meet and Zoom. Google Trends provides search analysis. It gives multifaceted comparisons of search volume over time. Research studies found Google Trends data both valid and reliable. We collected past twelve months Google Trends data on the selected five major teaching platforms. Data was analyzed through t-test. On the basis of findings of the study it can be safely concluded that COVID-19 pandemic has proved as a source of Paradigm Shift in the world. It has shifted higher education from on-campus to online mode. It has promoted the paradigm shift from real to virtual world including education; particularly it has resulted in more technology reliance in higher education.

In order to assess potential training capacity of research and extension agents to enhance expertise of orchard owners in apple value chain, the study was carried out during 2022-23 in Balochistan (Pakistan). The study used 39 respondents including researchers (n=13) and extension agents (n=26). The questionnaire was used as survey instrument consisted of questions and statements based on training needs of producers on apple orchard management and apple value chain related aspects to be imparted by research and extension agents. The main focus was the possessed level of competence of research and extension agents in imparting training and required level of competence over certain notes to assess training needs on the basis of 5-point Likert scale. The researchers and extension agents were also checked for their training in 19 task-points related to their skill for training of growers in apple orchard management, and the assessed training need of respondents was in the range of 0.51 and 2.05 Likert-scale score (avg. 1.356=27.12 % deficiency). Further, the researchers and extension agents were analysed for their competence as trainers of growers in 43 task-points related to value chain, and the assessed training need of respondents was in the range of 0.21 and 2.44 Likert-scale score (avg. 1.36=27.38 % deficiency). In nine-factors mainly constraining effective training of apple growers, the problems were ranked in the score range of 1.77 and 4.44 at Likert scale (Avg. 3.37) that was considered as an “important” factor constraining required level of orchard management to produce quality apple by the growers.

This study was conducted to analyze the hurdles that are impacting women's participation in economic development. Primary data were collected using a closed-ended questionnaire from the two districts of Sindh: Hyderabad and Tando Allahyar. Data were collected from 215 female respondents using purposive sampling. The findings of the study reveal that most of the women living in rural areas of Sindh are illiterate. They are being deprived of their basic rights to receive education and take part in decision-making. More than half of respondents revealed that their parents believed that their daughters does not need to get an education and work outside the home. In contrast, 20% stated that one of the main obstacles to literacy was the shortage of separate schools for girls. The respondents urged that they were fully engaged in household activities, while they were partially involved in farm-related activities (crop and livestock). Results show that the income of women working in the service sector was higher. Still, those who were engaged in small businesses (i.e., shops selling handicrafts) were higher than those who were working in agriculture. So based on the results, the study suggests separate schools should be established for girls near residential areas in rural Sindh, and equal educational opportunities and wages should be given to the women.

The paper highlights the association of centralized decision making by employer with recalcitrant behavior of employees in presence of a leader as a mediating variable in public or private universities of Lahore, Pakistan. The investigation tries to understand whether the centralized decision making by the employer is related to the satisfaction or recalcitrant behavior in employees of an organization due to the presence of a powerful employee leader. The constructs are studied through mixed methodology in a cross-sectional comparative setting by administering 250 online questionnaires and 30 interviews of the faculty. The results indicate that centralized decision making by employer with leader playing the mediating role and the related perceptions lead to recalcitrant behavior in the university faculty. This has significant insights for the employee protest, resistance, and unrest in the universities as well as organizational image, sustainability and productivity.

The stability of the financial system has been becoming increasingly important regarding institutional, structural and macroeconomic aspects on a national and worldwide scale. It is impossible to imagine a world without financial institutions particularly banks which take in funds, pool them and lend to other who need funds. As a result, it is thought to be essential to link a financial system's liquidity position to assess the stability and soundness of that sector. The primary purpose of this research is to examine the impact of bank-specific (internal) and macroeconomic (external) variables on the liquidity of commercial banks in Pakistan. The study has collected data for bank-specific variables from the financial audited reports of commercial banks, while data for macroeconomic factors is taken from Work Bank Indicators from 2014-2023. Empirical data supports that liquidity of commercial banks have been improved during the Covid-19 Period, however, the capital adequacy ratio, inflation and bank’s leverage have a negative significant influence on the commercial banks liquidity. The study also suggests that the dollar exchange rate has a direct positive influence on the liquidity of commercial banks. However, the bank’s size and government deficit financing have an insignificant impact on the liquidity. The study contributed that banks should adopt comprehensive risk management practices that account for both macroeconomic and bank-specific risks. In this regard, the implementation of stress testing and scenario analysis my help banks prepare for adverse economic conditions and mitigate liquidity risks.

Being the element of the second target of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), “Food Security” is a hot issue of present era. It is a topic of great focus of development researchers as it has crucial importance in the growth and sustainable development of nations especially for developing ones. The study examines the role of short-run and long-run supply side factors on the multidimensional concept of food security for developing countries. The study analyses the role of Food Imports (FI), Agricultural Value Added (AVA), Exchange Rate (ER), Logistic Performance Index (LI) and CREDIT by taking into considerations the aspects of income inequality, economic growth and agricultural exports. A rich dataset for 89 developing nations is used to reach at results. The paper employs Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR) to investigate the effects of supply-side drivers on all four dimensions of food security. The findings of study reveal a negative impact of FI on availability, access and utilization dimensions while show a positive effect on stability. ER and AVA exhibit a negative impact on almost all dimensions of food security. On contrary, the results indicate that LI positively impact all dimensions of food security. CREDIT also positively affects food security of developing countries. On the basis of results, the study also suggests some policy interventions to increase food security. Prioritization of sustainable agriculture sector, strengthening food supply chains through improvements in logistics system, enhancing credit facilities are pinpointed as key policies to enhance food security.

There is a favorable correlation between food, fiber, and shelter and overcrowding. As a result, the land is under strain, particularly the agricultural land. The purpose of this study was to learn more about the marketing system, land use conflicts, and agricultural land conversion in Hyderabad, Sindh District. Primary and secondary data were the two types used for the objective. Using the interviewing strategy, primary data were gathered from one hundred impacted individuals and one hundred occupants. The majority of respondents, according to the results, were employed (59%) and literate (70%) and belonged to nuclear families. Furthermore, the impacted community has reacted by saying that the bulk of people who sold their properties did so either because they did not receive the anticipated returns on their investments or because the prices rise. They have been prompted by the high prices for their lands or the anticipated returns from them. Residents have acknowledged that moving to an urban region has improved access to high-quality healthcare and educational opportunities. However, the loss of agricultural land due to conversion also has negative effects on the availability of food and fiber, degrades natural ecosystems, and accelerates urbanization. The findings also indicate that there were land use conflicts, possibly as a result of policy violations under the applicable land use statute. These conflicts included entitlement disputes, encroachment, and land grabbing. Thus, in order to avoid food insecurity in the future, agricultural land conversion must be regulated, particularly for urban extensions.

The motivation of the study is to determine consumer’s actual purchase behavior for solar panels (photovoltaic). Researcher collected the primary data using random sampling from Pakistan. In this regard, the quantitative research technique with deductive reasoning has been used. The data has been collected at two different times. The first time, 488 questionnaires were filled out by those consumers who had the intention to purchase solar panels, and the second time, responses were taken from those consumers who purchased solar panels from the same population. However, 408 responses were considered for analysis after elimination of outliers. The “Structural Equation Modeling” SEM has been carried out using Smart PLS version 4.0. The finding of the study suggested that predictor /exogenous variables include consumer’s perceived environmental knowledge (PEK), subjective norms (SN), and environmental concern (EC) has positive influence on endogenous variable e.g. Actual purchase behavior (APB) for solar Panels. Business professionals, marketers, Policymakers, organizations, and social media marketers can create a better policy by understanding the consumer actual behavior and perception towards energy conservation. This research is an effort to motivate consumers towards environmental sustainability by generating cleaner energy from solar panels. Consequently, businesses, governmental, private organizations, marketing sectors and learning institutions will find value in the study's conclusions.

A prominent contributor of emissions from carbon dioxide (CO2) is the transportation sector that accounts for nearly one-fifth of global carbon emissions. This study aims to investigate the impact of private vehicle ownership, foreign direct investments (FDI) and urbanization on CO2 emissions in Pakistan, using data from 1991 to 2020. The study considers the IPAT framework and applied the ARDL model to examine the short-term and long-term effects of private vehicle ownership, FDI, and growth in the urban population on CO2 emissions in Pakistan. The study findings showed a positive and significant nexus between CO2 emissions, private vehicle ownership, FDI, and growth in the urban population of Pakistan. It was estimated that an increase in private vehicle ownership, along with urbanization, will lead to increased CO2 emissions, and in the same way, FDI contributes to environmental degradation as it promotes more industrial activities that are usually based on fossil fuel consumption. The study, therefore, puts into perspective the need for sustainable policies to manage such environmental impacts of these factors. This provides major pointers to the policymakers in Pakistan with respect to the integration of strategies required to be counseled on the environmental consequences of private vehicle ownership, FDI, and urbanization.

This study aims to examine the relationship between digital leadership, digital resources (such as training and communication), and innovative working behavior. In order to gather data, researchers relied on several validated scales. These included a 6-item digital leadership scale (Zeike et al., 2019; reliability = 0.87), a 4-item digital communication scale (Na-Nan et al., 2019; reliability = 0.88), a modified 5-item digital training scale (Schmidt, 2004; reliability = 0.83), and a 4-item Innovative Work Behavior (IWB) scale (Nguyen et al., 2019; reliability = 0.70). Over the minimal sample size of 80 indicated by G*power analysis, 120 technological experts in Pakistan's Peshawar region were surveyed using a Likert scale (1–5). This sampling method was employed through non-probability convenience sampling. Consistent with earlier research, the results of PLS-SEM show that digital leadership, digital training and digital communication have a favorable impact on innovative work behavior. In order to promote innovation in the workplace, this study emphasizes the need of digital resources, specifically digital leadership, digital training, and digital communication. It also provides practical suggestions for improving leadership, training, and communication practices. Thus address the study's limitations, which include its cross-sectional design and the lack of gender representation, in addition to propose more studies to investigate these issues, as well as those that are specific to an industry and longitudinal.

This research intended to help us establish the relationship between energy efficiency (EE) and economic development by studying environmentally focused technology advancements. With data from 20 EU countries (ranging from 2008 to 2022), the analysis examines energy consumption by household sectors, focusing on the two main sources of energy, electricity and gas. Two additional indicators added in the analysis to examine their role on EE. We employed cointegration analysis through first generation Dynamic Panel ARDL models (Autoregressive Distributed Lag) to determine the long run and short-run fluctuations of relationship between variables in panel data framework. Three error correction-based test; Pooled mean group (PMG), Mean group (MG) and Dynamic fixed effect (DFE) were employed on four different models for estimating dynamic heterogeneous panel data. While PMG gives contrasting outcomes, MG and DFE come out with conflicting findings, none of which strongly supports a causal link between EE and development. Tests for cross-sectional dependence (Pesaran, 2004; Friedman, 1973) clearly show the need for using second-generation methods of cointegration. Following the use of CCE estimators, there is still not enough proof, which means that a clear connection between EE and economic growth not observed in many countries.

This paper explores the determinants of real private investment of agriculture sector in Pakistan. Real development spending and real interest rates representing the economic policy environment along with price of capital and income in agriculture sector are included to determine real private investment of agriculture sector. With the consideration of endogeneity due to reverse causality, we employ 2SLS, LIML and GMM techniques. The growth in agriculture income and developmental spending have positive impact on real private investment whereas higher real interest rates and increasing prices of capital goods reduce real private investment in Pakistan.

This study is designed to explore the gender gaps in saving habits and to explore the moderating effect of financial literacy on the links between financial skills and saving. The primary data gathered from 184 respondents from Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir using a structured questionnaire forms the basis of empirical analysis. The results show the existence of substantial differences in the saving rates between men and women. This is particularly true for men, who have a higher risk appetite, and women who have a more risk averse approach to financial decision-making. Better saving behavior is associated with higher financial literacy and financial skills illustrated by the results as well. Furthermore, there is a positive and significant moderation between financial skills and savings by financial literacy, implying that individuals can better turn their financial skills into effective savings through w higher financial literacy. The findings indicate that it is crucial to raise financial literacy and financial capability for all population groups as well as to promote prudent saving among women to close gender gaps in financial outcomes. Therefore, specific policy and educational measures designed to promote financial literacy can be a key factor for improving savings and improving financial well-being.

This study examines the relationships among green HRM practices and employee green innovative behaviour in public-sector higher-education institutions in Punjab, Pakistan and explains how employees’ perceptions of green HRM practices is translated into employee-initiated green innovation. It distinguishes green psychological climate as a perception-based mechanism from green job crafting as a behavioural work-redesign mechanism and examines green inclusive leadership as a boundary condition. A quantitative, cross-sectional survey design was used. Data were collected from faculty members, administrative employees and academic support staff. After screening 320 distributed questionnaires, 282 usable responses were retained. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) in SmartPLS was used to assess the measurement and structural models. Green HRM practices were positively associated with green psychological climate, green job crafting and employee green innovative behaviour. Both indirect effects were significant, indicating complementary partial mediation. Green inclusive leadership positively moderated the green HRM–green innovative behaviour relationship. The plotted conditional relationship was substantially stronger at high green inclusive leadership and markedly attenuated at low green inclusive leadership. The study advances prior green HRM research by explaining how formal HR practices reach employee-initiated green innovation through two theoretically distinct but complementary routes: how employees interpret the organisation’s environmental signal and how they proactively redesign their work in response. It also identifies immediate green inclusive leadership as the local condition that strengthens or constrains this translation in a resource-constrained public-sector setting.

Blockchain technology is a digital solution that could be used to address the challenges facing construction industry supply chains. The construction industry supply chains are largely opaque, lack transparency and lack coordination, making blockchain technology a potential digital solution. In the current study, the question of determinants of the adoption of blockchain in the supply chain management (SCM) sector in the construction sector of Pakistan has been studied in an empirical way. The data were gathered by a structured questionnaire that was given to the professionals in the supply chain and analyzed using the structural equation modeling (SEM). The facilitating conditions, performance expectancy, trust and social influence positively affect the behavioral intention with significant effect and effort expectancy has relatively weak effect. The results highlight the critical importance of organizational readiness, perceived performance improvements, and technological trust in blockchain adoption in construction supply chains. The study's findings extend the existing literature on the blockchain adoption, and add empirical evidence from an emerging economy context, enhancing the literature supply and providing actionable insights for construction firms interested in improving their inter-organizational coordination, supply chain efficiency and transparency by implementing blockchain.

This study explores the impact of financial inclusion on poverty and income inequality in selected Asian countries from 2009 to 2024. Financial inclusion is computed as a single composite index using three separate dimensions: availability of financial services, usage of financial services and financial services penetration in the economy. The poverty headcount ratio has been used as a proxy for poverty, and the Gini coefficient has been used as a proxy for income inequality. Whereas the financial inclusion index, GDP per capita, domestic credit, inflation, and government expenditure have been used as independent variables. Based on the unit root results, the study has applied random and fixed effect models. Estimated results show that financial Inclusion reduces poverty and income inequalities in the selected Asian economies. Among the Financial inclusion sub-dimensions, the results show that the relationship between financial inclusion and poverty or inequality is not only determined by access to finance but also by utilization and penetration. In terms of control variables, GDP and domestic credit seem to generally improve distribution outcomes, while inflation and other macroeconomic variables appear to have different impacts depending on the specification. Overall, the results support the idea that in general, the expansion of financial inclusion may be seen as an important tool for alleviating poverty and reducing income inequality in various Asian economies, but the extent of its impact varies across the different dimensions of financial inclusion.

This study introduces a novel theoretical framework to explain why income and wealth move on divergent paths across different socioeconomic groups during periods of stagflation. At the core of the model is the Inflation Adjustability Factor (IAF), a tool designed to quantify the extent and manner in which different types of income streams and asset classes respond to inflationary pressures and policy-induced shocks. The model decomposes material worth into indexed, flexible and nominally fixed components with distinct inflation adjustment elasticities. This creates systematic differences in inflation adjustability across different income and wealth groups which ultimately result in increased income inequality during stagflationary crises. Consequently, the model establishes a structural link from inflation, asset revaluation, and income rigidity to the redistributive consequences of macroeconomic instability. While the contribution is primarily theoretical, the framework offers empirically testable predictions for research on macroeconomic adjustment and distributive equity.