Product Line Diversification and Its Impact on Firm Performance

The objective of the study is to measure product diversification’s impact on insurance firm’s financial performance in Pakistan. Analysis are carried out to examine how ownership structure, capitalization, group membership, firm size, diversification across business lines, industry concentration affects firm’s financial performance. Data from 2009-2019 is collected to measure the impact of diversification (entropy) on the risk- adjusted returns. Findings of the study reveal that business line diversification has strong positive effect on firm performance (for both ROA and ROE) which means that diversified firms perform better than non-diversified firms. For managers these findings are useful as they propose the need for diversification, capitalization, increase in size and group affiliation to enhance firm profitability.

Flourishing The Higher Education in Pakistan: An Exploratory Analysis of The Role of Higher Education Commission (HEC)

The paramount aim of the underlying study is to explore the efficacy of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) through evaluating the effectiveness of the key initiatives which have been taken by the HEC to flourish the higher education and research environment in Pakistan. Using exploratory analysis, the study unleashes that the higher education and research culture has improved since 2002 owing to the HEC’s effective initiatives. These include, but are not limited to, increasing the capacity of in-service teaching faculty, induction of PhD faculty in public and private sector universities, award of indigenous and foreign scholarships, and provision of research grants, all of which had a positive influence on higher education through capacity building. A commendable increase in the number of universities along with the induction of highly qualified faculty has been witnessed, specifically the induction of indigenously produced PhDs. Apart from these, the HEC has played an instrumental role in helping to improve the gender parity by 45% in education sector. Moreover, in order to trace out what problems the HEC has been facing to implement its reforms, we conducted KIIs to the HEC officials who have been remained the part of policy implementation. The KIIs discloses that the deteriorating budgetary allocation, less cooperation from public sector universities, and questioning the HEC’s autonomy are the major challenges among others to the HEC in promoting an effective and inclusive higher education in Pakistan. The KIIs suggest that the autonomy of the HEC should not be compromised, and the liaison between universities and the HEC should be increased.

Digital Divide, Socio-Economic Outcomes and Subjective Well-Being in Higher Education Institutions of Pakistan

This research examines the relationship between internet usage, socio-economic outcomes, and subjective well-being. Social outcomes are measured in the form of formal and informal networks and economic outcomes are measured through education, employment, and financial status. Subjective well-being is defined as assessment of one’s own life satisfaction. The cross-sectional study is conducted through a survey. The data was collected through a self-designed questionnaire from 500 university graduates in different region of Pakistan. The Cox regression is used to investigate the relationship among the variables. In Cox regression the gender, education, major, subjective wellbeing (SWB), positive affect (PA), negative affect (NA) are significantly affecting the duration of internet usage. Internet usage increases with age, likewise internet usage is found more in women and married individuals than men and unmarried individuals. Economic outcomes are less for internet users than the non-users similarly social outcomes are lower for users than the nonusers. Similarly, internet usage is found to decrease with increase in the level of education. This shows how online activities affect the economic and social activities of the individuals and in turn affect their subjective well-being.

Livelihood Assets and Outcomes of Rural Farm Households in Central Khyber Pakhtunkhwa of Pakistan

This study explores the factors of livelihood assets possessed by small farm households in Central Khyber Pakhtunkhwa of Pakistan that determines the livelihood outcomes using sustainable livelihood framework. Primary data were collected from 349 small farm households using well-structured pre-tested questionnaire having both closed and open-ended questions. The study first measured the livelihood assets worth through composite indices followed by the factors that influencing the livelihood outcomes using multiple regression model. The overall value of livelihood assets of small farm households in the study area was 0.297. The area small farmers were lacked in livelihood assets along with low level of living standards as well as economic development in the area. The empirical findings of regression model revealed that all the five capitals of livelihood asset had significant positive effect on livelihood outcomes. Additionally, household active labour and education of labor earners of human capital, family land of natural capital; livestock and access to formal financial credit of financial capital, distance to public services of physical capital and membership in MFSCs, access to service providers of social capital had significant positive effect on the livelihood outcomes. The study suggests that the livelihood asset should be upgraded in all capitals followed by changing the approach of agriculture departments and other allied stakeholders for developing agriculture sector and rural economy.

University Teachers’ perspective on HEC’s Faculty Appointment Criteria: An Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis

System devised by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) for Higher Education Institutions (HEI) aims to promote innovation and develop human capital. The efficiency of the system is ascertained if it could help in recruitment and retention of faculty members. Therefore, the study of faculty members' perspective on HEC’s Faculty Appointment Criteria (FAC) is needed to determine whether it motivates and facilitates them. This study reports the faculty’s perspectives on FAC. This qualitative interpretive phenomenological study gathers data using a semi-structured questionnaire for interviewing. The analysis reveals that the criteria do not cover the overall performance of faculty members and is only based upon minimum qualification, duration of service and number of publications. There is a dire need of reviewing the current appointment criteria and for that the involvement of all stakeholders is suggested to devise a profound scheme for better human resource development at HEIs of Pakistan.

Impact of Bank-Specific, Corporate Governance and Environmental Factors on Bank Efficiency and Profitability in Pakistan

The study aims to investigate the impact of bank-specific, board structure, gender diversity, and environmental factors on bank efficiency and profitability in Pakistan by taking a sample of seventeen commercial banks for the period 2013-2018. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) and return on assets (ROA) are used as a proxy to measure bank efficiency and profitability. Panel estimation techniques and Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) are used to conceptualize the research framework and to test the hypotheses. The findings indicate a negative relationship of non-performing loans, advances, level of involvement of women into other committees, and CSR index with ROA; while more presence of women on board reveals a positive and significant impact on ROA that is consistent with critical mass theory. However, CEO duality shed a positive impact on technical efficiency; while bank size signifies an inverse relationship with ROA and technical efficiency. Moreover, deposit influences ROA positively; while board size finds a positive and significant relationship with ROA and technical efficiency. The findings are important for various stakeholders as they can efficiently take their decision-making to better understand the factors influence bank performance. This study recommends future researchers do the same research by inculcating a larger sample size.

Impact of Institutional Quality on Bilateral Exports: Exploring the role of Development

This study uses the gravity model to analyze the homogeneous and heterogeneous effect of institutional quality and development on bilateral exports. We use the panel data of 61countries for the period 2000 to 2016 and employ the Poisson Pseudo Maximum Liklihood (PPML) econometric technique with a High-Dimensional fixed effect (HDFE) for an estimation that allows the analysis in the presence of high dimensional fixed effects. The findings reveal that the direct effect of institutional quality and level of development on bilateral exports is positive and significant. Further, the institutional quality and the level of development of the exporter country have more impact on bilateral exports than that of the importer country. Our estimation results of homogeneity of institutions show that when both trading countries share the same level of institutional quality, it boosts the bilateral exports. The major finding of this study reveals that the interaction effect of institutional quality and level of development on bilateral exports is positive and significant. High value of interaction term of exporter economy and low value of importer country suggest that interaction effect of institutional quality and level of development on bilateral exports of exporter country have a greater impact than the interaction effect of institutional quality and level of development of importer country due to having the more production and exports facilities in exporter country. Based on the findings, some essential policies are also recommended, followed by some future research gaps.

Safety Performance and Occupational Injuries of Workers (OIW): A DEA Efficiency Analysis

The rapid pace of industrialization and sectoral transformation have not only induced rapid economic progress yet also engaged policy think tanks to consider the safety performance due to the increasing rate of injuries. These increasing workplace hazards have affected occupational efficiencies as well as worker’s performance. Hence, a comprehensive analysis of occupation injuries of workers (OIW) is crucial to determine the safety performance of high and low-risk industries in Pakistan. This study aims to incorporate the OIW for the estimation of the safety performance of industries employing Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). This non-parametric technique allows calculating relative efficiencies incorporating inputs and outputs (both desirable and undesirable). The findings of the SBM-DEA model and sensitivity analyses pointed out improvements in the farm sector and demanded more comprehensive analyses for the non-farm sectors.

Contribution of Agriculture Sector in Economic Growth of Pakistan: An Empirical Analysis

There has been controversy in the field of development economics about the significance of the role of agriculture sector in economic growth. Going through the data, it indicates that agriculture sector is significant contributor to the economy of Pakistan as it contributes about 19% in national GDP. This study was designed to statistically test the contribution of agriculture sector in economic growth of Pakistan through estimation of relationship between agriculture sector and Pakistan’s economic growth using Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds test and Error Correction Model (ECM). Time series data on selected variables was utilized from 1961-2018. Study found that real agricultural value added has a significant positive impact on real GDP per capita in the long-run where one percent increase in real agricultural value added increases the real GDP/capita by 0.35%. This indicated that the promotion of agriculture sector leaves far reaching effects with respect to economic growth of the country. These results advocated for the development of agriculture sector in line with the long-term goals of economic growth and emphasized in investing in agriculture sector. Coefficient of error correction term (ECT) is -0.62 meaning that if there is any disequilibrium, it will restore @ 62 percent in the first period. Results also proved the importance of capital formation both the physical capital and human capital. Finding suggested that we should investment in human health to enhance the economic growth as suggested by exogenous growth theory. Moreover, it can also be suggested to create conducive environment and economic opportunities to reap the benefits of demographic dividends of decreased mortality in the long-run. As per analysis, maintaining stability is critically important for economic growth. Moreover, literature hypothesize the positive effect of TOT for economic growth, but analysis indicated that TOT has not been able to put any significant impact on economic growth. Further, trend analysis also pointed out that TOT has been fluctuating over the time. It can be inferred from the analysis that there is need to stabilize TOT and restructure the exports of the country to generate the significant positive impact.

Trade Liberalization and Labor Demand Elasticities: A Firm-Level Analysis of Pakistan’s Manufacturing Sector

The study investigates the linkage of trade liberalization and labor demand elasticities in Pakistan. The panel data are used by selecting 13 industries in Pakistan's manufacturing sector for the years 1995-1996, 2000-2001, and 2005-2006. The Pooled OLS technique is applied to get the estimates at an aggregated level and disaggregated levels. Overall findings support the positive relationship between trade liberalization and labor demand elasticity in production workers but in the case of non-production workers, the findings show the weak relationship between trade liberalization and labor demand elasticity. The study is also furnished with some policy recommendations.