Policy Makers In Pakistan Research Articles

Consumer Preferences for Adoption of Two Wheeler Electric Vehicles

Purpose: This study provides important perceptions to the policy makers in Pakistan to introduce a new mode of transportation for the consumer. In this particular case, the consumers in Pakistan are still showing their interest in buying Internal combustion engine (ICE’s) over Electrical vehicles (EV’s) due to non-awareness of merits and demerits of EV’s.
 Methodology: Therefore to evaluate consumer’s preferences towards two wheeler electric vehicles a survey was conducted by distributing questionnaire among the people of country in different regions. About 317 respondents living in Pakistan participated. Eleven different factors related to consumer’s preference has been observed for the purchase of E-bikes. After analyzing these 11 factors, top three factors like awareness about E-bike, design and aesthetic and health and safety issues have found their preference. Similarly, three other bottom factors i.e. availability of charging facilities, mileage per charging and price factors has found main causes of low purchase of EV’s by consumers.
 Findings: After conducting survey it has revealed that awareness about electric vehicles should be developed among the students and other users, maximum dealership should be given to the experts, distribution network should be strong and also prices of E-bikes should be decreased in order to increase the sale.
 Recommendation: The study also had revealed that Govt. of Pakistan with the consultation/coordination of manufacturers within the country could prepare a policy for the installation of plants/factories of E-bikes wherein with the support of Govt. for the provision of necessary infrastructure and subsidy to the consumer.

The effect of gross domestic product, urbanization, trade openness, financial development, and renewable energy on CO2 emission.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the influence of GDP, urbanization, trade openness, financial development, and renewable energy consumption on CO2 emissions in Pakistan using yearly time series data from 1985 to 2018. The study utilized the cointegration technique and Granger causality for empirical estimation. The results of the study indicated that urbanization, financial development, and trade openness upsurge CO2 emission. Whereas using renewable energy resources is favorable for the environment and possesses negative relation with CO2 emission. All variables possess long-run relation with Co2 emission. Granger causality shows unidirectional causality from GDP and renewable energy to CO2 emission. The study contains insight for policymakers in Pakistan with beneficial policy recommendations to work toward a sustainable green environment.

Designing a clean environmental framework for Pakistan: analyzing the nonlinear impact of aggregate demand drivers on CO2 emissions.

Aggregate demand in every country is one of the main components of macroeconomics, and Pakistan is no exception. This paper uses a fresh econometric framework to analyze the nonlinear impact of aggregate demand drivers on CO2 emissions in Pakistan by using a nonlinear ARDL approach over the data period from 1975 to 2019. The linear findings reveal that consumption and government expenditure indicates deteriorating effects on carbon emissions in long run in Pakistan. However, nonlinear findings revealed that positive change in government expenditure and trade has positive effects on carbon emissions. The positive change in investment has a negative significant and meaningful effect on the environment in Pakistan and asymmetric findings are also country-specific. Therefore, this study offers a few important policy implications for theorists, academics, and policymakers of Pakistan as well developing economies.

Financial Inclusion Profile: Socio-Economic Determinants, Barriers, and the Reasons for Saving and Borrowing in Pakistan

Pakistan is one of the least financially inclusive countries in Asia. To understand the reasons, this paper examines the Socio-economic determinants, the barriers to financial inclusion, and the reasons for individuals saving and borrowing. We used GFI 2017 data, and the Probit technique to estimate the coefficients. The results show that female and age group reduce the likelihood of being financially included while education level and high income increase their likelihood. Furthermore, voluntary exclusion such as religious beliefs, and involuntary exclusion such as lack of documents, trust deficits, and someone else having an account are found significant for different demographic groups. Significant coefficients are found for saving for old age and borrowing for medical and business. The findings of this study are valuable for policymakers in Pakistan to initiate innovative approaches to enhance the excluded groups and focus on the removal of reasons for financial exclusion in Pakistan.

The Influence of Economic Growth and Energy Consumption on Environmental Degradation in Pakistan

Globalization has substantial influence on the environmental issues and consequently on the economic activities of a country. Environmental problems are more prominent in developing countries. With the growing development, the issue of environmental degradation is also enhanced. The non-renewable energy consumption is the main cause of environmental degradation and this problem can’t be ignored. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to analyze the connection among energy consumption, growth of an economy, and emission of carbon dioxide gas in Pakistan. The data is collected from World development Indicators. Autoregressive Distributed-Lag Model (ARDL) is used for the analysis. The outcomes of ARDL technique stipulate that energy consumption and growth of an economy rise the emission of CO2 in Pakistan. On the basis of these results, it is suggested that policy makers in Pakistan must implement and encourage different sources of energy, which are renewable and will support to fulfill the huge demand of energy to boost the economy and to contribute in a sustainable environment of Pakistan.

A time series forecasting analysis of overall and sector-based natural gas demand: a developing South Asianeconomy case.

Pakistan is developing South Asian country which iscurrently considering alternative energy sources including coal, solar, compressed natural gas, and wind energy to cope with the worst energy crisis in its history. Moreover, the policy promotion of compressed natural gas especially in the transport sector has raised concerns about the demand management of natural gas to avoid future shortages and ensure sustainable use of this precious non-renewable source of energy. Against this background, this study aimed to forecast natural gas demand in Pakistan for the 2016-2030 period by applying relevant univariate time series econometric methods. Apart from forecasting the overall natural gas demand, the forecasting analysis is also conducted for natural gas demand in Pakistan's total natural gas consumption and also for natural gas consumption across the household, industrial, commercial, transport, fertilizer production, power generation, and cement production sectors. Overall, the findings revealed that ARIMA is the appropriate model for forecasting gas consumption in Pakistan. Further, the growth of increase in the level of compressed natural gas consumption in the household sector is more as compared to all other sectors of the economy up to the year 2030. The key findings show that (a) natural gas consumption is likely to grow with time, (b) mixed projection trends are observed for the overall natural gas consumption and other sector-based natural gas consumption trends, and (c) the difference between natural gas consumption and production in Pakistan is likely to grow leading to 2030. As part of the policy recommendation in line with the findings, policymakers in Pakistan should increase the availability of natural gas, particularly in sectors where its consumption is likely to be declining. In addition, more proactive measures should be undertaken to explore the existing natural gas reserves in the long run while also importing natural gas from the neighboring nations in the short run. Furthermore, the government of Pakistan should seriously consider strategizing the development of the nation's compressed natural gas sector.

Corporate governance and financial reporting quality: a comparative study

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the impact of corporate governance on financial reporting quality (FRQ) in Pakistan and the UK.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, three accrual-based models are used to analyse FRQ for a sample of 1,550 firm-year observations, including 78 Pakistani firms and 77 UK firms, for the period 2009–2018.FindingsThe analysis shows that board size has a negative impact on FRQ while foreign ownership has a positive impact for Pakistani and UK firms. It also shows that board independence has a positive impact on FRQ of Pakistani firms, while board meetings frequency and audit committee independence have a negative impact. We make no such observation for UK firms. In addition, the analysis shows that board gender diversity and ownership concentration negatively affect FRQ of UK firms. This study makes no such observation for Pakistani firms.Research limitations/implicationsDue to the study’s focus on Pakistani and UK firms, the findings may not be generalizable to other developed and emerging economies.Practical implicationsThe findings provide valuable insight to policymakers, regulators and investors by suggesting that the impact of board composition on FRQ of both Pakistani and UK firms is weak. The findings suggest that board size and foreign ownership are the attributes that require regulatory focus to increase FRQ. The negative impact of audit committee independence on FRQ induces rethinking among the policymakers in Pakistan and calls for fully independent audit committees.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research endeavour to compare the context of a developed and an emerging economy regarding the impact of corporate governance on FRQ. It also contributes to the governance literature by using three measures of FRQ and a comprehensive set of corporate governance attributes.

Pakistan: a study of market's returns and anomalies

Purpose This paper aims to expand foreign investors' understanding of potential return enhancement and risk diversification advantages offered by equity market of Pakistan through comparing its performance to performances in other markets and investigating what matters for investing in Pakistan's market.Design/methodology/approachComparative analysis of Pakistan Stock Exchange is performed using data for 22 developed and 22 emerging markets over the period 1993–2019. Cross-sectional analysis is performed using data for 130 non-financial firms from Pakistan and Carhart (1997) and Fama and French (2015) models are applied. The role of liquidity with five-factor model is analyzed using turnover rate and Amihud (2002) illiquidity cost as liquidity measures.FindingsPakistan's equity offers substantial diversification benefits if added to developed market portfolios. However, observed large returns come together with inverted premia for most traditional factors indicating that investors may want to invest preferably in big stocks with low book-to-market and momentum. Finally, global investors can invest in high yielding stocks with low liquidity risk owing to positive connection between liquidity and returns.Practical implicationsThis study will provide investment model for foreign investors to enhance their portfolio returns. Policy makers in Pakistan must identify regulatory steps to facilitate foreign investments.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study which identifies efficiency gains offered by Pakistan's equity for global investors.

Investigating the Role of Ethical Self-Identity and Its Effect on Consumption Values and Intentions to Adopt Green Vehicles among Generation Z

Consumption values and consumer identities have been widely explored as needed in the literature on sustainability, but they are mainly treated as separate predictors of sustainable behavior. Researchers are calling for further analysis of these variables’ combined impacts to investigate sustainable behavior. This research integrates consumption values theory (functional, social, conditional, epistemic, and emotional) and ethical self-identity to explore the intention to adopt green vehicles among Generation Z. The data in this paper were collected from 319 respondents through a structured questionnaire in two universities in Islamabad, Pakistan. We used the PLS-SEM approach to analyze the results; we found that functional value (quality), social value, conditional value, and emotional value significantly influenced the intention to adopt green vehicles among Generation Z. The study further demonstrated that ethical self-identity significantly mediates the relationship between consumption values and the intention to adopt green vehicles among Generation Z. Our findings indicate that ethical self-identity inferences are favorable when promoting green vehicles among Generation Z. Therefore, the results of this study provide novel understandings for marketers and policymakers in Pakistan to emphasize the improvement of consumer values and ethical self-identity, which will eventually contribute to the adoption of green vehicles. In addition, automakers should promote green ideas, to encourage Generation Z to replace their existing vehicles with alternative green options in Pakistan.

The impact of macro-economic variables on the performance of the KSE Meezan Islamic Index (KMI-30) of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX)

The recent development in Islamic finance is the introduction of Shariah-compliant stocks. To address such developments, this study is aimed at analysing the macro-economic determinants of such stocks. For empirical investigation, the monthly data of inflation, interest rate, market return and unemployment rate were collected from the years 2011 to 2018 and the multiple ordinary least squares (OLS) method was applied. The results revealed that market return plays significant positive role in defining the performance of the KMI-30 index. However, inflation and the unemployment rate negatively impact stock prices. In general, this study concludes that KMI-30 index performance is exposed to the macro-economic environment in Pakistan. In addition, this study provides useful insight to managers, PSX investors, and policy makers in Pakistan with respect to the stocks of the companies that fulfil Shariah requirement.

Dynamics of Afghanistan`s Evolving Situation: Repercussions on Pakistan and China Pakistan Economic Corridor Security

Afghanistan's evolving situation is fluid to predict global and regional dynamics in politics, economy, and regional security. The building scenarios are yet to be fixed inside Afghanistan, which would pass to regional countries and world powers like the USA, China, and Russia. In similar lines, American withdrawal does not seem to be a complete evacuation of US interests from Afghanistan. The uncertain movements inside and around Afghanistan are key to yield any cost and benefit of socio-political, geo-economic and strategic scenarios for Afghanistan and regional powers in action; Pakistan yet is central to this point. In this context, the current paper highlights different scenarios after the physical withdrawal of the US troops from Afghanistan, its evolving scenarios, and its implications for the China-Pak Economic Corridor (CPEC) and Pakistan. The paper distributes the possible scenarios in tentative four likely components. The first section explains the dimensions of political setups coming out from the possible vacuum created by the US withdrawal. The second major scenario is reflected and described in terms of economic problems after the takeover of the Afghanistan Taliban. The third dimension explains the security situation internally and its repercussions on CPEC and Pakistan. Finally, the paper provides serious and conscious policy guidelines to the policymakers in Pakistan.

An evaluation of farmers’ perception, awareness, and adaptation towards climate change: a study from Punjab province Pakistan

ABSTRACT: Globally, all environmental sectors are threatened by climate change, most especially to the food and agriculture sectors. Pakistan is a developing country that is most vulnerable to extreme and harsh climatic conditions, especially in Southeast Asia. Climate change has often adverse effects on Pakistan because it is often affected by severe weather conditions. Although, some studies have reported on farmers’ perceptiveness regarding climate change adaptation and mitigation, there is still insufficient awareness among Pakistanis’ farmers. Key knowledge is very important for farmers to overcome the harsh climatic conditions for harvesting and saving crops. To bridge this gap, this research discovered the awareness level of climate change, weather conditions, and related factors among Pakistani farmers. Through a stratified random sampling technique, 500 structured questionnaires were distributed among the farmers in four districts of Punjab Pakistan for study analysis. The probit model was used to analyze the farmer’s perception regarding climate change, socio-demographic and economic variables. The findings of this research showed that 75% of farmers are aware of climate change. Perception of climate change between farmers was directly associated with agriculture experience, farmers’ age, land ownership status, level of education, information sources, and access to extension. Also, our research showed that farmers’ assessment of adaptive behavior showed that farmers are actively implementing crop diversification, irrigation, and other adaptation strategies. Results of this study will help government agencies and policymakers in Pakistan and other regions to develop sustainable adaptation measures in the framework of climate change.

Implications of the Digital Economy on Merger Control in Pakistan and China: Policy Implications for Pakistan

The rise of the digital economy has challenged the foundation of competition law frameworks the world over. Today, the antitrust doctrine finds itself confronting a new economy; an econo-my wherein data acts as a currency, markets are without prices, market collisions are based on algorithms, and the market is ‘infinite’. Several jurisdictions such as Germany, Austria, and China have developed new regulations or amended existing legislations to confront the chal-lenges presented by the digital economy. A dearth of theoretical and empirical literature has evaluated whether digital markets are so fundamentally different as to require a different set of rules. Of specific interest to this paper is whether current competition rules are sufficient to deal with mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in digital markets. This paper assesses M&A regulations in China and Pakistan in light of the new digital economy. Expert interviews were conducted using semi-structured interviews to investigate the comparisons between Pakistan’s and China’s merger control regimes. The findings indicate that China’s merger control regulations are better adopted for the digital economy than Pakistani’s. It also sets out the policy implications for competition policy makers in Pakistan.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Pro-Environmental Behavior of the Individuals from the Perspective of Protection Motivation Theory

Several research studies have investigated the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and pro-environmental behavior of individuals in the industrial context (considering the employees as individuals) while ignoring the non-industrial context. Climate change and related issues associated with the interaction of humans with the environment are of great importance in today’s context, hence, it is equally important to test such a relationship in a non-industrial context. Therefore, the current study aims to investigate the relationship between CSR and pro-environmental behavior of students (SPEB) in the higher education sector of Pakistan. Given that university students are more inclined to act pro-environmentally, as they partake in different climate change activities and are part of the debate on the global environmental crisis, considering this sector to promote SPEB is of the utmost importance. The current study also proposes emotional affinity towards students (EATN) as a mediator between the proposed relationship. The current study data were collected from university students (n = 656) studying in different universities of Pakistan. The results were validated by employing the structural equation modeling technique (SEM). The results confirmed that there exists a positive association between CSR perception of a university and SPEB, and EATN partially mediates this relationship. The findings of the current study will be helpful to the higher education policymakers in Pakistan to mitigate the country’s environmental footprint by promoting the sustainable behavior of students as an outcome of CSR. Moreover, these findings will also be helpful to the academia for policymaking pertinent to educational governance.

How do remittances affect environmental sustainability in Pakistan? Evidence from NARDL approach

The inflow of remittances shows a significant impact on contributing to the output growth of the economy; it has a multidimensional impact on output growth and also a linkage with carbon dioxide emissions (CO2e). The present study examines the symmetric or asymmetric impact of remittances on CO2e for the period of 1980–2018 in the context of Pakistan. The Autoregressive Distributive Lag (ARDL) and nonlinear ARDL estimation techniques have been used to depict the long run symmetric or asymmetric nexus in the short and long run between remittances (REM) and CO2e. The nonlinear ARDL finding suggests that positive shock of remittances contributes to pollution emissions while the negative shock of remittances mitigates the pollution both in the short and long run. Besides, the empirical results indicate that the positive shock of REM has a higher impact in comparison with the negative shock of REM. The finding recommends that policymakers in Pakistan may consider REM as policy instruments specially to make policies and strategies which are related to sustainable environmental performance in the long run.

Determinants of sustainability reporting decision: evidence from Pakistan

ABSTRACT We investigate the determinants of corporate sustainability reporting decision. We use a logistic regression model to analyse data collected from a sample of 138 firms listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange for the years 2009–2018. We find that firms with more gender-diverse boards, larger audit committees and higher institutional ownership are more likely to issue sustainability reports. We also find that concentrated ownership, managerial ownership, foreign ownership and audit committee independence negatively influence the firms' sustainability reporting decision. The findings provide valuable insight to Pakistani policymakers by identifying the attributes that require regulatory focus to achieve the public policy objective of sustainable development. We are the first to explore the determinants of sustainability reporting decision in Pakistan. It provides empirical evidence to regulators and policymakers in Pakistan and other emerging markets who have already adopted a governance framework and are considering sustainability reporting in their respective contexts.

Asymmetric relationship of environmental degradation and economic growth with tourism demand in Pakistan: evidence from non-linear ARDL and causality estimation.

The purpose of this study is to assess the asymmetric associations of environmental degradation and economic growth with Pakistan's tourism demand. To fulfil this purpose, "non-linear autoregressive distributed lag" (NARDL) modelling was performed on the time series data collected from Pakistan for 26 years. The unit root test, co-integration test, long-run estimation and NARDL estimations were applied to the data to generate findings. The present study revealed that there exist the significant asymmetric associations between environmental degradation and tourism demand. It has also indicated that there exist the significant asymmetric associations between economic growth and tourism demand. It is found through the non-linear ARDL estimation results that the increase or decrease in economic growth leads towards the increase of the tourism demand of Pakistan. It means that any change (either positive or negative) in economic growth is followed by the increase of the tourism demand. Results further indicate that the increase in environmental degradation in Pakistan causes its tourism demand to reduce while the negative change in the environmental degradation does not cause any significant effect on tourism demand. However, this relationship becomes significant in the long run as the negative change in environmental degradation caused significant inverse effect on tourism demand in long run. The current study tends to be theoretically significant and practically beneficial for Pakistan's policymakers. It will help them realize the role of economic growth of the country and environmental degradation in shaping Pakistan's tourism demand and thus help them develop and implement better policies for the growth of the tourism sector.

Unveiling the asymmetric impact of energy consumption on environmental mitigation in the manufacturing sector of Pakistan.

The manufacturing sector is the backbone for the development of an economy. Numerous studies investigated the impact of aggregative energy consumption on environmental degradation by using typical econometric techniques. To correct this gap, our study uses energy consumption and environmental degradation only in the manufacturing sector of Pakistan for the period 1985 to 2018. Our study also demonstrates the symmetric and asymmetric behaviour of energy consumption with carbon emissions by using a recently developed methodology by Shin et al. (2014). The findings of linear autoregressive distributive lag model shows that energy consumption and financial development intensify environmental degradation, while foreign direct investment and globalization mitigate environmental degradation that leads to validate pollution halo hypotheses in Pakistan. However, non-linear autoregressive distributive lag results confirm the asymmetric behaviour of energy consumption with co2 emission. This study recommends the policies for policymakers in Pakistan to consider asymmetric behaviour of energy consumption as well as the installation of renewable energy sources and technological improvements in the industrial sector needed to enhance environmental sustainability. Further, there is a need to enhance globalization and foreign direct investment for Pakistan to achieve its environmental targets.

Oil for Pakistan: What are the main factors affecting the oil import?

Oil is the second largest primary source of energy supply in Pakistan, which is linked to numerous sectors. The existing study aims to calculate the crude oil import demand in Pakistan as a function of real income and the real price of crude oil from 1986 to 2018. We carried out the autoregressive distributive lag method to measure the robustness of price and income elasticities and forecasted crude oil import dependency analysis based on a fitting line from 1986 to 2035. The empirical outcomes of the study are first, the price and income elasticities are consistent with the theoretical prospects, which confirm that income elasticity is significant, while price elasticity is insignificant. Second, the positive growth of income elasticity is 0.21 proposes that imported crude oil in Pakistan is rising income level due to sectorial oil consumption. Third, the two-dimensional imported crude oil and forecasted oil dependency during 2019–2035 estimated that Pakistan's imported crude oil dependency would increase annually by 0.07 %, and 76 % dependency would reach until 2035. Finally, being a necessary product, the Government should support macroeconomic regulation and strengthen the mechanism of oil security and price regulations. Furthermore, the policy suggestions provided below will help Pakistan's policymakers respond appropriately.

Do technological innovations have symmetric or asymmetric effects on environmental quality? Evidence from Pakistan

Technological innovation has played an important role in the socio-economic development of societies but, this development has come with some potential hazards to the environment. To do so, we use annual time series data over the period 1990–2018 to measure the symmetric and asymmetric effects of technology innovation on carbon emissions for Pakistan. In estimates of linear ARDL model, we found patent (trademark) has negative (positive) short-run symmetric effects on carbon emissions that have been changed into the long-run symmetric insignificant effects in Pakistan. However, when we employed a nonlinear ARDL model, we found the positive and negative shock of the patent has insignificant short-run asymmetric effects while the positive shock of the trademark has an insignificant and negative shock of the trademark has negative significant effects on carbon emissions in the short run. Our findings have been changed into the long-run asymmetric effects in Pakistan. Overall, the results show that asymmetric effects exist between technology innovation and carbon emissions in the long run. Therefore, this empirical research is applicable to policymakers in Pakistan as well as developing economies.