Ashfaque H. Khan

Bio: Ashfaque H. Khan is an academic researcher from University of the Sciences. The author has contributed to research in topics: Demand deposit & Monetary policy. The author has an hindex of 21, co-authored 62 publications receiving 1270 citations. Previous affiliations of Ashfaque H. Khan include Pakistan Institute of Development Economics & National University of Sciences and Technology.

Inflation in Pakistan revisited

Abstract: A notable development in recent years in Pakistan's economic scene has been the sharp pickup in the rate of inflation. In particular, Pakistan has experienced sustained intlation (changes in the CPI) hovering between 11.0 to 13.0 percent range during the last three years (1993-94 to 1995-96). The persistence of inflation at double-digit rates over the three successive years has attracted considerable attention of academics and policy-makers. Not surprisingly, one of the thorniest issues in Pakistan's policy arena today is how to put inflation under effective control.Recent studies on inflation in Pakistan I broadly agree on the key factors influencing the rate of inflation, namely, the growth in money supply, the supply side bottlenecks, the adjustment in government-administered prices, the imported inflation (exchange rate adjustment), escalations in indirect taxes, and inflationary expectations. However, these studies do not concur on the relative importance of each of these factors as determinants of inflation. While Nasim (1995) and Hossain (1990) find money supply as the principal factors underlying the rising inflation rate in Pakistan, others suggest that food prices followed by government administered fueVenergy prices and indirect taxation are the primary impetus for the upward inflationary spira1.2 In fact, Naqvi et al. (1994); Hasan et at. (1995) and Bilquees (1988) accord relatively less importance to money supply as a factor influencing the rate of inflation but in no way recommend a relatively easy monetary policy.

Socio-economic Characteristics and Household Savings: An Analysis of the Households9 Saving Behaviour in Pakistan

Abstract: Domestic resource mobilization is one of the key determinants of sustained economic growth. Pakistan's performance with regard to domestic resource mobilization has been poor despite maintaining a respectable economic growth rate. Why is the savings rate so low in Pakistan? In this paper we analyse the household savings behaviour in Pakistan, using micro level data of the Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) for the year 1984-85. Three different non-linear savings functions attributed to Keynes, Klein, and Landau are estimated separately for the urban and the rural households, using the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) technique. It is found that the average income and saving of an urban household are considerably higher than those of overall Pakistan or a rural household. However, contrary to the general belief, it is found that the propensity to save of the rural households is much higher than that of their urban counterparts. The dependency ratio and the various categories of education are found to have a negative influence on household savings. No systematic relationship is found between savings and the employment status and occupation of the household head. It is found, however, that saving increases with age but tends to decline when the age crosses a certain limit - a finding consistent with the Life Cycle Hypothesis.

Foreign Direct Investment in Pakistan: Policy Issues and Operational Implications

Abstract: Given its fragile balance of payments position and urgent need to boost industrial production, Pakistan needs to significantly increase its mobilization of foreign resources. However, long-term official assistance will become increasingly scarce, while promoting large portfolio investments is not a proper market policy option due to Pakistan's underdevloped and narrow capital market. Significant increases in commercial borrowings are also not desirable. It is therefore crucial to accord high priority to foreign direct investment (FDI).

Export-led growth: a survey of the empirical literature and some non-causality results. Part 1

Abstract: The economic development and growth literature contains extensive discussions on relationships between exports and economic growth. One debate centres on whether countries should promote the export sector to obtain economic growth. An abundant empirical literature on this export-led growth (ELG) hypothesis has followed. We aim to contribute to this literature in two ways. In this paper, part 1, we provide a comprehensive survey of more than 150 export-growth applied papers. We describe the changes that have occurred, over the last two decades, in the methodologies used empirically to examine for relationships between exports and economic growth, and we provide information on the current findings.The last decade has seen an abundance of time series studies that focus on examining for causality via exclusions restrictions tests, impulse response function analysis and forecast error variance decompositions. Our second contribution is to examine some of these time series methods. We show, in part 2, that ELG ...

Mineral Nutrient Acquisition and Response by Plants Grown in Saline Environments

Abstract: Plants acquire mineral nutrients from their native soil environments. Most crop plants are glycophytes and have evolved under conditions of low soil salinity. Consequently, they have developed mechanisms for absorbing, transporting, and utilizing mineral nutrients in nonsaline soils. Under saline conditions, which are characterized by low nutrient-ion activities and extreme ratios of Na / Ca , Na /K , Mg /Ca , and Cl /NO3 , nutritional disorders can develop and crop growth and quality may be reduced. This is not surprising, since under saline conditions, Na and/or Cl often exceed macronutrient concentrations by one or two orders of magnitude and even more in the case of micronutrients. Halophytes, native to saline environments, may also develop nutrient disorders despite their remarkable ability to absorb nutrients selectively from soil solutions dominated by Na and Cl . Nutrient imbalance can develop in salt-stressed plants in different ways. It may result from the effect of salinity on nutrient availability, uptake, transport, or partitioning within the plant or may be caused by physiological inactivation of a given nutrient resulting in an increase in the plant’s internal requirement for that essential element. It is likely that salinity may affect one or more of these processes at the same time, but whether or not this imbalance results in loss of crop yield or quality depends on its severity, which is influenced by a number of environmental factors. Nutrient availability and uptake by plants grown in saline environments is related to (a) the activity of the nutrient ion in the soil solution which depends on pH, pE (the negative log of

What type of enterprise forges close links with universities and government labs? Evidence from CIS 2

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to explore the factors that allow firms to benefit from knowledge developed in universities and government labs or that drive them to collaborate with these institutions. A number of studies have examined this question from various perspectives: the characteristics of the knowledge being transferred, the complementarity between the assets of the two parties involved in the collaboration, and the organizational aspects facilitating collaboration and knowledge transfer between firms and universities/research labs. Santoro and Gopalakrishnan (2000) review this literature and examine in particular the organizational dimension of industry-university collaborations. Hall, Link and Scott (2000) conclude from their analysis of partnerships in the U.S. Advanced Technology Program that universities are invited to collaborate with industry (as a contractor or as a research partner) in projects that involve new science, unknown technological territory. We shall focus on the economic determinants of collaboration and knowledge-sourcing from universities and government labs, factors such as size, group membership, degree of innovativeness, growth and government support. Universities and government laboratories are more than private firms heavily involved in basic R&D because it has the character of a public good. Many studies, starting with Mansfield (1980), estimate a high rate of return on basic R&D. Adams (1990) estimates high spillover effects from academic R&D. Jaffe (1989) and Acs, Audretsch and Feldman (1992) even find that the geographical proximity to universities increases innovation, be it measured by the degree of patenting or by the number of new products introduced in the market. Henderson, Jaffe and Trajtenberg (1998) find that university patents are more important (cited over a few generations of citations) and more general (cited in a broad range of fields) than the average patent. There is thus a fair amount of empirical evidence showing that academic institutions produce substantial R&D spillovers. Firms should therefore be interested in forging links, perhaps even in collaborating with universities or government laboratories in order to capture timely new technological opportunities stemming from basic research. Indeed, proximity to basic science is reported by Cohen (1995) to be one of the main determinants of innovation. Governments in their quest to maximize the social return of innovation should also be concerned with fostering such links between private firms and basic research institutions. Not all firms, though, are ready to seek such links and to be able to benefit from them. It would be interesting to know what profile of firm it takes, for instance size, group affiliation, or the presence of research activities, to seek close contacts and collaborate with centers of basic research. Knowing that, governments could focus their attention to this type of firms to maximize the efficiency in the allocation of public R&D money. The CIS2 (the second European Community Innovation Surveys) database contains two types of information regarding industry links with universities and government labs. One is about the role of universities or government labs as sources of information for innovation, and the other is about collaboration with universities or government labs. Given the other information about enterprises that is contained in the innovation surveys, we try to uncover some of the factors that encourage firms to interact with universities or government labs.

Trade, Foreign Investment, and Industrial Policy for Developing Countries*

Abstract: In this chapter we explore the popular but controversial idea that developing countries benefit from abandoning policy neutrality vis-a-vis trade, FDI and resource allocation across industries. Are developing countries justified in imposing tariffs, subsidies, and tax breaks that imply distortions beyond the ones associated with optimal taxes or revenue constraints? We refer to this set of government interventions as “industrial policy.” We explore the theoretical foundation for industrial policy and then review the related empirical literature. We follow this with a broader look at the empirical work on the relationship between trade and FDI and growth. In this review we find no support for “hard” interventions that distort prices to deal with Marshallian externalities, learning by exporting, and knowledge spillovers from FDI. Nevertheless, we still envision an important role for what we refer to as “soft” industrial policy. The goal is to develop a process whereby government, industry and cluster-level private organizations can collaborate on interventions to increase productivity. We suggest programs and grants to help particular clusters by improving the formation of skilled workers, technology adoption, regulation and infrastructure.

Export behavior and productivity growth: Evidence from Italian manufacturing firms

Abstract: Export Behavior and Productivity Growth: Evidence from Italian Manufacturing Firms. — This paper provides econometric evidence supporting the hypothesis that exporting implies learning effects. Learning-by-exporting is modeled as a change, induced by export behavior, in the stochastic process governing firms’ productivity. Empirically, this is implemented by specifying cross-section regressions of labor productivity growth on measures of export behavior, controlling for past productivity growth and other firms’ characteristics. Using a sample of Italian manufacturing firms, it is found that exporters do not exhibit faster productivity growth. Nevertheless, growth in value added per worker has a positive and significant relation with firms’ export intensity. In other words, only firms substantially involved in exporting have a significantly higher rate of productivity growth. This result suggests that learning-by-exporting is by no means simply the outcome of the presence in the export market.