Unrestricted trade stimulates economic growth and bridges socio-economic gaps existing in different countries of the world. Pakistan has adopted trade liberalization policies since the late 1980s with the same expectations. This study has empirically analyzed how trade liberalization has affected economic development in the country. Its effects have been examined with respect to four measures of economic development: per capita GDP, income inequality, poverty and employment over the period from 1960-2003. The main analysis is based on a simultaneous equation model. Keeping in view the simultaneity of the chosen development measures, the model is estimated with the 2SLS technique of regression analysis. The analysis shows that, over the study period, trade liberalization has not affected all the chosen indicators of development uniformly. It has affected employment positively but per capita GDP and income distribution negatively. However, it has not affected poverty in any way. The obvious message is that trade liberalization has not affected all the indicators of development favorably in Pakistan. It thus implies the need of a cautious move towards liberalization. The focus of trade liberalization should be to bring about improvement in the performance of mediating factors and to focus exports on labor-intensive products.

This study endeavours to investigate the impact of fiscal decentralisation on the welfare concerns of poverty, and income inequality in Pakistan for the time period 1972 to 2013. In order to capture the multi-dimensional nature of fiscal decentralisation, three indicators are used namely; revenue decentralisation, expenditure decentralisation and composite decentralisation. Further, the role of institutional quality is also incorporated in apprehending the responsiveness of welfare issues towards the process of fiscal decentralisation. The estimation technique of Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) is employed for estimating the impact of fiscal decentralisation on poverty and income inequality. The empirical findings suggest that fiscal decentralisation has discretely resulted in increasing poverty and income inequality in Pakistan, but the presence of better institutional quality along with fiscal decentralisation can promise to mitigate the negative consequences of fiscal decentralisation for poverty and income inequality in Pakistan. Although, the indirect effect of fiscal decentralisation on welfare concerns, through institutional quality exhibits a fluctuating trend over time, but its average marginal effect is lower than the direct effect of fiscal decentralisation on welfare concerns. Hence, it can be perceived that the log-run welfare issues can be tackled effectively in the presence of institutional quality with a rational level of fiscal decentralisation. Also in order to reap the potential benefits of fiscal decentralisation for poverty and income inequality that has remained a catastrophe in case of Pakistan. JEL Classification: I3, 023 H53 Keywords: Fiscal Decentralisation, Welfare

This study is an attempt to investigate trade–labor market linkages in Pakistan. Our main hypothesis that trade liberalization leads to an increase in labor-demand elasticity is empirically verified using a panel data approach for the period 1970/71–2000/01 for 22 selected manufacturing industries in Pakistan. We use ordinary least squares to estimate models in levels and first-differences, in addition to a fixed effects model. Overall, our findings suggest weak evidence of increased labor-demand elasticity as a result of trade liberalization in Pakistan’s manufacturing sector. Nor does the study find support for a positive labor market and trade linkage from an employment point of view—as otherwise suggested by standard trade theory. This may be due to increased capital intensity in the manufacturing sector by time, and the infusion of new technology. It could also be attributed to labor market imperfections preventing trade liberalization from favorably influencing employment conditions in Pakistan. Our policy recommendations based on the study’s results stress the need for skill enhancement measures to increase labor productivity, helping it become competitive according to the demands of globalization.

This study analyzes the role of human capital and job attributes, i.e., supply-side determinants, in determining wages in a period of trade liberalization. Using the Mincerian earning function and based on data from the Labor Force Surveys, we construct a model to estimate various wage determinants and compute the rates of return to different educational qualifications and relative occupational wage shares for the years 2005/06 and 1990/91. The estimated earning functions for 1990/91 and 2005/06 are compared to investigate whether individual characteristics-such as gender, job location, nature of job, educational qualifications, and different occupations-cause the wage gap to widen or contract under conditions of trade liberalization. The mean and quantile regression approach is used for estimation purposes. Our key findings postulate (i) an increasing gender pay gap, (ii) a higher wage premium to the highest educational qualification, and (iii) more or less stable relative wages for different occupations over time. In addition, wage dispersion across occupational groups appears more pronounced in 1990/91 than in 2005/06, implying a declining trend in the difference in wage distribution across occupations. Our findings suggest that trade liberalization cannot be presumed to pose a threat to the labor market in the wage context. However, exposing labor to an open market has not increased the productivity and skills of labor or helped reap the potential benefits of trade liberalization. JEL Classification: F16, J31.

This study empirically investigates the effect of terrorism and other push and pull factors on the skilled labour out-migration in Pakistan over the time period 1973–2015. The empirical findings based on fully modified ordinary least squares (FM-OLS) technique suggest that the waves of terrorism have not significantly driven the out-migration of skilled labour from Pakistan. Relatively, traditional push factors including inflation, unemployment and rising capital share in gross domestic product (GDP) have remained the major factors behind brain drain from Pakistan. Comparatively, the per capita economic growth, poverty and host and origin country’s emigration policies have curtailed the skilled out-migration. The findings suggest improving socio-economic conditions, increasing GDP per capita and decreasing unemployment and inflation in order to control the out-migration of skilled workers from Pakistan. Besides, the domestic labour market is required to boost the absorption capacity of highly educated and qualified workers in the country by making them more compatible to the existing stock of capital to restrict the brain drain. JEL: F22, F52, J24, C32