This study uses a 34 years' standardized balance sheet data of the manufacturing firms in Pakistan to know the leverage behaviour of these firms over time. The results indicate that leverage has two pervasive and significant relationships: one, negative relationship with current and past profitability; and two, positive relationship with past dividends. This provides empirical evidence to put forward strong support to Pecking Order Theory (POT) in context of profitability and dividends. Moreover, it provides empirical evidence to present a reasonable support to POT regarding growth. However, apropos size POT gets nominal empirical support from Pakistan.

In this paper we analyze the relationship between bankruptcy risk and the corporate life cycle in Pakistan from 2005 to 2014. For this purpose, we run a Hierarchical Linear Mixed Model (HLM) for a sample of 301 non-financial listed firms in 12 different sectors. The empirical outcomes reveal that firms during introduction, growth and, decline stages (mature stage) of life-cycle experience higher (lower) bankruptcy risk. Moreover, in juxtaposition with growth stage, bankruptcy risk is higher at the introduction stage of life-cycle. These findings suggest that financial managers should be cautious about the financial fragility of the firm at each stage of corporate life-cycle. The results also entail that Pakistani firms do not follow a sequential pattern in their life-cycle, rather they have the tendency to revert to a previous stage or jump to the next stage of life-cycle. This is the first study that empirically examines the association between firm life-cycle stage and corresponding bankruptcy risk and asserts that managers must incorporate the life-cycle effects into their financial planning and decision making for the sustainable working of an enterprise.

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PurposeIt is now widely recognized that human development (HD) and economic growth (EG) are intertwined in two‐way feedback processes either leading to an upward spiral of development or a poverty trap. This concept is used to overcome one of the limitations of a previous study by Qureshi which assumes exogenous gross domestic product (GDP). With endogenous GDP formulation, the impact of public expenditure on HD and EG in Pakistan is examined.Design/methodology/approachSystem dynamics approach is used to model, identify and help manage the development path of HD and EG in Pakistan given alternative policies for public expenditure on HD and EG. For this purpose the model endogenously determines path of population cohorts, and education, health and economic indicators.FindingsThe simulation results suggest that the current level of public expenditure on HD is extremely low and any further decrease will have irreversible negative impact on HD and economic indicators, even if the resources so saved are effectively invested in EG. Further, higher public expenditure on EG may neither result into better HD indicators nor economic indicators. On the contrary, higher public expenditure on HD not only improves HD indicators but also supplements EG. The results of this study conform to the results of earlier research and challenge the very basis of fiscal policy in Pakistan which has continually ignored HD over decades.Research limitations/implicationsThe model boundary excludes possible causal links of public expenditure, HD and income distribution. Identification and inclusion of these causalities may improve understanding of perpetuating asymmetric income distribution in Pakistan its role in HD and EG trade‐off.Practical implicationsThis paper suggests reorientation of fiscal policy in Pakistan and to anchor it to HD by allocating more public funds.Originality/valueThe unique characteristic of this model is explicit modelling of population cohorts in a two‐way feedback relationship with economic development considering the delays and non‐linearities involved in this process.