The capital markets are highly interconnected in the modern economic system, and it is one of the most vulnerable sectors to any financial and natural disaster occurring around the globe. The COVID-19 pandemic not only affects the capital market of the host nation but also creates problems in other parts of the world’s capital markets as well. The main objective of this event study is to empirically analyze the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the daily stock market returns in Pakistan, which is a fast-growing and emerging market in South Asia. For this, we used secondary data to evaluate the effects of COVID-19 in different dimensions i.e., total cases, new cases, total deaths, new deaths, and the positive rate on the daily stock returns of 531 listed companies in the Pakistan stock exchange over the period of March 2020 to November 2021. For stationarity of the variables, we applied an augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) unit root test. The results of the study obtained through ARCH family regression estimation revealed that the total number of cases, new cases, and the positive rate are negatively affecting the stock market returns in Pakistan while the total deaths and new deaths are positively affecting the stock market returns during the pandemic.

Allocation of public revenue among productive and non-productive expenditure and its impact on GDP are not extensively studies in Pakistan. In this study, we examine the relationship between government revenue, productive and nonproductive expenditure and economic growth and sustainability over the period of 1978-2018 with the help of Johansen co-integration, error correction test and Impulse Response Function. The result of the study affirms a significant long run and the short run relationship between the fiscal instruments and the economic growth in Pakistan. Finally, impulse response illustrates that when direct tax is higher than GDP, productive and unproductive expenditures are also increased. It has also been observed some unproductive expenditures smooth the way for the economic growth. For the future better implication of fiscal policy and to achieve economic growth and development Government should take steps to increase its revenue through taxes. Tax collections can be increased by proper utilization of tax revenue and by educating people that tax is the responsibility not the penalty