Ahmad Kaleem

Impact of political events on stock market returns: empirical evidence from Pakistan

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between uncertain political events and Pakistani Stock Markets from May 1999 to December 2011. Design/methodology/approach - – Using the mean-adjusted return model and event study methodology and by comparing the market efficiency between the two government style, i.e. autocratic and democratic, the authors determined that how uncertain political events are affecting Pakistani Stock Markets. Findings - – The empirical result shows that political events have an impact on the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) returns. Moreover, the paper derives from the results that the KSE is inefficient for a short span of time, after 15 days KSE absorbs the noisy information. The political situation in Pakistan was more stable in autocratic government structure than in democratic structure but it is difficult to state that the stock markets are more efficient in Autocracy because only few events took place during an autocratic regime and magnitude of events was not same in the autocratic and democratic government structure. Originality/value - – This study is unique in its nature as it examines the effect of multiple political events on stock market returns in Pakistan simultaneously and is expected to contribute significantly in the capital market literature of Pakistan in particular.

Academics' Perceptions of Bullying at Work: Insights from Pakistan.

Purpose Despite an extensive history of research into workplace bullying and the psychosomatic harm associated with it in western contexts, research into the occurrence and manifestation of bullying behavior in the academic workplaces of non-western countries is sparse. In response to this gap, the purpose of this paper is to start a research conversation by reporting an empirical enquiry into the occurrence, forms and perceptions of workplace bullying among academics in Pakistan. Design/methodology/approach This study was conducted with a representative sample of academics in a large Pakistani province through a cross-sectional survey. Findings This study reveals that workplace bullying is prevalent among academics in the Pakistani context, with up to half of them regularly exposed to practices such as excessive work monitoring, undermining of professional competence, lack of recognition of work contributions and obstruction of important work-related matters. Research limitations/implications The findings underscore the need for developing broader institutional actions, clear policies and grievance procedures to discourage bullying at work in Pakistan. Higher educational managers will find the results useful for development of anti-bullying policies and codes of conduct. Originality/value This is the first study to examine the perceptions, occurrence and demographic risk factors associated with workplace bullying among academics in the Pakistani context.

Real Earnings Management and Future Performance

Managers manipulate firm’s earnings through real activities to show good performance in the current period. This article determines whether there is any impact of these earnings manipulation in future financial performance or not. A panel data analysis technique generalized least square (GLS) method was used for analysis. The sample includes 119 firms listed in Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) for the years 2004–2011. The article provides evidence that firms engaged in real earnings management (REM) activities through sales manipulation to report higher earnings have worse financial performance in future. It reveals that earnings manipulation seems helpful and appealing in current situation but creates problems in future.

Earnings management through overproduction and subsequent performance: an empirical study in Pakistan

This study aims to find the impact of real earnings management on future financial performance. Abnormal cost of production is considered as proxy of real earnings management which is calculated by using model of Dechow et al. (1998). It has been investigated that how abnormal cost of production affects financial performance measures; return on asset (ROA), return on equity (ROE) and earning per share (EPS) and price to earnings ratio (PE). Manufacturing sector of Pakistan is selected for analysis and data is collected from year 2004 to 2011. Generalised least square regression has been applied for analysis. It has been revealed that firms engaged in real earnings management through overproduction face lower financial performance in subsequent years.

Non-interest financing arrangements in three Abrahamic religions

INTRODUCTION Judaism, Christianity and Islam all view wealth as a blessing of God, and see man’s appointment as custodian imposing obligations and constraints upon its rightful use. All three religions have strong views on the acceptability of usury (interest) that have been extensively analysed in the literature. Less well researched are the principles and practices of various non-interest financial instruments acceptable in the three Abrahamic religions. This chapter seeks to cover this gap by examining the principles and practices of Judaism, Christianity and Islam towards selected financial concepts, namely partnership and equitybased financial instruments, debt-based financial instruments, and interest free loans.