Muhammad Mushtaq Khan

Does energy consumption contribute to environmental pollutants? evidence from SAARC countries

The objective of the study is to examine the causal relationship between energy consumption and environmental pollutants in selected South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries, namely, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Srilanka, over the period of 1975–2011. The results indicate that energy consumption acts as an important driver to increase environmental pollutants in SAARC countries. Granger causality runs from energy consumption to environmental pollutants, but not vice versa, except carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in Nepal where there exists a bidirectional causality between CO2 and energy consumption. Methane emissions in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Srilanka and extreme temperature in India and Srilanka do not Granger cause energy consumption via both routes, which holds neutrality hypothesis. Variance decomposition analysis shows that among all the environmental indicators, CO2 in Bangladesh and Nepal exerts the largest contribution to changes in electric power consumption. Average precipitation in India, methane emissions in Pakistan, and extreme temperature in Srilanka exert the largest contribution.

Bivariate Cointegration Between Energy Consumption and Development Factors: A Case Study of Pakistan

The relationship between total energy consumption and economic growth has been extensively explored in the past, but relatively few researchers have examined the increasing trend of energy consumption and development policies of a developing country like Pakistan as well as direction of causation of this relationship that remains controversial. The objective of this paper is to empirically investigate four alternatives but equally plausible hypotheses. These are as follows: (i) development factors cause total primary energy consumption, (ii) energy consumption cause development factors, (iii) there is a bidirectional causality between the two variables, and (iv) both variables are causality independent. To investigate the relationship between the two variables set, a time series cointegration and Granger causality tests have been employed separately. Secondary data pertaining to Pakistan from 1980 to 2009 has been used for analysis. The empirical result of causality strongly supports the bidirectional relationship between carbon dioxide emission and energy demand and industrialization and energy demand. There is a unidirectional causality relationship between the energy demand and population growth. However, neither agriculture value addition nor energy demand affect each other.

Environmental quality indicators and financial development in Malaysia: unity in diversity

Environmental quality indicators are crucial for responsive and cost-effective policies. The objective of the study is to examine the relationship between environmental quality indicators and financial development in Malaysia. For this purpose, the number of environmental quality indicators has been used, i.e., air pollution measured by carbon dioxide emissions, population density per square kilometer of land area, agricultural production measured by cereal production and livestock production, and energy resources considered by energy use and fossil fuel energy consumption, which placed an impact on the financial development of the country. The study used four main financial indicators, i.e., broad money supply (M2), domestic credit provided by the financial sector (DCFS), domestic credit to the private sector (DCPC), and inflation (CPI), which each financial indicator separately estimated with the environmental quality indicators, over a period of 1975–2013. The study used the generalized method of moments (GMM) technique to minimize the simultaneity from the model. The results show that carbon dioxide emissions exert the positive correlation with the M2, DCFC, and DCPC, while there is a negative correlation with the CPI. However, these results have been evaporated from the GMM estimates, where carbon emissions have no significant relationship with any of the four financial indicators in Malaysia. The GMM results show that population density has a negative relationship with the all four financial indicators; however, in case of M2, this relationship is insignificant to explain their result. Cereal production has a positive relationship with the DCPC, while there is a negative relationship with the CPI. Livestock production exerts the positive relationship with the all four financial indicators; however, this relationship with the CPI has a more elastic relationship, while the remaining relationship is less elastic with the three financial indicators in a country. Energy resources comprise energy use and fossil fuel energy consumption, both have distinct results with the financial indicators, as energy demand have a positive and significant relationship with the DCFC, DCPC, and CPI, while fossil fuel energy consumption have a negative relationship with these three financial indicators. The results of the study are of value to both environmentalists and policy makers.

Macroeconomic factors determining FDI impact on Pakistan's growth

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify major macroeconomic factors that enhance foreign direct investment (FDI) for Pakistan through the co‐integration and error correction model over a 28‐year time period, i.e. between 1980 and 2008.Design/methodology/approach – The study employed the Johansen co‐integration technique to estimate the long‐run relationship between the variables, while an error correction model was used to determine the short‐run dynamics of the system.Findings – Finding suggests that FDI has had a significant positive impact on Pakistans economic growth in the long run. For example, trade liberalization and their interactive terms have a positive effect in the short run, while a negative effect is observed in the long run upon economic growth of Pakistan. The results indicate that due to a low quality of human capital in Pakistan; the direct effect of FDI on economic growth becomes negative.Research limitations/implications – The study was limited to a few variables, includin...

Relationship between educational indicators and research outcomes in a panel of top twenty nations: Windows of opportunity

The objective of the study is to examine the empirical relationship between educational indicators and research outcomes in top twenty nations of the World in terms of number of publications, citations and patents. The literature on higher education is useful in expressing the general and visible characteristics of a research domain, but cannot reveal the possible interaction between educational reforms and research outcomes. In order to overcome this limitation, the current study employed a panel cointegration technique to evaluate the long-run relationship between educational indicators and research productivity over a period of 1980–2011. The results reveal that educational indicators act as an important driver to increase research productivity in the panel of selected countries. The most promising educational factors i.e., higher education enrolment increases GDP and number of publications by 0.898% and 1.425%, respectively. Similarly, higher education expenditures per student increases research and development (R&D) expenditures, number of citations and number of patents by 1.128%, 0.968% and 0.714%, respectively. Finally, increasing school-life expectancy contributed to researchers in R&D by 0.401%. The study concludes that there is a window of opportunity to equip the youth with necessary skills to ensure a sustainable future for the nations. Higher education empowers and enables students to compete in a highly competitive and interconnected world through research and innovations, which are the drivers of new ideas, businesses and economic growth.

The Study of Pro-poor Growth and Poverty Reduction in Pakistan (1999–2006):

The aim of this study is to examine different approaches to measuring pro-poor growth rate in the context of Pakistan’s sub-sectors, that is, agriculture, manufacturing, commodity producing and services sectors. This research is extended within the phenomenon of Pro-Poor Growth Index (PPGI) and Poverty Equivalent Growth Rates (PEGR) which is anticipated by Kakwani and Pernia (2000) and Kakwani and Son (2004) in the literature. The present article examines as to what extent the poor have benefited from growth while taking into account the magnitude of growth and the benefits of growth achieved by the poor between 1999 and 2006. The research concludes that growth is classified anti-poor in the overall Pakistan’s sub-sectors due to pro-rich federal policies.

Assessing the Poverty Bias of Growth in Agriculture Sector: Evidence from Pakistan

303 Abstract-The aim of this study is to examine the potential impact of agriculture growth on the poors in Pakistan during 1964-2006. This research is extended within the phenomena of Poverty Bias of Growth (PBG) as proposed by McCulloch and Baulch (2000) in the literature. The cumulative outcome of four decades (43 years) is anti-poor. The results of impulse response analysis, indicate that one standard error shock to agricultural growth have negative impact on rural poverty, while one shock in income inequality causes rural poverty to fall up to next 10 years. At last, one error shock to poverty causes agriculture income to deteriorate in the next 10 years.

The growth, inequality and poverty triangle: new evidence from a panel of SAARC countries

This paper examines the impact of growth and income inequality on poverty for a panel of five selected South Asian Association For Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries; namely, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka; over the period of 1990-2008. Using Pedronis (2004) test for panel cointegration, it was found that there is a long-run relationship between poverty, growth and income inequality. The estimated long-run elasticities indicates that increase in economic growth and income inequality contributes to a fall and rise in poverty, respectively. It was also found that the impact of income inequality in increasing poverty is comparatively greater than that of economic growth in reducing poverty in SAARC countries.

Impact of Military Expenditure and Economic Growth on External Debt: New Evidence from a Panel of SAARC Countries

This paper examines the impact of military expenditure and economic growth on external debt for a panel of five selected AA countries including Bangladesh, India, epal, Pakistan and rilanka, over the period of 1988-2008. sing Pedroni’s (2004) test for panel cointegration, it was found that there is a long-run relationship between external debt, economic growth and military expenditure. The study finds that external debt is elastic with respect to military expenditure in the long run and inelastic in the short run. In the long run, 1% increase in military expenditure increase external debt between 1.18 % and 1.24%, while 1% increases in economic growth reduce external debt between 0.64% and 0.79%, by employed and M estimator respectively. In the short run, 1% increase in military expenditure increases external debt by 0.15%, while 1% increase in economic growth reduces external debt by 0.47 %.

Growth, Employment, Exports and Wagner’s Law: Evidence from Pakistan’s Agriculture Sector (1960–2009)

The objective of this study is to empirically examine the relationship between growth, employment, exports and their impact on gross national expenditure (as a percentage of agriculture GDP), specifically in the context of Pakistan’s agriculture sector by using the Bound Testing approach. Data sets from 1960–2009 are taken for time series analysis. The analysis demonstrates that, in the long-run, Wagner’s Law does not hold in Pakistan’s agriculture sector, as agriculture growth is negatively correlated with the share of agriculture expenditure; while, in the short-run, Wagner’s law does hold, as it supports the hypothesis. Agricultural employment tends to be a significant negative correlation with the agricultural expenditure in the long-run. However, these results disappear in the short-run. Agricultural raw material exports have a significant and positive impact on agriculture expenditures both in the short- and long-run.