Evaluating Productivity.

Balancing research and teaching workloads requires mechanisms for evaluation of performance.

There are many dimensions of performance which can be utilized to evaluate our research staff and

faculty. All staff will be asked to set their own targets for achievements along one or more of these

dimensions. Eight dimensions are listed below.

1. Research: Policy Oriented. These may not be easily publishable, and would often be used to

provide inputs to planning commission as well as briefs for Members of Parliaments. Idrees

Khwaja has been asked to revive the PIDE Macroeconomic Brief (Business Barometer, Policy

Viewpoint) as a quarterly publication commenting on most recent economic developments

and offering policy advice. This should be targeted at MNA’s and other influential thought

leaders.

2. Research: Academic (publication oriented). Here we should try to target high quality

academic journals. It is important to stay away from bogus/fraud journal which have

proliferated in recent years. High impact factors, and other HEC criteria should be used for

evaluation of such publications.

3. Contract Research: We need to develop a coherent policy for overheads to be paid to PIDE,

and also the type and nature of contract research we engage in. Preparing and submitting

bids for projects can be done on a regular basis, provided we have a policy which allows for

integration of such research into the core functions of PIDE.

4. Other Publications: Articles in newspapers and magazines like Pakistan and Gulf Economist

are very useful avenues for publicizing PIDE and its staff. We should make an effort to

encourage such, and to evaluate them as part of research output.

5. Teaching: The regular course load of two courses per semester may be lightened for faculty

who perform in other dimensions, such as research publications or administration.

6. Syllabus or Course Development: We are planning to introduce many radically new courses

at PIDE in the near future, in accordance with the VISION to provide a new direction for

economics. For this purpose, teachers may invest time in learning a new field, and in

creating new courses based on this learning.

7. Trainings: PIDE is well equipped to provide trainings in many different areas. We need to

look at the Rausing Executive Center of LUMS as a model for how we can conduct trainings.

There are also many other places which conduct training. This is not primarily for money

making purposes. Rather, it would be a way to teach people the specialized research skills

currently available only at PIDE.

8. Administration: There are numerous administrative tasks which the faculty engage in. These

need to be evaluated in terms of the load imposed both in terms of time, and also in terms

of efforts required, as well as importance of the administrative task.

Creating a formula so the all faculty have roughly balanced load will be a high priority item, to be

tackled in the near future.