Publications

Special economic zones (SEZs) around the world are normally established with the aim of achieving various policy objectives: to attract foreign direct investment (FDI), to generate employment, and to be experimental with economic reforms via zone-exclusive trade policies. Pakistan has already signed Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) for an upward of nine SEZs throughout the country in collaboration with China under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) program. The purpose of this study is the assessment of socioeconomic impacts of various SEZs in diverse regions via comparative analysis. We especially focused on those SEZs that are similar to Pakistan in regard to the economic profiles of the respective states. Moreover, we particularly observed the literature on FDI phenomenon in this perspective to assess the extent to which the SEZs have helped improve the socioeconomic outcomes in the vicinity of the local communities surrounding such zones and hence, brought about broad-based economic development there. In the present study, SEZs that have proved to be poor in regard to export volume, ameliorating of the domestic labour force’s technical skills and overall inefficiency (such as those in Africa) are stacked up against those that have performed with high levels of productivity and viable economic gains such as those found within China, Bangladesh, and the ASEAN member states in order to decipher the common features of SEZs that enable them to be more effective in the long-term. Our analysis indicate that overall, African SEZs have not led to significant job creation or poverty reduction because of failures in implementing proper regulations. However, Asian SEZs on the other hand, have shown many socio-economic benefits. We thus concluded that we can co-opt African experiences with SEZs in order to improve the Asian framework for the same zone-type setup as Pakistan. This will certainly help us out to attain maximum socioeconomic benefits from its own CPEC-oriented SEZs and hence, allow for the development of a basic framework that Pakistani SEZs should adhere in order to avoid the meagre gains seen in failed zones such as those in Africa. 

Globalization today is quite effectively governed by patterns defined by China’s dominance in global trade and commerce. China has started to correspond with numerous countries in order to build economic corridors. Historically, China has a keen interest in African countries where cheap workers and plentiful resources are available. This opportunity has been favourably received by the African countries. However, it has been observed from various sources that Chinese investment in Africa has been intended to exploit the resources and the countries in Africa.  This study aims to investigate the potential impact of unprecedented Chinese FDI on infrastructure development in selected African countries. The empirical analysis is conducted using a panel data approach for 28 African countries spanning 2003-15. These empirical estimations have been carried out through the fixed effects technique.  The findings of the study reveal that Chinese investment has a positive impact on infrastructure development in the sample countries. Based on the study findings, it is safely concluded that Chinese investment and infrastructure development move parallel in the sample countries. 

The present study focuses on a widely discussed phenomenon, Asymmetric Price Transmission, which refers to the nonlinear behaviour of prices when they are evaluated at their crests and troughs. The underlying study attempts to capture this behaviour, giving special emphasis to the transportation sector of Pakistan. By employing monthly data of retail oil prices spanning between 1990 and 2016, we have tried to empirically investigate the existence of this phenomenon in a sector directly linked with oil price variations. This sector has been often overlooked in terms of its evaluation within the given context. Our study employs a recently developed nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model (NARDL), to examine the pass-through of oil prices into the fares of the transportation sector. This model allows us to capture short-run and long-run estimates simultaneously and also offers an opportunity to determine the magnitude of respective positive and negative oil price shocks. In addition, this study categorizes the transport sector into subsegments of LTVs and HTVs and finds differential patterns in the response of these two categories against oil price variations. The obtained results indicate that oil prices affect the fares of the transportation sector asymmetrically. The findings of the study are instrumental for identifying the pass-through of oil prices to the subsegments of transport sectors. This identification of the differential impact/pass upon the various segments of the transport sector can be helpful for policymakers, especially if they are concerned about devising a trickle-down policy in periods of oil price decline. 

This study is designed to assess and infer the effect of Special Economic Zones under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor on the economic growth of Pakistan through technological spillovers and the absorption capacity of domestic labourers. The present study develops a theoretical model and an empirical panel model to test whether the intervention of Special Economic Zones in Asian developing countries has affected their economic growth through domestic Human Capital. For relevant results, we have employed the GMM model for the panel data set. The results indicate that technological enhancement accumulates in the economy through various other selected indicators rather than domestic labour productivity. The human capital remains inconsequent in this nexus. This condition gives us guidelines to follow pro-human capital policies to accumulate domestic human capital before the intervention from foreign firms on our soil. Subsequently, much waiting for dynamic or long-run benefits in terms of human capital can be attained rather than static effects.

The transitory nature of trends in crime, politics, and socioeconomic conditions triggers the need to update and recalibrate the existing relationship, otherwise, crime prevention policies based on dated findings would be superseded and not produce the desired results. This study examines the role of the prevailing socioeconomic structure, functioning of the justice system, and political factors in the incidence of criminal activities, using the interdisciplinary conceptual framework The panel data modelling, and the Generalized Method of Moments estimation techniques are used to estimate the impact of policing, prison population, average income, education, urbanization, and rule of law on crime rate in the sample of 95 countries. For more insight, the study also estimates the influence of these factors for four different regions American, European, Asian, and African countries. The empirical findings of the study document a positive association of crime with economic incentives measured by average income and a negative association with education attainment. A similar relationship between these variables is also confirmed at the disaggregate level. The political factor measured by the rule of law has negatively influenced crime in the regional analysis and remains insignificant at the aggregate level. Likewise, the functioning and access of the justice system are considered to be negatively related to crime, as the coefficient of the policing is negative and significant in most of the cases. To craft a multilateral and effective crime prevention policy development, all three important factors need to be considered equally and not looked at in isolation. 

This study employed a novel methodological perspective to evaluate the impact of Zakat on one of the sustainable development goals (SDGs), i.e., education. The study has employed macrolevel data on Zakat spending collected from the Zakat department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, and microlevel data from a renowned national survey, the Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey (PSLM). Based on the data set used for empirical analysis, a multilevel model was used to control the effect of intraclass correlation. The findings of this study confirmed that Zakat spending by the public sector reduces deprivation in education. Hence, the households benefiting from Zakat allocations are less likely to face barriers in accessing education. Furthermore, the study shows that educated and female-headed households are less likely to experience deprivation, emphasizing the importance of empowering such households as a strategy to reduce educational inequality. However, the mechanism of Zakat disbursement should be refined and made transparent to pursue SDGs by empowering individuals through quality education, vocational training, and enhancing technical skills, which may ultimately reduce poverty in the country. In addition, the methodology adopted in the study opens doors for further research to decompose the results and design policies accordingly.