Pakistan Journal of Applied Economics

107-128

Authors: Muhammad Tariq MAJEED* and Amina MALIK**

The growing importance of e-government and financial development has captured the attention of policy makers who are determined to enhance the per capita income of a country. This study aims to present new findings of the impacts of e-government and financial development on economic growth, using a cross sectional multi-year average dataset of 147 economies across the globe. To the best of the knowledge of authors, this is the first empirical research work which determines relationship between the economic growth and e-government, with particular focus on the role of financial development in shaping this relationship. The possible problem of endogeneity using both the internal and external instruments is also addressed in this study. Empirical findings suggest that growth impact of e-government is positive and significant while the direct growth impact of financial development turns out to be insignificant. However, the positive impact of financial development is explained thorough implementation of e-government as interactive term of financial development and the e-government which turns out to be positive and significant in all regressions. Findings of this study are not sensitive to control additional variables. The study concludes that economies of the world can significantly benefit from financial development if satisfactory quality of e-government can be assured.

153-181

Authors: Atif HUSSAIN* and Tahir SAEED*

The purpose of this study is to investigate the cointegration of stock market returns within and between the developed, emerging and frontier Asian countries for the period 1995 to 2014. The sub-periods including 1997-98 and 2008 to 2011 (crises periods) and 1995-96, 1999 to 2007, and 2012 to 2014 (tranquil periods) are also investigated. Applying the ARDL cointegration approach, the evidence of significant linkage within and between these Asian countries is obtained, over the long-run. Further, the ECM or the VAR techniques for the short-run dynamics, the short-term causal relationships of stock market returns, between most of the sampled Asian stock markets, are also used. It is also observed that those pairs of countries which do not show the stock market returns cointegration in the periods of tranquil; exhibit cointegration in the periods of financial crises, due to contagion or spillover of asset prices. The outcome of this study would be useful for economists, policy makers and investors to assess the international shocks and improve risk management and increase their portfolio diversification benefits.

231-238

Authors: Farrukh IQBAL**

The term inclusive development has become popular in the discourse and documents of the international donor community. While the concept is sometimes interpreted differently by different agencies there is a shared understanding that it has to do with a more broad-based pattern of development than has been attempted or achieved in most developing countries in the past few decades. The prominence of the concept is reflected in the fact that inclusion was adopted as an underlying principle of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda which is to guide international and national development efforts till 2030 which succeeded the previous effort known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) agenda. The focus of the SDGs is not just on achieving gains in development on average but on ensuring that these gains are better distributed within the society. This also accounts for the wide range of SDGs that were adopted. The motivation behind the proliferation of goals was at least in part the desire to include items that were of great importance to some social groups, even if not of general importance to all. The SDGs thus differ from the MDGs in both breadth and depth. More goals are covered (breadth) and more goals have been specified in a way that encompasses distributional outcomes as well (depth).

1-14

Authors: Macleans MZUMARA* and Anna CHINGARANDE*

The authors investigate the inter-sectoral comparative and competitive advantages of South Africa using Balassa technique. South Africa demonstrates significant, comparative and competitive-advantages in chemicals and the allied industries, metals and machinery/electrical sectors. There are comparative and competitive disadvantages in foot wear/head gear sector. This sector is followed by raw hides, skin, leather, and fur sectors. Most of the sectors fall in the middle ranks and there is an evidence of substantial manufacturing in South Africa. It is recommended that South Africa should work on attracting new investment, especially the foreign direct investment to improve those sectors which fall in the middle ranks. It is also recommended that South African channel resources from sectors which lack comparative and competitive advantages to sectors with such advantages, to ensure specialization where South Africa’s productive capacities are efficient.

43-52

Authors: Faiza Azhar KHAN*

The paper questions the widely held assumptions about the relationship between absolute β-convergence and σ-convergence in the existing literature which states that β-convergence is a necessary condition for σ-convergence. The study utilizes the data of 136 countries for the period 1950 to 2008. The non-linear least squares estimations of the β-convergence regression, using both the cross-section and panel data, have confirmed no absolute convergence for the world sample. The σ-convergence has been studied using its two widely used measures, namely, coefficient of variation of income and standard deviation of log income. The results reveal that there is an evidence of σ-convergence using the former measure but not using the latter measure. These findings on β and σ convergence asserts that the relationship between β and σ convergence depends on the particular measure of σ-convergence being used, and hence, cannot be generalized. Specifically, contrary to the theoretical view of relationship between β and σ convergence, there is an evidence of σ-convergence without prevalence of β-convergence among the world countries.