Public policy is aimed at increasing the efficiency of the industrial sector in Pakistan. This paper looks at four issues. Firstly, it looks at the adjustments the new government needs to make to restore macroeconomic balance. Secondly, it discusses the global changes that have occurred in the...

Public policy is aimed at increasing the efficiency of the industrial sector in Pakistan. This paper looks at four issues. Firstly, it looks at the adjustments the new government needs to make to restore macroeconomic balance. Secondly, it discusses the global changes that have occurred in the...

The principal concern of this paper is to examine the feasibility of using Public Works Programmes (PWPs) as a strategy for solving the problem of under-utilisation of labour in the urban sector. A number of hypotheses are implicit in this analysis and it would be appropriate to list them here....

This article has five parts. The first provides an overview of major structural weaknesses in the Pakistani economy—I call them faultlines. The following three parts describe the programme of stabilisation and structural reform introduced by the caretaker administration of Prime Minister Meraj...

This paper is divided into four sections. The first provides a quick overview of the current political and economic situation, focusing in particular on the stagnation of growth and deepening macroeconomic imbalances, and a fast approaching balance of payments crisis. The second section focuses...

This article provides a quantitative analysis of the effects of Pakistan government domestic wheat procurement, sales, and trade policies on wheat supply, demand, prices, and overall inflation. Analysis of price multipliers indicates that increases in wheat procurement prices (one means of...

Using micro-level household data for rural and urban Pakistan, this study estimates Engel equations for 22 commodity groups with quadratic spline specification, in which the number and locations of knots are determined through a search procedure. The study finds that the resulting flexibility...

Entrepreneurship is viewed by economists to be a combination of innovation and risk taking. When such activity thrives, high growth rates are achieved as well as opportunities offered to all segments of society, including the poor. The latter benefit form growth and employment as well as through...

Policy in Pakistan has been fairly path-dependant, placing a higher weight on export promotion and domestic industrialisation development than on domestic commerce. Yet domestic commerce is growing rapidly, and quite possibly is the largest sector in the economy. This paper argues that a more...

This paper explores the concept of city ranking as a way to measure the dynamics and complexities of urban life. These rankings have various dimensions and uses. Both the context in which these rankings are done and their nature have changed considerably over time. These rankings face many...