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Abstract:The present study investigates the determinants of life expectancy in the presence of economic misery using Pakistan's time series data over the period of 1972-2012. The stationary properties of the variables are examined by applying unit root test accommodating structural breaks. The ARDL bounds testing approach to cointegration is applied to examine the long run relationship between the variables. Our findings show that cointegration between the variables is confirmed. Moreover, health spending improves life expectancy. Food supply contributes to life expectancy. A rise in economic misery deteriorates life expectancy. Urbanization enhances life expectancy while illiteracy declines it. The causality analysis reveals that life expectancy is Granger cause of health spending, food supply, economic misery, urbanization and illiteracy. This paper opens up new insights for policy making authorities to consider the role of economic misery while formulating comprehensive economic policy to improve life expectancy in Pakistan.

Pricing is a central strategic decision for all companies, and is particularly sensitive for social enterprises with both financial and social objectives. High interest rates in microfinance are a topic of intense debate. Using an original database of 291 MFIs, this paper provides empirical evidence of the impact the efficiency of an MFI has on its microcredit interest rate. We use the non‐parametric Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) framework to calculate efficiency and differentiate financial and social efficiency. The results show that financial efficiency has a positive impact on interest rates, with more financially efficient MFIs having lower interest rates, while social efficiency has no impact on microcredit interest rates.

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The current study contributes to the existing literature on the relationship between corporate governance (CG) and social performance (SP) of microfinance institutions (MFIs) by introducing CG index for the first time purely in the perspective of Asian MFIs. Moreover, this research also investigates the existence of endogeneity by checking the reverse causality between CG and SP as many previous studies highlighted the endogenous nature of many governance and performance variables. Using a panel of 173 MFIs in 18 Asian countries for the period of 5 years, a comprehensive CG index (CGI) based on seven internal governance mechanism variables is constructed as an indicator of the overall CG mechanism of MFIs. By employing generalized least squares (GLS) model, our results indicate insignificant impact of CG on many SP variables which are attributed to the endogenous nature of this relationship as the significance of results improved by studying relationship in reverse direction by employing ordered logit model. Our results indicate that SP is an important determinant of CG mechanism of MFIs even after controlling for MFI-related characteristics.

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Per Capita Income and productivity of industrial sector are very low in developing nations including Pakistan as compared to developed nations. Three reasons have been mentioned in the literature for this difference; geographical differences, role of international trade and the quality of institutions.This study examines the short run and long run impacts of trade openness, and quality of institutions, on the growth of industrial sector of Pakistan, using time series data over the period of 1984-2013.TheCobb- Douglas production function has been augmented by adding quality of institutions, trade openness, and financial development variables to probe their impacts on the industrial growth. The most recently developed combined cointegration technique by Bayer and Hanck (2013) has been usedto check the cointegration among the variables. Long run empirical results show that trade openness, and quality of institutions positively contributes to the growth of industrial sector. These resultssuggest that better quality and well-functioning of the institutions is a pre requisites to boost the foreign trade, and the growth of industrial sector of Pakistan. Keywords: Trade Openness, Institutions, Industrial Growth, Pakistan

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