Saving and investment are two key macro variables with micro foundations which can play a significant role in economic growth, inflation stability and promotion of employment especially if seen in the context of a developing country. For self-reliance and growth objectives, mobilisation of domestic resources and their efficient utilisation are the two major policy oriented focuses today [Khan (1993)]. National savings are critically important to help maintain a higher level of investment which is a key determinant for economic uplift. Thereby, necessitating the analysis of saving-investment behaviour and its determinants for policy implications; this is a demanding area because of continuing debate on the potential role of their determinants.
Public Health expenditure to GDP ratio has remained low in developing countries and general public has no choice but to seek healthcare from their own pocket, which has remained the dominant source of financing. In Pakistan, out of pocket expenditures are around 70% of the total health expenditures. The study analyzed the out of pocket health expenditure patterns of Pakistan historically, across provinces, rural and urban areas. Further it compares between below poverty line and above poverty line households with reference to out of pocket health expenditures to analyze the potential of catastrophic health expenditures pushing marginalized group into a poverty trap. The study found that absolute amount of health expenditure by private households and government are increasing over the time, but the health related spending shares of household incomes are declining, which should be a major policy concern. The study further shows that in rural areas lack of health facilities pushes people to spend more to buy health care privately indicating health services inequality. Finally the lack of health facilities and improper medical facilities may be a significant factor for high disease prevalence rates and health problems in these areas. This further reinforces the people to spend more even for the minimum health care, which if catastrophic can push people into poverty.
Modern macroeconomics literature emphasises both the short run and long run objectives of fiscal policy [Romer (2006)]. In the short run it can be used to counter output cyclicality and/or stabilise volatility in macro variables, which is descriptively same as of effects of the short run monetary policy. Further for the long-run, fiscal policy can also affect both the demand and supply side of the economy. But in most traditional analyses it is assumed that fiscal policy would adjust to ensure the intertemporal budget constraint to be satisfied, while monetary policy is free to adjust its instruments [‘Ricardian Regime’ by Sargent (1982)] such as stock of money supply or the nominal interest rate [Walsh (2003)]. The debt financing methods, expenditure and tax powers of fiscal authorities i.e. the fiscal policy has also been seen as to affect both the supply and demand side of the economy. As noted by Baxter and King (1993), the initial Real Business Cycle models had only the supply side effects of the fiscal policy, where these were transmitted through the wealth effect and labourleisure choices of the household. Recently also New-Keynesian type models with micro-foundations and sticky prices argue that still through the supply side fiscal policy management could be accorded for stabilisation [Linnemann and Schabert (2003)]. The demand side effects of the fiscal policy could also be found only with more imperfections such as ‘Rule of Thumb’ consumers or those with liquidity constraints, which lead to exclusion of Ricardian equivalence [Gali, et al. (2005)]. But all that depends on the structure of the economy, as Blanchard and Perotti (2002) stated:
Unfortunately, religious behaviour has been viewed by economists in terms of “Islamic economics,” “Christian economics”, etc. [Iannaccone (1986)]. Hence there has been a dichotomy prevailing between religious economic frameworks and the conventional rational choice theory.1 Whereas the conventional economists tried a variety of models to estimate the relationship between wages and time allocated to market labour supply but found that results mostly do not speak of the real world situation [Deaton (1980)]. The underlying reason was supposed to be faith and values which have strong effect on labour supply decisions [Pencavel (1986)]. The philanthropic behaviour relates to labour supply decisions directly through time allocated to voluntary services or indirectly through time allocated for earning and then donations out of these. It is observed that the variables of economic importance especially those relating to household resource allocation or labour supply decisions seem to be present in religious affiliation of individuals, their values and their perceptions about life before and after death as believed by the followers of divine religions which account for about two thirds of the world population.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.