No abstract

Purpose -The main purpose of this study is to identify and quantify the relative importance of various socioeconomic factors and maternal care practices which may have significant role in determining child mortality at different level of child ages in Pakistan. Design/methodology/approach -This paper examines the role of household, demographic and environment factors as determinants of early children mortality in Pakistan. A number of individual, household and local characteristics are related to the probability of child mortality. This study employed a sequential model which is based on a sequence of binary choice models for the conditional probability of choosing a higher response category. Findings -This study identifies that mother feeding protects children from early exposure to diseases and ill-health in different ways. It also appeared that mother's education is strongly related to neonatal mortality, infant mortality as well as child mortality not only through the improved child caring practices but also through other proximate determinants such as prenatal care, income and environmental contamination. Research limitations/implications -Social policies attempting to promote early initiation of mother feeding and utilization of prenatal care could make major contribution to the reduction of under five years mortality in Pakistan Practical implications -Health care intervention programmes should focus on illiterate mothers whose children have all the cumulative risks due to poor health care utilization. Originality/value -This could be the first ever effort in describing child mortality status with the help of sequential probit technique for Pakistan.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between financial development and agriculture growth employing Cobb‐Douglas function by incorporating financial development as an important factor of production over the period 1971‐2011.Design/methodology/approachThe autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to cointegration with structural breaks is applied to examine long run relationship between the variables. The direction of causality is detected by vector error correction method (VECM) Granger causality test and robustness of causality analysis is tested through innovative accounting approach (IAA).FindingsThe empirical analysis confirmed that the series are cointegrated for long run relationship between agriculture growth, financial development, capital and labor. The results indicated that financial development has positive effect on agricultural growth. This implies that financial development plays a significant role in stemming agricultural production and hence agricultural growth. Both capital and labour in the agriculture sector also add to agricultural growth. The Granger causality analysis revealed bidirectional causality between agricultural growth and financial development. The robustness of these results is confirmed by innovative accounting approach (IAA).Practical implicationsThis study has important policy implications for policy‐making authorities to stimulate agricultural growth by improving the efficiency of the financial sector.Originality/valueThis paper convincingly argues that there is a need for case‐by‐case study on such a project in view of each country's unique characteristics.

Abstract:This paper explores the effect of military expenditures on external debt in case of Pakistan over the period of . For this purpose, ARDL bounds testing approach is used to examine cointegration between the variables. ADF, P-P and ADF-GLS, Clemente et al. (1998) unit root tests are applied to check the order of integration of variables. OLS and ECM regressions approaches are employed to investigate marginal impact of military spending on external debt in long and short run.Our findings indicate cointegration which confirms long run relationship between military expenditures, external debt, economic growth and investment. The results reveal that a rise in military expenditures increases the stock of external debt. The inverse effect of economic growth on external debt is found and an increase in investment is also increasing external debt in the country. This study invites policy makers to approach the problem of curtailing external debt in innovative ways in case of Pakistan.

Food security is a broad concept, encompassing issues related to the nature, quality, and security of the food supply as well as issues of food access. The world has been facing a paradox of widespread food insecurity and malnutrition amid net food surpluses. Increased food supplies do not automatically enhance access to food by the poorer groups of society. Food security measures alone may have a limited effect on the nutritional well being of individuals, unless the reinforcing detrimental linkages between food insecurity, disease, poor sanitation and inadequate education are addressed. Current theory holds that good nutrition for pre‐schoolers depends on household food security, an adequate health environment, and adequate maternal and childcare. Pakistan is a low‐income developing country with a per capita income of US$443, one of the lowest in the world. Pakistan is not a food insecure country. It generally has the economic ability to import the required food. This paper considers the main features of determinants of food security in Pakistan, particularly household economy assessment, and looks at what conclusions can realistically be drawn out of analysis when conducted within a conceptual framework.