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Highlights It is an attempt to understand the mechanism that is crucial to predict the success of COVID-19 management policies. First, we investigate the level of knowledge and awareness of COVID-19 among university students and graduates. Second, we examine the attitudes and confidence of them in the success of the COVID-19 management policy. The results suggest an urgent need for health education programs to hold optimistic attitudes. Also, the rebuilding of trust in local health facilities is necessary to avoid the possible next wave of COVID-19.

The lending and asset price transmission channels remain largely unexplored since financial reforms and pursuance of market-based monetary policy instruments. This paper examines the monetary policy transmission mechanisms of Pakistan with a special focus on bank lending and asset price channels. Monthly data over the period 2000M7-2016M12 is being used for the short run analysis. The empirical investigation is based on SVAR framework. The results show that the monetary aggregates targeting agenda is still operative in effecting the output and general price level. Bank lending have a non-trivial part through the investment channel and share prices through wealth effect on price level and output, while the conventional interest rate channel seemed to be ineffective in the transmission mechanism process in Pakistan. The findings of generalized impulse response functions are backed by the generalized error forecast variance decomposition analysis. In addition to domestic variables, external shocks appear to have a strong influence on inflation and output in Pakistan.Contribution/ Originality: This study contributes in the existing literature by examining the monetary policy transmission mechanisms of Pakistan with a special focus on bank lending and asset price channels.

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The connection between firm-level innovation and competition has received scholarly attention for a long time before now. This paper attempts to shed light on this complex relationship from a novel perspective where a detailed firm-level dataset of private manufacturing Pakistani firms spanning from 2002 to 2015 is used. We test whether the non-linearity estimate of Aghion et al. (2005) is sustained by our firm-level data. A multivariate probit estimation technique indicates that higher competition leads to a more probability of innovation, but at a declining rate as competitor numbers increase. Moderate confirmation of an inverted-U relationship between competition and innovation is found, especially in process and organizational innovation. The findings have practical implications for policymakers in the area of market structure and firm-level innovation.