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Onychomycosis is fungal infection of one or more of the nail units. However, because fungi cause only about half of all nail dystrophies, the use of appropriate diagnostic techniques is important to ensure correct diagnosis and treatment. Aim of the present study was to compare direct microscopy, culture and HPE-PAS for diagnosis of onychomycosis by evaluating their sensitivity and various other relevant statistical parameters. A prospective, hospital-based, cross-sectional study was conducted on 216 patients with a high degree of clinical suspicion of onychomycosis. Nail specimens were evaluated using three diagnostic methods, i.e. direct microscopy using 20% Potassium hydroxide (KOH) & 40% Di-methyl-suphoxide (DMSO), culture and histopathological examination using PAS stain (HPE-PAS). Of 216 patients direct microscopy was positive in 138 (63.9%), culture in 147 (68%) and HPE-PAS in 164 patients (76%). One hundred and seventy-nine patients fitted into the criteria set for confirmed diagnosis of onychomycosis. Using this as a denominator; direct microscopy, culture and HPE-PAS had sensitivities of 77.1%, 70% and 91.6% respectively. Also, HPE-PAS showed the highest sensitivity of 94.7% in 19 cases with prediagnostic antimycotic treatment compared to direct microscopy (42.1%) or culture (57.9%). HPE-PAS shows high sensitivity for diagnosis of onychomycosis and can be considered as a gold standard in the diagnosis of onychomycosis.

International comparison of fiscal efforts of developing countries was a fascinating area of public finance in the 1960s and 1970s. The famous studies in this area were Harley (1965); Lotz and Morss (1967); Raja (1971); Raja et al. (1975) and Roy (1979). Most of these studies used ordinary least square (OLS) technique to estimate the determinants of the total tax to GDP ratio and the most common exogenous variables used by these studies were share of agriculture sector, share of industrial sector, share of foreign trade and per capita income. Some studies used the level of monetisation, somes used the. level of education and other used the level of urbanisation as exogenous variables in the estimation of tax potential of different developing countries. The present study instead of exploring the determinants of tax to GDP ratio attempts to explore the determinants of buoyancy of the taxes i.e. the total taxes, direct taxes and indirect taxes. The buoyancy of a tax measures the total response of tax revenue to change in income. The scope of the study also includes the ranking of developing countries on the basis of actual to predicted values of these buoyancies. The study would have been more useful if the study could fmd the determinants of the elasticity of these taxes, but due to nonavailability of data on the discretionary measures for each tax this was not feasible. The paper is organised as follows, Section I describes the theoretical basis of the model, Section II gives methodology and data collection, Section III gives results of the model and Section IV summarises the main conclusions.

The issue of how developing countries can accelerate their economic growth is of crucial importance. The two primary alternative routes to development are inward-oriented growth strategies, which emphasises import-substitution industrialisation (ISI); and outward-oriented policies, which emphasises the economic benefits of participation in the world economy, that is, export-led growth (ELG). The late 1960s and 1970s witnessed a disillusionment with ISI in many developing countries, leading to a reduction in protectionist measures. The 1980s witnessed further intensification of liberalisation measures as many countries retreated from socialism, regulation and planning. The dis-advantages of ISI, the potential strength of ELG policies and the conditions necessary for successful transition from an inwardoriented regimes to an outward oriented have been extensively researched1 and beyond the scope of the present study. Moreover many of the rapidly growing newly industrialising countries (NICs) lend support to the idea that export promotion can be an effective development strategy. Naturally such a line of causation is consistent with macroeconomic theory, where exports are treated as injections into the economy [Kaldor (1967); Feder (1982); Romer (1989); Krueger (1990) and Marin (1992)]

Energy inflation has remained a significant topic in macroeconomic policy for the past few decades. This is due to several reasons pertaining to both demand and supply sides. In addition, the history of energy prices has also been characterised by extreme volatilities, Hamilton (2008). This makes forecasting and modelling of energy prices difficult, nevertheless it is important to model and forecast energy prices in all economies. In this paper we have tried to identify the determinants of energy inflation in Pakistan. Energy products are a critical component in any economy, serving as a core input, particularly in manufacturing industries. Moreover, the demand for energy and fuel comes from households fuelling cars and kitchens for which other alternatives are not easily available. This renders the demand inelastic compared to any other good [Edelstein and Kilian (2009)], making economies vulnerable to supply and price shocks. The energy price inflation therefore through cost push inflation and demand-pull inflation has a major impact on core inflation itself, thereby playing a significant role in macroeconomic health of a country. As predicted by Ben Bernanke for the US in 2006, “in the long run energy prices can reduce the productive capacity of US economy if high energy costs make businesses less willing to invest new capital”. The nature of the energy market itself creates a major gap between the oil consumers and oil producers. Whilst demand is inelastic everywhere, supply is limited and is difficult to increase, and confined to certain regions on Earth. This is true particularly for two of the most common energy types: oil and gasoline. The supply of oil is controlled by a few countries, and supply shocks therefore lead to an immediate surge in prices.

This paper investigates relationship between institutional quality and economic performance in Pakistan using the Johansen-Juselius cointegration technique and the Granger causality test. The study results indicate that Institutions and growth are cointegrated and thus exhibit a reliable long run relationship. The Granger causality test findings indicate that the causality between Institutions and growth is uni-directional.However, there is no short run causality from Institutions to growth and vice versa. Therefore, as a policy implication that institutional quality may cause to the sustainable increase in country’s income in the long run, and success of any policy could be influenced by the soundness of institutions.

In the recent years the “black economy” has held immense attraction for academics as well as policy-makers. This is because the presence of the black economy is responsible for distortions in the official estimates of macro-economic variables like income generation, employment, rate of inflation, etc., and thus the possible effect on the economic policies cannot be ascertained properly. It, therefore, becomes imperative to investigate this area of research. Researchers have defined the underground economy in alternative ways. The underground economy defined by varied names like black, shadow, hidden, informal, clandestine, second, parallel economy has been divided in four categories for the use of a standard basis of classification [Feige (1990)].