No abstract

Innovation works as an engine of growth for the country and the backbone for the performance of the firm. Pakistan is a developing country and it is lagging behind in terms of innovation activities in the region. In Pakistan, due to the weaker quality of institutions, court fairness is biased. The objective of the study was to measure the effect of court fairness on the innovation of the firm in the case of Pakistan using the World Enterprise Survey. The results of the study indicate that court fairness increases the likelihood of innovation. From the perspective of the policy proposal, it is suggested that proper reforms in the judicial system must be initiated and it is the utmost need of the society, firms, and the nation as a whole.

Islamic finance is growing rapidly not only in Islamic world but also around the globe. Foreseeing the popularity of Islamic finance, the current study intends to explore the relationship between Islamic financing and economic growth. To entertain the objectives, the study used data of United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, and Indonesia for the years 1980-2018. The ARDL approach to co-integration was used in order to obtain the empirical results for exploring the relationship between the Industrial Production Index, Islamic banks deposits, Islamic bank financing, gross fixed Capital formation, trade openness, government expenditures, and inflation. Industrial production index is taken as a proxy of growth that represents real sector growth. Study findings illustrated a strong positive relationship between industrial production indices, Islamic bank deposits & financing, gross fixed capital formation and negative significant relation with trade openness in the study period. Whereas, government expenditure has insignificant relation and inflation has shown negative relation. It is recommended that Islamic banks should design their deposit instruments in terms of long-run. The Islamic banks may follow the path of conventional banking in this regard. Deposit’s negotiable certificates should be issued similar to the conventional banks.

Over 68% of Pakistan's population lives in rural areas, and they primarily rely on agriculture to make a living. Pakistan's rural non-farm economy is diverse, encompassing a wide range of activities. The objective of the current study is to quantify the effect of rural non-farm activities on rural household's income in Punjab, Pakistan's district of Bahawalpur. For households with lower incomes, the non-farm market is one of their main sources of income. The study's respondents were chosen using a multistage sampling process. A standardized questionnaire was used to collect data throughout five stages. The findings demonstrate that non-farm activities increase the rural household's income and employment. The income of the household is positively and significantly influenced by education and experience. The results also shows that non-farm activities as well as non-farm participants augments rural income. From the policy prospective, it is recommended that in rural areas non-farm activities should be promoted.

The current financial crises once again highlighted the importance of financial sector. Credit availability to firms improves the productivity and encourages private investment both through aggregated demand and aggregated supply. Accumulation of capital and its optimal utilization is important for sustainable growth of an economy. The objective of the current study is to find the effect of financial development on economic growth. The study utilized the restricted cointegration analysis to quantify the long run association between the financial development and economic growth. The result indicates that credit, GDP growth and private investment are cointegrated and in addition, credit trigger economic growth in long run via direct and indirect channel. The study suggested that easy access to credit should be given to augment economic growth.

Low-income economies have characteristics of high corruption and political instability. The underdeveloped corrupt financial system of low-income nations with political instability may constrain firms’ performance. The objective of the current study was to estimate the effect of corruption and political instability on firms’ performance in low-income economies. The recent study used firm investment in human capital and exports as a proxy to measure the firm’s performance.  We have applied logistic regression to the World Enterprise Survey dataset to find the probability of firms’ investment in human capital. The study concluded that corruption and political instability decrease the likelihood of a firm’s human investment in human capital. Firm-specific characteristics increase the probability of firms’ exports. For policy purposes, corruption must be reduced to increase firms’ investment in human capital.