bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Trade Liberalisation, Health Care and International
Fragmentation: The Role of Health Capital Mobility
Authors: Chatterjee Tonmoy , Gupta Kausik
Published: September 2018

This paper delves into the complex relationship between health
trade through international fragmentation and health trade through
commercial presence. A neo-classical full employment four sector static
general equilibrium model has been developed, where the three sectors
produce final products except the health intermediate goods producing
sector. The paper shows that expansion of health trade through
commercial presence implies, under some reasonable conditions,
enhancement of the volume of health trade through international
fragmentation. It also shows that the composite volume of trade in
health services through international fragmentation and commercial
presence increases the size of the health care in our stylised small
open economy. JEL Classification: I10, F11, F21, D58 Keywords: Health
Sector, Health Intermediate Sector, International Fragmentation and
International Health Capital Mobility
Effectiveness of Cash Transfer Programmes for Household Welfare
in Pakistan: The Case of the Benazir Income Support Programme
Authors: . Durr-E-Nayab , Farooq Shujaat
Published: September 2018

Cash transfer programmes are widely considered a ‘magic
bullet’ for reducing poverty. Whether they actually have such an
incredible impact on poverty reduction is debatable but they surely are
gaining credibility as an effective safety net mechanism and
consequently an integral part of inclusive growth strategies in many
developing countries. As shown by Ali (2007), inclusive growth rests on
three basic premises. First, productive employment opportunities should
be created to absorb labour force. Second, capability enhancement and
skill development should be focused in order to broaden people’s access
to economic opportunities. And lastly, a basic level of well-being has
to be guaranteed by providing social protection. Safety nets are at the
core of the last pillar, provided mainly through cash transfers, which
can be both conditional and unconditional.
Child Malnutrition and Poverty: The Case of Pakistan
Authors: Arif G. M. , Farooq Shujaat , Nazir Saman , Satti Maryam
Published: September 2018

The role of economic factors, particularly income and
consumption, in the wellbeing of a population is well documented. The
well-being, however, does not depend solely on these factors, social
indicators such as life expectancy, health, education and nutrition
serve an important complementary function [Linnemayr, et al. (2008)].
The most significant social problems in many developing countries
including Pakistan are widespread child malnutrition, high infant
mortality and low literacy. Child malnutrition is considered as the key
risk factor for illness and death, contributing to more than half the
deaths of children globally [Cheah, et al. (2010)]. It also affects the
child morbidity rate and poses threat to their physical and mental
development, which results in lower level of educational attainment
[Chirwa and Ngalawa (2008)]. The recent literature therefore considers
the nutrition status as an important dimension of individual wellbeing
[Babatunde, Olagunju, and Fakayode (2011)].
Shorter Notices
Authors: Saleemi Sundus
Published: September 2018

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Growth in Pakistan: Inclusive or Not?
Authors: Zunia Saif Tirmazee  , Zunia Saif Tirmazee  , Maryiam Haroon
Published: September 2018

Cross country evidences reveal that Asian countries have experienced rapid growth over the last two decades. The increase in growth is accompanied with reduction in poverty from 1990 to 2001 as the number of individuals living below the poverty line has decreased over the time period [ADB (2006)]. Growth is considered to be a necessary condition for reduction in poverty but growth does not necessarily imply that it will lead to improvement in living standards of every one. Growth does benefit and improve standards of living but it may lead to increase in inequality if it leads to increase in benefits for few section of the society only. This has been witnessed in China as economic growth benefited all segments of the society, it lead to improvement in living standards for all, but the improvement benefited the rich more as compared to the poor. The same situation persists in India as well. In contrast, countries like Brazil, Mexico, and Thailand have different scenario where there is increase in economic growth and this increase is also accompanied with improvement in equity [Anand, et al. (2013)]. Pakistan historically has seen episodes of high growth but those unfortunately were not coupled with such macroeconomic conditions as are required to achieve lower poverty levels. Therefore, Pakistan has always been facing the challenge of achieving rather more inclusive growth that could benefit all classes of society. The provision of basic services such as education, health, sanitation, and housing for all the segments of population, and social security schemes to ensure social protection are critical for long run reductions in poverty
Microfinance Institutions and Poverty Reduction: A Cross Regional Analysis
Authors: Attiya Yasmin Javid  , Afsheen Abrar
Published: September 2018

The alleviation of poverty is one of the most debated issues among the academicians and policy makers. From 1950s to 1980s the poverty reduction program has been based on increase the participation of poor into the economy by better macroeconomic performance. Though the poor part of population mostly engaged in informal sector1 is identified by researchers but has not become the part of economic models and government policy [Robinson (2001)]. Poverty reduction has been institutionalised in 1944 when World Bank was set up. The World Bank worked through governments and institutions by giving loans to developing countries called structural-adjustment programmes. These programmes were highly unsuccessful, created dependence on aid with little help to poor part of societies [Murduch (1999) and Diop, et al. (2007)].
Social and Financial Efficiency of Microfinance Institutions in Pakistan
Authors: Zahoor Khan  , Jamalludin Sulaiman
Published: September 2018

Financial efficiency and profitability of „for profit‟ institutions have been traditionally measured with the help of financial ratios [Hassan and Sanchez (2009)]. However, financial ratios are inappropriate to investigate the sources of inefficiency, estimate financial or social efficiency with multiple inputs and outputs, and to decompose the sources of efficiency or inefficiency into technical, technological and scale efficiencies or inefficiencies respectively [Hassan and Sanchez (2009)]. Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) are special institutions, which simultaneously consider their social role to uplift the marginalised community members along with their commercial objective to secure self-sustainability. In standard literature this phenomenon is coined MFIs as being „double bottom line” institutions. [Gutierrez-Nieto, Serrano-Cinca, and Mar Molinero (2007); Gutiérrez-Nieto, Serrano-Cinca, and Molinero (2007)]. This simultaneity differentiates MFIs from conventional financial institutions. The achievement of socioeconomic efficiency is indispensable for MFIs to operate independently and on a wider scale. Thus investigation of socioeconomic efficiency of MFIs is important for monitoring and optimal policy implications.
Determinants of Human Development Disparities: A Cross District Analysis of Punjab, Pakistan
Authors: Muhammad Qasim  , Amatul Razzaq Chaudhary
Published: September 2018

Human development is the primary objective of all developing economies of the world. It has great importance in social planning. Every individual, society and nation wants a prosperous life. Different instruments are used, investments are undertaken and different policy frameworks are designed to achieve this target. Human development is a process to enlarge the choices of people. So, the definition of human development is very broad, but people have three basic and essential choices which are acceptable at every level of development. First, people always have desire to live a long and healthy life. Second, they have desire to expand their knowledge. Third, people have desire to access the resources needed for a decent standard of living [UNDP (1990)].
Gender Inequality in Labour Force Participation: An Empirical Investigation
Authors: Muhammad Sabir
Published: September 2018

Economic growth and development of the nations largely depend on the quantity and quality of their labour force. In Pakistan, a sizeable segment of population is considered as out of labour force. For instance, the overall labour force participation rate for the age 15 years and above remained roughly in the range of 49 percent to 53 percent during 1974-75 to 2012-13. This means that of the total population in 2012-13, aged 15 years and above, 53 percent is economically active or part of labour force whereas 47 percent is economically inactive or out of labour force. And more than 75 percent of the women population is considered as economically in-active. In addition, the labour market statistics show that a smaller proportion of women than men, age 15 years and above, are employed. The unemployment rate among women is higher than men. One of the possible explanations of this gender gap is gender discrimination in the labour market. In this context, this paper aims to analyse the behaviour of female and male in labour force participation by empirically investigating the determinants of labour force participation, and access to paid job for both female and male. It also shed light on occupational gender inequalities. It is believed that these types of analyses help designing better policies to increase employment opportunities for both females and males. They also facilitate suggesting various practical measures that can be incorporated in gender sensitised employment policies that in turn could lead towards greater labour force participation.
Marginality as a Root Cause of Urban Poverty: A Case Study of Punjab
Authors: Kanwal Zahra
Published: September 2018

Historically poverty as a concept was considered to be a key factor to design social policy. The social development normally is concerned with socio-economic empowerment of the poor of the concerned society. It is always been a key issue for developing as well as developed countries, however the nature and treatment of issue varies. The treatment of poverty is different from society to society. In advanced countries, an individual who is unable to actively participate in society or has weak social network, environment, health and education etc. is considered to be poor. Financial empowerment is also considered to be important in these countries but it takes into account with other dimensions of poverty [Lyberak and Tinios (2005)]. However, in developing countries, policy focus is still on uni-dimensional definition of poverty where a single dimension either consumption or income is a strong factor that affects the standard of living of an individual [Wagle (2005)]. Though the multidimensional poverty concept is also getting attractiveness in these countries with a perception that an individual’ status in one dimension cannot represent his status in another dimension but still there remains dearth of policy-making. Another important transformation in the literature on poverty is seen in terms of identification of nexus of marginality, social exclusion and poverty [Ruth, et al. (2007); Zoran, et al. (2006); Whelan and Bartrand (2005)]
Measuring Multidimensional Poverty and Inequality in Pakistan
Authors: Maqbool H. Sial  , Asma Noreen  , Rehmat Ullah Awan
Published: September 2018

The key development objective of Pakistan, since its existence, has been to reduce poverty, inequality and to improve the condition of its people. While this goal seems very important in itself yet is also necessary for the eradication of other social, political and economic problems. The objective to eradicate poverty has remained same but methodology to analysing this has changed. It can be said that failure of most of the poverty strategies is due to lack of clear choice of poverty definition. A sound development policy including poverty alleviation hinges upon accurate and well-defined measurements of multidimensional socio-economic characteristics which reflect the ground realities confronting the poor and down trodden rather than using some abstract/income based criteria for poverty measurement. Conventionally welfare has generally been measured using income or expenditures criteria. Similarly, in Pakistan poverty has been measured mostly in uni-dimension, income or expenditures variables. However, recent literature on poverty has pointed out some drawbacks in measuring uni-dimensional poverty in terms of money. It is argued that uni-dimensional poverty measures are insufficient to understand the wellbeing of individuals. Poverty is a multidimensional concept rather than a unidimensional. Uni-dimensional poverty is unable to capture a true picture of poverty because poverty is more than income deprivation
Educational Inequality in Rural and Urban Sindh
Authors: Noman Saeed  , Ambreen Fatima
Published: September 2018

The key development objective of Pakistan, since its existence, has been to reduce poverty, inequality and to improve the condition of its people. While this goal seems very important in itself yet is also necessary for the eradication of other social, political and economic problems. The objective to eradicate poverty has remained same but methodology to analysing this has changed. It can be said that failure of most of the poverty strategies is due to lack of clear choice of poverty definition. A sound development policy including poverty alleviation hinges upon accurate and well-defined measurements of multidimensional socio-economic characteristics which reflect the ground realities confronting the poor and down trodden rather than using some abstract/income based criteria for poverty measurement. Conventionally welfare has generally been measured using income or expenditures criteria. Similarly, in Pakistan poverty has been measured mostly in uni-dimension, income or expenditures variables. However, recent literature on poverty has pointed out some drawbacks in measuring uni-dimensional poverty in terms of money. It is argued that uni-dimensional poverty measures are insufficient to understand the wellbeing of individuals. Poverty is a multidimensional concept rather than a unidimensional. Uni-dimensional poverty is unable to capture a true picture of poverty because poverty is more than income deprivation
Farmers’ Perceptions of Agricultural Land Values in Rural Pakistan
Authors: Shehryar Rashid
Published: September 2018

Pakistan’s agriculture sector is crucial because it is responsible for providing food, shelter, and clothing to a massive population of 180 million people which is growing at a rate of 2 percent per annum. Land is a valuable asset and a symbol of prestige for the rural population in Pakistan. According to the recent Pakistan Economic Survey of 2013- 14, the agriculture sector contributes around 21 percent to GDP and provides employment for around 45 percent of the work force, who are primarily based in rural areas. The total geographic area of Pakistan is approximately 79.6 million hectares. Around 27.7 percent of Pakistan’s land is currently under cultivation and the cultivatable waste lands offer good possibilities for crop production. The total cropped area of Pakistan increased from 21.82 million hectares in 1990-91 to 22.72 million hectares in 2010-11 [Agricultural Statistics of Pakistan (2010-11)] and the total population of Pakistan increased from 118 million to 175 million during the same time period. Similarly the tenancy status of land management and land ownership pattern has changed over time. For example, large landowners are shifting their preferences from managing their land on their own towards leasing or sharecropping the land to be managed by others [Agricultural Census (2010)].
Fiscal Policy and Its Role in Reducing Income Inequality: A CGE Analysis for Pakistan
Authors: Arshad Ali Bhatti  , Zakia Batool
Published: September 2018

Income inequality is one of the critical barriers to growth and development in most of the developing countries including Pakistan. Every third man in Pakistan falls below the poverty line1. Moreover, the budget deficit has also been a serious issue throughout the history of Pakistan‟s economy. The persistent budget deficit is the constant source of increasing poverty and deterioration of income distribution. Since deficit is financed by increasing indirect taxes and money supply, it causes the reduction in purchasing power and leads the masses towards poverty [Arif and Farooq (2011)]. Therefore, it is a dire need of the economy to have a good public policy such that it could reduce budget deficit, alleviate poverty and redistribute income. Malik and Saqib (1985) suggest that the resources of the economy can be distributed equally only through appropriate changes in the tax system. Fiscal policy can have a significant influence on removing the gap between haves and havenots both directly and indirectly. It directly affects the disposable income of individuals, whereas affecting their future earning capacities indirectly
Simulating the Impact of Income Distribution on Poverty Reduction
Authors: Syed Kalim Hyder  , Qazi Masood Ahmed  , Haroon Jamal
Published: September 2018

The traditional notion that has influenced the development thinking for almost half a century is that economic growth is fundamental to the development process, and that the objective of poverty reduction can only be achieved by allowing the benefits of growth to ultimately trickle down to the poor. The „primacy of growth‟ paradigm is based on the premise that high growth, through high investment, would lead to higher employment and higher wages, and thereby reducing poverty. The „trickle-down‟ paradigm assumes that the benefits of economic growth would, in the first round, accrue to the upper income groups, and the ensuing consumption expenditures of these households would, in subsequent rounds, accrue incomes to relatively lower income households. Importance of equity consideration in poverty alleviation efforts has been brought out of the cold and now has re-entered the mainstream development policy agenda in many developing countries. This is the consequence of a deep-rooted disillusionment with the development paradigm which placed exclusive emphasis on the pursuit of growth. During 1990s, the proliferation of quality data on income distribution from a number of countries has allowed rigorous empirical testing of standing debates on the relative importance of growth and redistribution in poverty reduction. While the debate is still inconclusive, the majority of development economists emphasised, based on empirical cross-country data, that an unequal income distribution is a serious impediment to effective poverty alleviation [Ravallion (1997, 2001)]. Many researchers suggested that growth is, in practice the main tool for fighting poverty. However, they also reiterated that the imperative of growth for combating poverty should not be misinterpreted to mean that “growth is all that matters”. Growth is a necessary condition for poverty alleviation, no doubt, but inequality also matters and should also be on the development agenda
Oswalso de Reviero. The Myth of Development: The Non-Viable Economies of the 21st Century. London, U.K.: Zed Books. 2001. 224 pages. £20.99.
Authors: Muhammad Rahim Shah
Published: September 2018

Since the early 1990s, a new stream of developmental thinking started getting momentum, questioning and refuting the supposedly undisputed developmental counseling, pursued by all nations and practiced for more than four decades. This critique of development, usually referred to as ‘post-structuralism’ or ‘post-development’, assesses the genesis of the developmental ideas in post-war era and also questions the desirability and prospects of the development in the contemporary world. In the era of intellectual combat of developmental ideas, Oswaldo De Reviero’s “The Myth of Development” is significant and thought provoking addition to the PostStructuralist literature. De Riviero has tended to deconstruct the developmental ideas and identify the factors that the developmental thinking and practices entail and have been contributing to the impoverishment of the countries.
Neil Wilcock and Corina Scholz. Hartmut Elsenhans and a Critique of Capitalism. Conversations on Theory and Policy Implications. London, U.K.: Palgrave Macmillan, UK. 2016. xii+184 pages. €84.99 (Hard Bound).
Authors: Durr-E-Nayab
Published: September 2018

After the Second World War, the world was practically divided into two competing economic systems, capitalism and socialism. This ideological competition extended to the socio-political realm, and became the basis of the cold wars from the late 1940s to early 1990s. The events in Russia in the early to mid-20th century presented socialism as a real contender, if not a complete alternative to capitalism. With its increasing influence in many countries, not just in Russia’s neighbourhood but also in the continents far across, socialism emerged as the dominant thought, leading to what became to be referred to as the socialist bloc. But then came the collapse of the USSR in early 1990s and the whole socialist thought came to be questioned. In socialist China, introduction of reforms with a capitalist bent further questioned the practicability and success of socialism, while reforms in the Indian economic system encouraged the proponents of capitalism to declare victory. Adoption of capitalist ideals by purely or quasi-socialist countries stamped the superiority of capitalism.
Governance, Institutional Reforms and Modernisation of Public Sector (The Quaid-i-Azam Lecture )
Authors: Ugo Pagano
Published: September 2018

It is a matter of great honour for me to deliver the Quaid-i-Azam memorial lecture. He is an everlasting source of inspiration for me due to his two unmatched attributes, i.e. tolerance and determination. To me, this combination of qualities in Jinnah made him a symbol of glory and grandeur. Tolerance in particular can play an instrumental role in changing a society’s outlook, and Jinnah set an example for us for being an emblem of tolerance. Tolerance with all its manifestations in different facets of life is direly needed in our society. For instance, religious, ethnic and racial tolerance can be considered as the first step towards forming a sound and rational society. In the same way, this gathering today has given me immense satisfaction, as different views from different schools of thought are assimilated and tolerated.
Restructuring of WAPDA: A Reality or a Myth
Authors: Zainab Khalid  , Muhammad Iftikhar-ul-husnain
Published: September 2018

Serious financial crisis in Pakistan energy sector, mainly due to poor governance, rising fuel prices and rampant corruption, led to the decision of corporatisation of Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) in 1992. However, this decision has been highly debated in the context of its socio economic benefits as the energy crises continues unabated. This study, by using semi-structured interview from energy experts in the power sector, attempts to find the factors that withheld the positive effects of this decision. The objective is to provide useful input to frame future energy policy to overcome critical energy crises in Pakistan. The study concludes that the decision of corporatisation of WAPDA was a forced decision without proper homework recommended by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which worked as an obstacle to achieve required targets in context of energy crises. However, expert opinion shows that unbundling of WAPDA if managed adequately in line with the ground realities would help bring in the competition in market and support the neoliberal theory which calls for deregulation of businesses and privatisation of publicly owned assets, thus minimising the state intervention. Therefore, the only choice for the government is to move forward with the reforms to frame efficient and effective power policy. Chile, with successful power reforms, is the example quoted by the experts to be followed by Pakistan to overcome load shedding and black outs. JEL Classification: H7 Keywords: Energy, Pakistan Energy Sector, WAPDA, Neoclassical Theory, Corporatisation, Privatisation, Restructuring, Governance
The Current Account Deficit Sustainability: An Empirical Investigation for Pakistan
Authors: Tahir Mukhtar  , Aliya H. Khan
Published: September 2018

The existence of large and persistent current account deficit is always viewed with great concerns, as it usually leads an economy to a state of insolvency due to building up excessive net foreign debt. As the current account deficit is a persistent feature of Pakistan’s economy, therefore, it becomes essential to empirically investigate, whether this deficit is sustainable or not. To this end, the present study has applied two alternative approaches, namely, the intertemporal approach to the current account and the intertemporal solvency approach, in order to get more convincing evidence on the sustainability issue in Pakistan using the time series data over the period 1960 to 2012. From the perspective of both the approaches, Pakistan’s current account deficit is on a sustainable path and the macroeconomic policies of the country remained effective in securing it from any external sector crisis. JEL Classification: C32, F32, F41 Keywords: Current Account Deficit, Intertemporal Budget Constraint, VAR Model, Cointegration
Marginality, Social Exclusion, Labour Force Participation and Urban Poverty: A Case Study of Lahore, Pakistan
Authors: Kanwal Zahra  , Tasneem Zafar  , Mahmood Khalid
Published: September 2018

Labour has always been considered as major source of income and livelihood, and the labour market of Pakistan which provides an important source to alleviate poverty and raise the standard of living. The characteristics of labour i.e. age, gender, location, caste and religion makes labour market highly segmented. And these factors often make buyer bias which indeed causes a discrimination and exclusion in labour market. This study tries to investigate the issue of social exclusion which has been faced by marginalised class in labour force participation. While analysing trends of marginalised labour force participation, the role of social networks also take into account. The marginalised labour force has been selected based on religion and gender (minorities, women, transgender) which is the part of formal and informal labour market of the city Lahore, Pakistan. The study use logit modelling to analyse the role of social exclusion and other determinants in labour force participation of marginalised class and also evaluate the role of labour force participation in the poverty status of marginalised households. Results show a strong effect of social exclusion on labour force participation and poverty. Keywords: Social Exclusion, Labour Market Segmentation, Social Network
Authoritarian Regimes and Economic Development: An Empirical Reflection
Authors: Karim Khan  , Saima Batool  , Anwar Shah
Published: September 2018

Since the recent emphasis on institutions for overall economic development of the countries, the research in this strand has expanded enormously. In this study, we want to see the impact of political institutions on economic development in pure cross-country setting. We take the Human Development Index (HDI) as a measure of economic development and use two alternative measures of dictatorship. We find that dictatorship is adversely affecting economic development in our sample of 92 countries. For instance, transition from extreme dictatorship to ideal democracy would increase HDI by 17 percent. Moreover, our results are robust to alternative specifications and the problems of endogeneity and reverse causation as is shown by the results of 2 Stages Least Squares (2SLS). JEL Classification: P16, H11, H41, H42 Keywords: Economic Development, Human Development Index, Dictatorship
Hello Folk: We Are Responsible for What We Will Face in 2025; Evidence from Philosophical Underpinnings of Social Capital
Authors: Gul Ejaz  , Maryum Bibi
Published: September 2018

Social capital is a very important facet of society and has strong relevance to economic landscape of a country. There are different theories about the nature, accumulation, growth and validity of social capital as an instrument of economy. This paper explains the philosophical context of social capital and validate through a model using Berg, Dickhaut and McCabe trust game that we all transfer a set of values to our next generation, which ultimately manifest as social capital in the real world. The transferred values affects each agent‟ decision whether to trust other members of the society and participate in a socio-economic exchange or not. If he trusts, he reaps substantial gains from exchange, and ultimately social capital will be concreted. But if he does not, he will face a major loss and overall social capital will be dented. A distrustful ancestor will further induce agents to withdraw from the market and not to invest. This will lead a society to an overall mistrust paradigm and eventual downfall. On the other hand, the level of cooperation in the members of society increases as the good experience is transferred across generations. Economic impacts of social capital have been elucidated using Leonhard Euler function and Newton Leibniz integration processes. The ethical framework for society and role of literature in transfer of beliefs, values and culture from one generation to other has also been discussed at length. The paper is a unique study of how we all will be responsible for the kind of social capital will have in 2025. JEL Classification: D71, D72, Z11, Z12, Z13 Keywords: Social, Capital, Model, Transfer, Generations, Values, Trust, Beliefs, Cooperation, Ethics, Literature
Fiscal Space for Investment in Agriculture— A Review of Taxes and Subsidies in Agriculture in Pakistan
Authors: Stephen Davies  , Wajiha Saeed  , Muhammad Saad Moeen  , Tehmina Tanveer  , Aamer Irshad
Published: September 2018

Despite agriculture’s importance in terms of its relationship to poverty and welfare of the poorest households, the government finds it increasingly difficult to find the fiscal space for budgetary allocations for agriculture and agricultural RD. We hypothesise that expansion of expenditures on agriculture is possible in the short to medium run with a combination of reallocations and new taxation. We argue that existing spending aimed towards the agriculture sector includes very large outlays on implicit subsidies that are largely unproductive. These costs include: subsidisation of gas for fertiliser plants, which approach Rs 48 billion in gas subsidies to fertiliser companies; the full costs of the infrastructure and operation and maintenance of the irrigation system, which amount to Rs 166 billion per year; and losses on wheat procurement, which have been about Rs 25 billion recently. On the taxation side, while agricultural producers are not currently liable to pay tax on income, they do however pay indirect taxes on agricultural inputs. Using a Social Accounting Matrix (SAM), we estimate agricultural producer pay about Rs 61 billion, mostly from GST taxes on fertiliser. Using a Computable General Equilibrium model, we show that agriculture could contribute further with an income tax on agricultural income. With a ―low-rate-widebase‖ income tax of 15 percent on non-poor, medium and large farms, as much as Rs 130 billion could be raised, enough to cover, for example, a sizable portion of the operation and maintenance cost of the irrigation system. JEL Classifications: D58, E16, H20, H22, H23, Q10 Keywords: Agriculture, Fiscal Policy, Subsidies, Taxation, General Equilibrium, Social Accounting Matrix, Pakistan
Spatial Differences and Socioeconomic Determinants of Health Poverty
Authors: Nasir Iqbal  , Saima Nawaz
Published: September 2018

The study aims to develop health poverty index (HPI) using the Alkire Foster (AF) Method for Pakistan based on district representative data obtained from Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement (PSLM) 2012-13. Using HPI, this study investigates the spatial differences of health poverty at sub-national level and explores the socioeconomic determinants. The analysis reveals that the headcount health poverty is 41 percent in Pakistan. Further, the ratio is very high in rural areas (50 percent) as compared to urban areas (22 percent). Provincial analysis shows that Punjab is the least poor province (36 percent) while Balochistan is the poorest province (62 percent). The majority of the households are deprived in term of cost of health services, post-natal care and child immunisation. Empirical analysis shows that income, regional variation, education and awareness play very important role in explaining health poverty. To eradicate health deprivation, area and dimension specific policies are required to make efficient use of scarce resources. JEL Classification: I12, I32, J18 Keywords: Health Poverty, Spatial Analysis, Alkire Foster Method
TÜRKİYE’DE İSTİHDAM, İŞSİZLİK ve İSTİHDAM POLİTİKALARINDA YERELLEŞME: İİMEK’E DAİR KISA BİR DEĞERLENDİRME
Authors: KASAPOĞLU Mehmet Muharrem , MURAT Sedat
Published: September 2018

Dünya ölçeğinde yaşanan ekonomik, siyasi, sosyal kriz ve
istikrarsızlıklar karşısında çözüm olarak geliştirilen sosyal politikaların
yerel sorunları, ihtiyaçları ve muhatapları merkeze alması önem arz etmektedir.
Özellikle bölgesel farklılıklar ve eşitsizlikler dikkate alındığında yerel
politikaların ve yerel otoritelerin etkisi tüm araştırmalarda olumlu olarak
vurgulanmaktadır. Sosyal politikaların merkezinde yer alan istihdam ve işsizlik
politikalarının başarısı da, yerel düzeyde etkin bir mücadeleye bağlıdır. Bu
anlamda Türkiye bölgesel işsizlikle mücadelede 2008 yılında 5763 sayılı Yasa
ile İŞKUR Kanunu’nun 13. maddesinde yapılan bir değişiklikle, birinci görevi “ilin
mesleki eğitim ve istihdam politikasını oluşturmak” olan İl İstihdam ve Mesleki
Eğitim Kurullarını (İİMEK) oluşturmuştur. Bu çalışmada İİMEK ’in yapısı,
işleyişi, etkinliği, istihdama katkısı ve yetersizliklerinin yüzeysel bir
şekilde ortaya konulması ve bunlara ilişkin çözüm önerilerinin sunulması
hedeflenmiştir. Çalışma sonucunda İİMEK’ lerin genel itibariyle yapısal birtakım
sorunlar ile karşı karşıya olduğu ancak buna rağmen istihdam imkânlarının
geliştirilmesindeki etkilerinin bu olumsuzlukları ekarte ettiği görülmüştür.
Mothers’ Attitudes as Organizers of Discipline Practices and Related Anticipatory Processes
Authors: Lorber Michael F , Stuart Jaimee
Published: September 2018

We hypothesized that mothers’ negative attitudes toward their toddlers would set in motion an anticipatory social cognitive-affective cascade that influenced their parenting during immediately subsequent discipline encounters. Ninety-seven mothers of 2- to 3-year-old children completed a laboratory assessment consisting of (a) an interview/observational measure of their attitudes toward their toddlers, questionnaires tapping (b) expectancies of their children’s difficult behavior in upcoming discipline encounters and (c) anticipatory changes in their own experience of negative emotion, (d) measures of anticipatory changes in their heart rate and electrodermal activity, and (e) observations of their overreactive and lax discipline. Negative maternal attitudes were associated with lax discipline, negative expectancies, and anticipatory electrodermal reactivity. Negative expectancies were associated with anticipatory increases in mothers’ experience of negative emotion. Other than negative maternal attitudes, however, no factor in the hypothesized social cognitive-affective cascade predicted discipline. Thus, the hypothesized model was not fully supported by the data.
Metagenomic datasets of cerebrospinal fluid from a small cohort of MS/non-MS patients do not show DNA from the fungal genus Trichosporon
Authors: Stephan Ralf
Published: September 2018

In [2] Alonso et al used nested PCR assays together with next-generation sequencing to find Trichosporon species in the nervous tissue of 10 patients with MS. We deemed it possible that the fungus would be present in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples. Whole metagenomic shotgun (WMGS) sequencing allows detection of any organism in a sample. With Trichosporon any detection would be a true positive because these fungi are not known to be on the skin, or as typical lab contamination. We screened public WMGS datasets of CSF from a cohort of 43 Canadian patients (28 MS, 13 non-MS)[1], using Kraken2[7], the ultrafast kmer-based classifier, using a fungal database augmented with all cleaned available Trichosporon genome assemblies from the NCBI. Blasting the marked reads against an equally augmented blastn database revealed no alignments with an evalue <= 1e-50. In general Kraken2 marked not more than 5 consecutive kmers in any read, which is a clear negative.
PERGESERAN BENTUK DAN FUNGSI RUMAH JOGLO DI WILAYAH BANYUWANGI
Authors: Umah Rois Ainul , Huda Tian Fitriara , (Prosiding Seminar Nasional FKIP Univeristas PGRI Banyuwangi
Published: September 2018

Banyuwangi is an area rich in various cultures and customs, this is because Banyuwangi district is inhabited by various ethnic groups. The majority of the sub-districts of Banyuwangi are osing tribe who live in the village of fern and urban village of rejo. Joglo building as one of the traditional Javanese buildings in it contained philosophy that suits the life of the people. The arrangement of the room in Joglo is generally divided into three parts, namely the meeting room called pendopo, the living room or the space used to hold the show called pringgitan, and the back room called dalem or omah jero as the family room. For the people of Banyuwangi especially those who still preserve the joglo house just like the osing tribe have begun to experience the shifting of its role and function where in this case joglo house serve as additional need for home decoration, private residence of the citizen, until used as permanent building of cafe and restaurant. From the description above, the researcher felt that the community did not understand the function of the role and shape of the architecture of the Javanese house which has become the culture of the inheritance slowly changed by causing a shift to the cultural values contained within it. The shift in value will sooner or later bring changes to traditional architectural forms, structures and functions.
A Dual Role Hypothesis of the Cortico-Basal-Ganglia Pathways: Opponency and Temporal Difference through Dopamine and Adenosine
Authors: Morita Kenji , Kawaguchi Yasuo
Published: September 2018

The hypothesis that the basal-ganglia direct and indirect pathways represent goodness (or benefit) and badness (or cost) of options, respectively, explains a wide range of phenomena. However, this hypothesis, named the Opponent Actor Learning (OpAL), still has limitations. Structurally, the OpAL model does not incorporate differentiation of the two types of cortical inputs to the basal-ganglia pathways received from intratelencephalic (IT) and pyramidal-tract (PT) neurons. Functionally, the OpAL model does not describe the temporal-difference (TD)-type reward-prediction-error (RPE), nor explains how RPE is calculated in the circuitry connecting to the DA neurons. In fact, there is a different hypothesis on the basal-ganglia pathways and DA, named the Cortico-Striatal-Temporal-Difference (CS-TD) model. The CS-TD model differentiates the IT and PT inputs, describes the TD-type RPE, and explains how TD-RPE is calculated. However, a critical difficulty in this model lies in its assumption that DA induces the same direction of plasticity in both direct and indirect pathways, which apparently contradicts the experimentally observed opposite effects of DA on these pathways. Here, we propose a new hypothesis that integrates the OpAL and CS-TD models. Specifically, we propose that the IT-basal-ganglia pathways represent goodness/badness of current options while the PT-indirect pathway represents the overall value of the previously chosen option, and both of these have influence on the DA neurons, through the basal-ganglia output, so that a variant of TD-RPE is calculated. A key assumption is that opposite directions of plasticity are induced upon phasic activation of DA neurons in the IT-indirect pathway and PT-indirect pathway because of different profiles of IT and PT inputs. Specifically, at PT→indirect-pathway-medium-spiny-neuron (iMSN) synapses, sustained glutamatergic inputs generate rich adenosine, which allosterically prevents DA-D2 receptor signaling and instead favors adenosine-A2A receptor signaling. Then, phasic DA-induced phasic adenosine, which reflects TD-RPE, causes long-term synaptic potentiation. In contrast, at IT→iMSN synapses where adenosine is scarce, phasic DA causes long-term synaptic depression via D2 receptor signaling. This new Opponency & Temporal-Difference (OTD) model provides unique predictions, part of which is potentially in line with recently reported activity patterns of neurons in the globus pallidus externus on the indirect pathway.
Emotional processing and the autonomic nervous system: a comprehensive meta-analytic investigation
Authors: Moreira Pedro Silva , Chaves Pedro , Dias Nuno , Costa Patrício , Almeida Pedro Rocha
Published: September 2018

Background: The search for autonomic correlates of emotional processing has been a matter of interest for the scientific community with the goal of identifying the physiological basis of emotion. Despite an extensive state-of-the-art exploring the correlates of emotion, there is no absolute consensus regarding how the body processes an affective state.Objectives: In this work, we aimed to aggregate the literature of psychophysiological studies in the context of emotional induction. Methods: For this purpose, we conducted a systematic review of the literature and a meta-analytic investigation, comparing different measures from the electrodermal, cardiovascular, respiratory and facial systems across emotional categories/dimensions. Two-hundred and ninety-one studies met the inclusion criteria and were quantitatively pooled in random-effects meta-analytic modelling. Results: Heart rate and skin conductance level were the most reported psychophysiological measures. Overall, there was a negligible differentiation between emotional categories with respect to the pooled estimates. Of note, considerable amount of between-studies’ heterogeneity was found in the meta-analytic aggregation. Self-reported ratings of emotional arousal were found to be associated with specific autonomic-nervous system (ANS) indices, particularly with the variation of the skin conductance level. Conclusions: Despite this clear association, there is still a considerable amount of unexplained variability that raises the need for more fine-grained analysis to be implemented in future research in this field.
Use of Lumbar Puncture for First Episode of Febrile Seizure among Children 6 Months to 18 Months of Age: A Cross Sectional Study
Authors: Kayastha Nirajana , Rai Ganesh Kumar , Karki Subhana
Published: September 2018

Introduction: Febrile seizure accounts for the majority cases of the pediatric seizure. Fever with seizure can be either due to febrile seizure or underlying serious infection as meningitis. As seizure may be the only manifestation of meningitis it is important to rule out meningitis in children presenting with fever and seizure.Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the incidence of meningitis among children aged 6 to 18 months presenting with first episode of febrile seizure.Methodology: A prospective observational study was conducted among 94 children with first episode of febrile seizure presenting to the emergency and observation wards of Kanti Childrens' Hospital and subjected to lumbar puncture (LP) as per the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommendations. The proportion of children with meningitis and no meningitis among the study population was determined, clinical characteristics were compared among these groups and the incidence of meningitis in simple febrile seizure and complex febrile seizure was calculated. The collected data was analysed using SPSS.Results: Twenty (21.3%) cases were diagnosed with meningitis among 94 children enrolled in our study. Meningitis was detected in 38.1% of the cases of complex febrile seizure and 7.7% of cases of simple febrile seizure. In the age group 6 to 12 months, 11 (17.4%) had meningitis while in 12 to 18 months of age, 9 (29%) were detected with meningitis. Meningitis was 7.38 times more likely in cases presenting with complex febrile seizure than simple febrile seizure (OR=7.58; 95% CI 2.24-24.4; p<0.001). Regarding the clinical characteristics, vomiting, fever of more than 48 hours duration prior to onset of seizure, impaired consciousness and complex features of seizure were found to be significantly associated with meningitis in our study.Conclusion: The probability of meningitis among children aged 6 to 18 months presenting with first episode of febrile seizure episode is high. In febrile convulsing children less than 18 months of age, meningitis should be considered even in the absence of signs of meningeal irritation.  BJHS 2018;3(2)6:399-402.
The Efficacy of External Rotation Method for The Reduction of Acute Anterior Shoulder Dislocation With and Without Greater Tuberosity Fracture
Authors: Gnawali Gopal Prasad , Dhakal Indra , Khatri Kishor , Sharma Shanta
Published: September 2018

Introduction: Several methods of reduction technique have been described for the anterior dislocation of shoulder but none technique is said to be ideal. The aim of this study was to show the efficacy of external rotation method which could be safe and painless method for the reduction of the acute anterior shoulder dislocation with or without fracture of the greater tuberosity and to search the cause of failure of reduction.Objective: Objective of this study was to assess the efficacy of the external rotation method for reduction of acute anterior shoulder dislocation and to find the cause of failure of reduction.Methodology: All cases of anterior dislocation encountered in emergency department reduced by external rotation method by consultant orthopedic surgeon using basic emergency setting for resuscitation were included in the study. Fifty cases of shoulder dislocation was treated by this method and prospective evaluation done with regard to type of dislocation, the effectiveness of the procedure in achieving reduction, the need for pre-medication, the ease of performing reduction and complication if any.Results: Out of 50 cases, successful reduction was achieved in 42 patients. Premedication was not required in 36 successful reduction. Average time of reduction was 2 minutes in 30 patients and 5 minutes in 8 patients. Four Patients complained severe pain during reduction process. This method was not successful in 8 patients 2 of whom had displaced greater tuberosity fracture.Conclusion: The external rotation method is reliable and safe method for the reduction of acute anterior shoulder dislocation which can be performed relatively with less pain for both subcoracoid and subglenoid dislocation provided there is no displaced fracture of the greater tuberosity.  BJHS 2018;3(2)6: 408-412.