NEWS & MEDIA

NEWS

The Economics Faculty Research Paper Presentations

The Economics Faculty Research Paper Presentations were held on 11th April, 2019, at 10:00 a.m in TRC-1. Saniya Jilani and Nayab Kanwal presented their MPhil research (abstracts given below).

Adverse Shocks to Education: The Case of Terrorism in Pakistan

Saniya Jilani

Abstract

Adverse shocks are known to bring forth unrest in the most vulnerable communities. These negative stimuli have been associated with reducing the educational and health spending thus, restricting the development of a society. Over the course of many years, the long term impact of terrorism on a society can be gauged through the level of human capital. In the early 1970s, David A. Wise (1975) established that better educational outcomes result in a productive labor force and consequently, in economic progress. As the war against terrorism wages on in Pakistan, the cost of war has not curbed; the impact has spread into areas of trade, tourism and most noticeably, education. The evidence of grave loss can be found in the statistics compiled by the Pakistan Ministry of Finance where the accumulation of losses from 2016-18 are US $7543 million (Ministry of Finance, 2015). Furthermore, by infringing upon the right to education, extremists have stimulated the gender gap in this sector. Therefore, this thesis will provide an empirical insight into the influence of adverse shocks on the learning outcomes for children in Pakistan between 2013 till 2016 using GTD and ASER. Here, I will employ the Hurdle model to account for the selection bias that arises due to the type of students who are enrolled in schools. This paper adds to the existing literature firstly by looking at learning outcomes as the dependent variable of interest and secondly, by employing a new technique; the hurdle model. Using the Hurdle model, we find that test scores for children have a declining trend in all three areas of assessment. Higher levels of exposure for girls indicate a drop in test scores by 10% while being exposed to media after the APS incident results in decline in test scores of 40%.

Financial Development, Natural Resources, Endogenous Technology and Economic Growth: An analysis of Local Stability

Nayab Kanwal

Abstract

This thesis presents a three-sector finance-extended endogenous growth model with constant returns to scale in renewable natural resource production in combination with physical and technological capital. The purpose of this thesis is to provide a theoretical framework that investigates whether and how financial institutions and endogenous technology impact economic growth through the channel of renewable natural capital. Sound financial systems improve savings and investments and also effectively allocate resources in capital producing ventures that hence stimulate economic growth. In this model, renewable natural capital will be used in the production of the final consumption good and the technological capital (through new ideas). I will solve the model along balanced growth path (BGP) and further discuss stability analysis and transitional dynamics of my model. I have found that renewable natural capital and technological capital accumulation positively depend on financial development therefore countries with well-developed financial sectors display higher output growth and reach to the global frontier at a faster rate.