Pakistan's agricultural exports,determinants and its potential: an application of stochastic frontier gravity model

The most important and imperative objective of the developing nations is rapid economic growth and exports are generally considered as an engine for economic growth. Being an agro-based economy, agriculture exports play pivotal role not only in economic growth but also in socioeconomic uplifting. This study aims at evaluating main determinants of agricultural exports of Pakistan by applying stochastic frontier gravity model over the period of 1995–2014 for a sample of 63 countries. In addition, the study also analyzes whether there is any untapped export potential between Pakistan and the trading partners in agriculture sector. The results confirm the consistency of gravity model for agriculture exports of Pakistan. Likewise, the estimates also point out that bilateral exchange as well as tariff rates also effect agriculture exports. The study has also incorporated the effect of common border, common culture, colonial history and preferential trading agreements by including their respective dummies. The study confirms the significance of each factor, except common language, with their respective magnitude. Moreover, technical efficiency estimates reveal that Pakistan has great export potential with neighboring, Middle Eastern and European countries.     

Celebrity Endorsements in Advertisements and Consumer Perceptions: A Cross-Cultural Study

ABSTRACT

We studied consumer perceptions of celebrity endorsements from a cross-cultural perspective. In empirically examining consumer perception of celebrity endorsement, we used Hofstede's cultural dimensions to develop research propositions and examined these propositions through focus group discussions involving consumers from India and the United States. Findings indicated that specific differences and similarities exist in how consumers across India and the United States perceive celebrity endorsements. There is a positive, although moderate, impact of celebrity endorsements on attention and exposure of consumers. Implications for marketers as well as suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Local clusters in global value chains: exploring dynamic linkages between Germany and Pakistan

Recent research has underlined the importance of external linkages for industrial clusters. Suppliers and buyers within a global value chain offer important external ties for cluster-based producers not only in terms of the distribution of physical goods, but also for knowledge flows and innovation. Globalization has intensified such value chain links, connecting geographically dispersed producers to global markets. Yet, there is limited research on how local clusters enter global chains or on ties between clusters in the developed and developing world. This study addresses this gap. It uses the case of the global surgical instrument industry to analyse connections and differences between the industry's leading production clusters in Germany and Pakistan. Global standards, low-cost competition, and advances in medical technology raise challenges for both clusters. The paper explores the responses to these challenges. It distinguishes between knowledge and production links to illustrate differentiation in each cluster, diverging trajectories and continuing ties.     

The impact of Universal Service Obligations and International Cross-subsidies on the dispersion of telephone services in developing countries

This paper re-evaluates the telecommunication policies often applied to create regional dispersion of services in developing countries. We observe that failure to consider the complexities of the regional telecommunication systems in creating policies and investment strategies has increased the telecom gap between urban and rural regions worldwide. In particular, the teledensities of rural telecommunications in developing countries have remained very low in spite of support through universal service obligation fees and cross-subsidization from international services. As traditional methods for economic analysis and modeling have failed to identify mechanisms that improve telephone dispersion in these countries, we use a system dynamics modeling approach to deal with complexities of the situation in order to evaluate how Universal Service Obligations (USOs) and International Cross-Subsidy (ICS) policies affect telephone densities. We demonstrate that these policies may be counterproductive due to the structure of the telecom system itself. We also show that, when market-clearing pricing is combined with USOs once the urban telephone density reaches a minimum threshold, the dispersion of rural telecommunications can be considerably improved.     

CO2 emissions in Australia: economic and non-economic drivers in the long-run

Australia has sustained a relatively high economic growth rate since the 1980s compared to other developed countries. Per capita CO₂ emissions tend to be highest amongst OECD countries, creating new challenges to cut back emissions towards international standards. This research explores the long-run dynamics of CO₂ emissions, economic and population growth along with the effects of globalization tested as contributing factors. We find economic growth is not emission-intensive in Australia, while energy consumption is emissions intensive. Second, in an environment of increasing population, our findings suggest Australia needs to be energy efficient at the household level, creating appropriate infrastructure for sustainable population growth. High population growth and open migration policy can be detrimental in reducing CO₂ emissions. Finally, we establish globalized environment has been conducive in combating emissions. In this respect, we establish the beneficial effect of economic globalization compared to social and political dimensions of globalization in curbing emissions.     

Child Labour Use and Economic Growth: An Econometric Analysis

We present a simple dynamic theory of child labour, human capital formation, and economic growth that is consistent with some of the main features of child labour and economic development. The model supports a number of testable hypotheses, which we investigate econometrically in a systems approach. Using panel data from 64 countries in the period 1960–1980, the econometric results match the theory well. The incidence of child labour is negatively related to parental human capital and education quality, but is positively correlated with education cost. Further, countries with higher amounts of child labour tend to have lower stocks of human capital in the future. There is also a convergence phenomenon between the level and growth of human capital. The lower the current stock of human capital, the higher is current child‐labour use and the faster is the growth rate of human capital.     

Democratic transitions can attract foreign direct investment: Effect,trajectories, and the role of political risk

Using a difference-in-differences method on a panel of 115 developing countries from 1970 to 2014, we find that democratic transitions do not affect foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows, on average. However, consolidated democratic transitions, i.e. transitions that do not go into reverse for at least five years, increase FDI inflows, with the bulk of the improvement appearing 10 years after the transition. Furthermore, when controlling for political risk, the effect of consolidated democratic transitions appears immediately after they have occurred, suggesting that higher political risk in the early years of the new regime offsets their positive intrinsic effect on FDI.     

Inspiring employees' ecological behaviors: The roles of corporate environmental strategy,biospheric values,and eco-centric leadership

The consequences of environmental degradation have steered organizations to promote pro-ecological behaviors among their employees, and achieving this effectively is paramount for business and environmental sustainability. Applying a multilevel integrated approach, this study investigates the impact of corporate environmental strategy, biospheric values, and eco-centric leadership on employees' ecological behaviors. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from 289 employees from a cross section of industries in Bangladesh. The findings reveal the significant influences of environmental strategy and biospheric values on employees' ecological behaviors as well as the moderating role of eco-centric leadership. The study also provides some significant insights for formulating environmental strategy and inspiring employees' ecological behaviors in organizational contexts. Theoretical and managerial implications as well as future research directions have also been provided.     

A zonal level safety investigation of pedestrian crashes in Riyadh,Saudi Arabia

In the recent decade, walking has been encouraged as an active mode of transportation, which could reduce congestion and air pollution and also improve community health. However, pedestrians are more vulnerable to traffic crashes compared with other road users, especially in developing countries such as Saudi Arabia. This paper examines the association among traffic volume, land-use, socio-demographic and roadway characteristics factors, and the frequency of pedestrian crashes based on macro-level safety analysis using data from Riyadh, the Capital of Saudi Arabia. Two Bayesian spatial Poisson-lognormal models for total and severe pedestrian crashes are developed in this study. The results show that the factors that affect total pedestrian crash occurrence are different from those affecting severe pedestrian crash. Several implications for pedestrian safety policies in Riyadh are suggested based on the results.     

Violators versus non-violators of information security measures in organizations—A study of distinguishing factors

The present study analyzes the elements that differentiate violators from non-violators of information security measures. Various elements are derived from established theories and models such as general deterrence theory, theory of planned behavior, theory of reasoned action, protection motivation theory, and social cognitive theory. To examine these factors, the data are gathered through an online study conducted in a Midwestern University, USA. The data are collected using questionnaires, and after scrutiny, 195 questionnaires are selected for final analysis. This data are analyzed using second-level statistical techniques, such as chi-square analysis and ANOVA. Results reveal that violators and non-violators of information security measures differ significantly with respect to many factors. These factors include perceived privacy, subjective norms, perceived information security policy (ISP) scope, perceived severity of penalty, perceived celerity of penalty, management support, organizational security culture, and perceived organizational IT capability. The non-significant factors are trust and work load. Implications for practitioners and researchers are provided.