Epidemiological patterns of suicide terrorism in the civilian Pakistani population

In this study, we assessed the epidemiological patterns of suicide terrorism in the civilian population of Pakistan. Information about suicide terrorism-related events, deaths and injuries was extracted from the South-Asian Terrorism Portal (SATP) for the period from 2002 to October 2009. Of 198 events, civilians were involved in 194 events. Civilians accounted for 74.1% (N?=?2017) of those who died and 93.8% (N?=?6129) of those who were injured. In nine districts, mortality rates were more than one death per 100,000 inhabitants per year. The yearly trend showed a shift of attack targets from foreigners and sectarian targets in 2002-2005 to security forces or general public in 2006-2009. Attacks on public installations (mosques) or political gatherings resulted in a significantly greater (P?≤?0.02) number of deaths (22 vs. 8) and injuries (59 vs. 24) per event compared with security installations. These results show that prevention might focus on political negotiation with armed groups and that appropriate measures should be taken to protect mosques and political gatherings.     

Foreign direct investment, trade openness and economic growth in pakistan and turkey: an investigation using bounds test

In the literature empirical evidences regarding export-led growth (ELG), FDI-led exports, and growth-driven exports (GDE) hypotheses have been mixed and inconclusive. This paper uses the autoregressive distributed lags (ARDL) model (Pesaran and Shin, Econometrics and Economic Theory in the 20th Century: The Ragnar Frisch Centennial Symposium, 1990) and tests the existence of long run equilibrium relationship between the determinants of growth during the period 1975?C2004 for Pakistan and Turkey. The results indicate that in the short run there is bi-directional causal relationship between trade openness and exports for Pakistan and FDI and exports relationship for Turkey. The long run relationship results support the growth-driven exports hypothesis for Turkey and openness-growth nexus in Pakistan.     

Dynamics of Wheat Prices in the Wake of Market Reforms: The Case of Pakistan

Using Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedastic (ARCH) method, this paper examines the effects of market reforms on the distribution of real mean prices and their variability before and after reforms. It is found that market-oriented reforms benefited producers and consumers alike. Empirical evidences, generally, support theoretical assertion that mean prices decline in most urban areas and increase in those markets that are located in surplus producing areas. The results also showed that market reforms lead to more price volatility.     

Efficiency differentials favouring resource-based industries

This note draws attention to some characteristics of resource-based industries, not mentioned in Roemer's (1979) recent survey on resource-based industrialization, which suggest that efficiency in these industries may be higher than in other LDC industries. Some empirical support is also provided.     

Product rejuvenation strategies

If you had just kept it a little longer, that old suit would have come back into style and, with a few alterations, you could have worn it again. Likewise, most companies have quite a few abandoned products which might need only a few alterations to make them marketable again.     

Intersubjectivity — the challenge and opportunity for accounting

The purpose of this paper is to examine the origin, nature and intellectual character of the frameworks being used by the various critics of the public accounting profession. The paper looks at three major questions: (1) what are the frameworks critics are using to hold the profession accountable? (2) What does the response of the profession tell us about how it perceives the problem? (3) Where is the current mode of response likely to lead the profession? Our analysis identifies two different frameworks that underlie the criticism being directed at the profession. We label these the “rational scientist” and “humanist-philosopher” viewpoints. These frameworks differ in the way in which they approach intersubjective phenomena. The differences are especially sharp on the notion objectivity. The profession, thus, is caught between the crossfire of these views and is in the difficult position of responding to a set of critical standards for which there exists no consensual framework. Unfortunately, they seem to be moving more toward the “rational-scientist” position of objectivity which is likely to compound their difficulties.     

Welfare implications of growth under quotas

Using the standard trade model, it is shown that growth under quotas always improves welfare. This result is contrary to Johnson's (1967) result on the possibilities of immeserizing growth in the presence of tariffs.     

Has Adoption of IFRS Increased Non–North American Institutional Investment in the Canadian Stock Markets?

We investigate whether non–North American (non‐NA) institutional investment in firms listed on the Canadian stock markets increased between the pre‐ and post‐IFRS adoption periods relative to such investment in firms listed on the U.S. stock markets. Prior to IFRS adoption, Canada had high‐quality financial reporting standards that were similar to the U.S. standards. As consequences of IFRS adoption, Canadian financial statements became more comparable with European and other IFRS country financial statements and less comparable with neighboring U.S. financial statements. Thus, a question of interest is whether the enhanced comparability with non‐NA companies was beneficial in terms of attracting non‐NA investment to Canadian companies versus U.S. companies. We find that there was no significant change in non‐NA institutional investment in Canadian firms relative to U.S. firms for the very largest (fifth quintile) and for smaller (first, second, and third quintiles) Canadian companies. However, intermediate‐sized Canadian companies in the fourth size quintile lost non‐NA institutional investment relative to their U.S. peer companies, suggesting that non‐NA investors cared more about comparability with U.S. peer companies than non‐NA peer companies for companies in this size quintile.