Assessing poverty-deforestation links: Evidence from Swat, Pakistan

This paper contributes to the debate on the links between poverty and forestry degradation; the view that due to poverty and the meeting of subsistence needs the poor use natural resources more intensively and hence cause them to degrade. Using the case of the forest rich Swat district, Pakistan, the paper addresses the issue empirically, historically, and institutionally. We do not find empirical support for the “poverty-environment nexus”, in that the poor and other income groups are equally resource dependent and also show that resource degradation is not associated with poverty. Our historical and institutional analyses provide alternative explanations for resource degradation. Selective and rotating ownership patterns, starting with the 17th century, provided limited incentive for resource conservation. It also created tension between de jure and de facto owners, that has persisted, and is one source of forest degradation. Ill-defined resource rights have also exacerbated the impacts of several other factors contributing to forest degradation which is compounded by poor management, corruption, and perverse incentives.     

International treaties on trade and global pollution

The paper shows that global pollution need not rise under free trade in goods and/or emissions even in the complete absence of income effects. Differences in environmental concerns across the countries lead to differences in the pollution intensity of production and, thus, generate the possibility of increasing world output and income without increasing the world pollution by shifting the production of the polluting good from the country with higher pollution intensity of production to the country with lower one. We show that free trade in goods and/or emissions can induce precisely such a shifting of production with the country with greater environmental concern exporting the polluting good. The paper also demonstrates the possibility of a first-best international treaty on global pollution in which each country or group of countries is better-off.     

Factor Demand in Pakistan's Manufacturing Sector

This paper estimate factor demand function by choosing appropriate technology. Departing from the conventioanl parting from the conventional practice of using and capital as factor inputs we extend the list of factors of production by including energy. Since we have more than two factor inputs the two-level (nested) CES production function is the natural choice for the appropriate technology. Using this technology we derive the factor demand for functions and estimate these for Pakistan's manufactruing sector covering a period from 1959-60 to 1982-83. The output elasticity of labour, capital and energy are found to be 0.47, 0.66 respectively. These informations, in particular, the employment elasticity are extremely important for manpower planning. These findings confirm the capital intensive structure of Pakistan's manufacturing units. [200]     

On a Uniform Turnpike of the Third Kind in the Robinson-Solow-Srinivasan Model

On using McKenzie's taxonomy of optimal accumulation in the long-run, we report a ``uniform turnpike' theorem of the third kind in a model original to Robinson, Solow and Srinivasan (RSS), and further studied by Stiglitz. Our results are presented in the undiscounted, discrete-time setting emphasized in the recent work of Khan-Mitra, and they rely on the importance of either a strictly concave felicity function, or on the value of a ``marginal rate of transformation', ξσ, from one period to the next not being unity. We argue that our results, when viewed through the lens of turnpike theory, have a broader relevance to intertemporal optimization theory, as developed in economics by Ramsey, von Neumann and their followers.      

An integrated approach to measuring potential spatial access to health care services

In recent years there have been several attempts to develop quantitative measures of potential spatial access to health care services which, despite their limitations, offer many positive ideas that can perhaps be integrated into a logically consistent and generally acceptable index. It is in this vein that the current paper presents an integrated approach, drawing partially from past contributions, to measuring potential spatial access to health care services. The final access index is derived as the culmination of a series of individual measures, starting with an initial gravity formulation and progressing through successive stages as new elements, consistent with the definition and conceptualization of potential spatial access, are introduced. Application of the proposed index to the ambulatory medical care system of the Akron, Ohio SMSA, demonstrates the validity of the measure, and its suitability as a potential health care planning tool.     

Convertible Bond Issues: Evidence from Security Markets

A convertible bond (CB) is a hybrid security containing elements of both common stock and straight debt. Still, empirical investigations on CB issue announcements have failed to discern any pattern in the stock market reaction that is consistent with announcements of either common equity or straight debt issues. This study shows that (a) motives for issuing the CB and (b) its rating (and to a less extent the riskiness of the issuing firm) help explain the stock market reaction to CB issue announcements. Specifically, announcement of a CB issue with an explicitly stated motive for the use of proceeds, when coupled with a high (low) bond rating, generates a stock market response similar to a straight debt (common stock) issue. On the other hand, the preference of CB holders is dictated by the motive for the use of proceeds and the conversion premium. These findings highlight the critical importance of the motive of issue in determining reactions in both the stock and bond markets.     

UNLISTED TRADING PRIVILEGES,LIQUIDITY, AND STOCK RETURNS

In this study we examine the effect of dual trading through unlisted trading privileges (UTPs) on liquidity and stock returns. Stocks with UTPs trade in a different market structure than stocks listed and traded only on the AMEX and NYSE. Differences in market structure may affect stock returns through liquidity services provided by the competing markets. The sample comprises 852 AMEX and NYSE firms that began unlisted trading on the Philadelphia, Pacific, Midwest, or Cincinnati exchanges between 1984 and 1988. The results show significantly positive abnormal returns around the SEC's announcement of a regional exchange's filing for UTPs. The results also suggest that increased competition improves trading liquidity. Only stocks with low liquidity before UTPs announcements experience significantly improved liquidity and positive stock returns.     

The stability of the production function and the marginal productivity of inputs: An empirical study

This paper tests for the stability of the aggregate production function of the United States from 1929 to 67 with two inputs (labor and capital) and with three inputs (labor, capital, and real balances). The results show parametric instability regardless of the inclusion of real balances. Using the varying parameters estimation method allowing for permanent and transitory shifts in the parameters, time-series estimates of the marginal productivity of capital, labor, and real balances are derived for the period 1929–1967. The temporal behavior of the marginal productivity of real balances is briefly analyzed.     

Poverty in the third world: Ugly facts and fancy models

It is argued that the evidence from Asia indicates that despite the rise in average incomes the incidence of rural poverty has shown little tendency to diminish and in many cases the standard of living of some groups and classes, notably the landless, actually has declined. It then is suggested that the reasons for this have less to do with aggregate or sectoral rates of growth than with the interaction between the structure of the economy and four dynamic processes. Finally, the limitations of conventional theories and models are indicated and an alternative framework of analysis is proposed.