Mazhar Yasin Mughal

Éklore-Ed School Of Management · Economics and Finance

Pakistan is one of the world's top 10 remittance receiving countries. This paper examines the potential for the use of remittances as a development strategy. Remittances to Pakistan do seem to promote growth and reduce economic inequality and poverty. However, they also cause the Dutch disease, are inflationary, and tend to be pro-cyclical. The pap...

This study analyses the effects of observed preference for boys on Pakistani women’s participation in household decision-making. We find a significant association between female participation in various household decisions and their preference for boys. Bearing at least one son is associated with 5 per cent, 7 per cent, and 5 per cent higher say in...

Africa is the world’s biggest battleground in the fight against hunger. African governments and the international development community have increasingly focused on finding ways and means to end hunger and ensure the right and access to food for the continent’s burgeoning population. Public spending on agriculture is one such measure. This study ex...

This study examines asset accumulation patterns of the recipients of foreign and domestic remittances. Employing a number of matching techniques, we analyse stocks of consumer, productive, housing and financial assets among migrants' stay-behind households in Pakistan. We find that asset accumulation among remittance-receiving households depends up...

South Africa is the Africa’s biggest source of outward foreign direct investment. This study examines the principal locational motives of cross-border mergers and acquisitions CBMA by South African firms for the 1990–2014 period. The role of inter-country cultural and economic linkages is also studied. Firm-level data of South African merger and ac...

Purpose Earlier studies used conventional time-series models to forecast the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on stock market performance. This study aims to provide a more flexible model that offers more robust estimation features, such as incorporating additional information (prior) about the model parameters, capturing the evolving behavior of th...

Purpose One of the United Nations’ sustainable development goals is to ensure the availability of improved drinking water for everyone. In this study, we examine the association between access to improved drinking water at the district level and child nutritional outcomes in Pakistan. Design/methodology/approach We employ district-level unbalanced...

The Russia-Ukraine war has caused trade distortions, increasing international energy, fertiliser, and food prices. In emerging and developing countries, rising consumer prices have disproportionately hit the poor population. In South Africa, where women's poverty and inequality are extremely high, women are hit harder than men. In this study, we ap...

In this study, we construct original measures of women's empowerment in economic, social, and interpersonal dimensions to estimate the effect of microcredit on women's empowerment in Djibouti. Using survey data covering 2060 Djiboutian households, we examine the extent to which access to microcredit, the amount of loans obtained, and their duration...

In this study, we employ pooled data from four rounds of Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS) to examine whether, and to what extent, does the incidence of early marriage shape the married women’s perspectives on gender preference associated with reproduction. We employ a number of econometric techniques (Probit, OLS, Cox Hazard Model, IV...

Measuring the precise nature and causes of land inequality is critical for addressing and implementing policy initiatives related to agricultural productivity, rural development and within-country income distribution. In this study, we argue that measuring land inequality solely among land owners does not provide a complete picture of land allocati...

The demographic consequences of remittance flows to the developing countries have so far received scant attention. In this study, we examine the impact of migrants’ remittances on fertility by employing unbalanced panel data from Post-Soviet states. During the last three decades, these countries witnessed large-scale out-migration accompanied by hi...

We investigate how the receipt and amount of domestic or international transfers influences household decisions regarding farm investment and the selection of capital and labour-intensive crops. We argue that, even though recipient households may use additional income to increase agricultural investment, investment can fall in the short run if labo...

The 2022 Ukraine conflict has contributed to a major spike in international commodity prices. In this study, we design a top-down, macro-micro simulation analysis to focus on the price shock due to four major commodities, namely wheat, vegetable oil, petroleum, and fertilizers. We combine Computable General Equilibrium simulations with household su...

In this study, we use comprehensive French consumer data from the Nielsen ScanTrack retailer panel to analyse the progression of purchasing trends of French households during the coronavirus outbreak. Our results are threefold: First, we observe three temporal phases, namely the normal (pre-COVID-19) period, the anticipation period, and the lockdow...

Does access to microfinance improve household welfare? We seek the answer to this question using data on 2,060 borrower and nonborrower households based in six major urban centers of Djibouti. We construct a composite index of multidimensional poverty that captures various aspects of household well‐being, including ownership of agricultural and liv...

Using data from two representative Demographic and Health Surveys, we examine the change in son preference over the past three decades and its effects on Pakistani women's fertility. We analyse a number of indicators and employ different empirical methods to come up with strong and persistent evidence for both the revealed and stated preference for...

This study examines how crude oil price volatility affected the stock returns of major global oil and gas corporations during three major oil-price wars that took place between October 1991 and June 2020. Episodes considered include the 1998 Saudi Arabia – Venezuela war, the 2014–2016 conflict and the 2020 Saudi Arabia – Russia war in a time of unp...

In this study, we analyse geo-coded climate data matched with two rounds of household surveys from Mauritania to compare the impact of the 2008 and 2014 droughts on rural households’ welfare and the adaptation strategies they employed. The 2008 and 2014 droughts differ sharply in intensity. The 2008 drought was localised with about 45% rural househ...

This study examines the role played by remittances in Morocco's spectacular fertility decline over the 1975–2018 period. Using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds approach, we find a significant negative association between remittances to the country and total fertility rate. This relationship is stronger in the long term than in the s...

An aspect of the Covid-19 pandemic that merits attention is its effects on marriage and childbirth. Although the direct fertility effects of people getting the virus may be minor, the impact of delayed marriages due to the first preventive lockdown, such as that imposed in Pakistan from March 14 to May 8 2020, and the closure of marriage halls that...

This study explores the dependence between changes in world crude oil prices and the performance of the Pakistan Stock Exchange, at the aggregate as well as sectoral levels for the period from July 1997 to December 2016. Quantile regression approach is employed for a detailed examination of the structure and degree of dependence for three sub-perio...

This study examines the effect of non‐farm labour participation on poverty reduction in rural Mauritania. Farm households with more land and livestock participate to a greater extent in non‐farm activities compared with households with smaller land or cattle. We study poverty's relationship with non‐farm labour activities in terms of the incidence...

Reducing the cost of remitting is one of the targets within the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 10). A key factor that causes migrants to use informal channels when sending money back home is the high cost of transferring funds through formal channels. This study examines whether and to what extent the reduction in the cost of sending remit...

Child marriage is still widespread in countries across the Indian Subcontinent. The practice has important consequences for the health and well‐being of the woman and the child. In this study, we examine the incidence of child marriage in Pakistan and the changes that have taken place over time in the profile of the women who marry before turning 1...

In the decade since the 2008 global food crisis, West African countries have made efforts to raise domestic rice production and to make the region self-sufficient. Today, West Africa produces nearly two-thirds of Africa’s rice. The region’s rice import dependency has fallen from nearly half of local consumption in 2010 to about 30%. In spite of thi...

A potential manifestation of son preference prevalent in Asia is gender-specific birth-spacing. The time couples wait before moving on to subsequent pregnancy remains short as long as desired number of sons are not born, leading to higher demand on the mother's body and greater health risks for mother and child. In this study, we examine this pheno...

Does access to microfinance improve household welfare? We seek the answer to this question using data on 2,060 borrower and non-borrower households based in six major urban centers of Djibouti. We construct a composite index of multi-dimensional poverty and carry out estimations using a number of econometric techniques. Our results show that neithe...

South Asia remains one of the major strongholds of hunger in the world, despite the fact that, following the Green Revolution, cereal production in the countries of this region tripled during the second half of the 20th century. This study examines the role played by this increase in cereal production in improving the region’s nutrition and food se...

Reducing the cost of remitting is one of the targets within the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 10). A key factor that causes migrants to use informal channels when sending money back home is the high cost of transferring funds through formal channels. This study examines whether and to what extent the reduction in the cost of sending remit...

We analyze the effects of the pervasive phenomenon of son preference on Pakistani women’s participation in household decision-making. We find that women with at least one son take more household decisions than other women, but only in routine, unimportant matters. Even with sons, female empowerment remains limited and decision- or context-specific.

Cost of Remitting to Pakistan Across Major Corridors

Purpose This study analyzes differential consumption patterns of Pakistani migrant households resulting from foreign and domestic remittances. Design/methodology/approach Using the Working-Leser model and a number of matching techniques, we analyze a representative household survey carried out in 2010-2011 to compare various expenditure categori...

This study examines the role trust is playing in promoting or hampering economic growth in the Arab world during the current times of uprisings and political upheaval. Using data from the 2010-2014 wave of the World Value Survey and employing various econometric specifications, we find a positive association between generalized trust and economic g...

This study examines the home and host-country economic, geographical and institutional factors that determine the volume of foreign direct investments (FDI) coming to Pakistan from the country's major investment partners. We find that host-country GDP, government spending, financial development, shared language and geographical distance play a sign...

This study examines the role of migrants’ remittances in developing countries’ fertility transition. Employing an unbalanced panel of South Asian countries and controlling for various economic and socio-demographic factors, we find that remittances are significantly associated with a lower number of children born to women of childbearing age. This...

This study explores the economic, geographical, cultural and institutional factors that have driven the cross border Merger and Acquisition activities by Russian transnational corporations during the 1999-2013 period. We find that market-seeking stands out as a significant motive of the Russian firms' merger and acquisition activities, followed by...

This paper examines the short-run behaviour of migrant remittances in the face of terrorism. Using monthly data for post 9/11 terrorist attacks in Pakistan, the study finds evidence of increase in the volume of remittances sent from abroad. This increase is evident in the aggregate, as well as for the three main source regions of North America, the...

Migration and fertility are two of the main components of demographic dynamics. Both are individual or household-level responses to the chang- ing economic conditions that occur in urbanization industrialization, and higher returns to human capital accumulation. Migration is often in itself a household’s strategic response to the economic difficult...

This study explores the economic, geographical, cultural and institutional factors that have driven the Merger and Acquisition activities by Russian transnational corporations during the 1999-2012 period, with particular emphasis on the 2008 global financial crisis. Findings show that both push and the pull factors influence Russian firms' investme...

South Asia is one of the world's principal remittance-receiving regions. This study examines the home and host business cycles of migrant remittance flows to the region. Employing the Structural Vector Autoregression (SVAR) technique, the remittance behaviour of the region's four main countries is compared. Remittances to India and Pakistan show a...

This study examines the role of migrants’ remittances in developing countries’ fertility transition. Employing a panel of eight South Asian countries for the period 1990-2012 and controlling for various economic and socio-demographic factors, we find that remittances are associated with a significant drop in the number of children born to women of...

Cet article étudie l’impact des ide sur l’enseignement supérieur dans les pays en voie de développement pour la période 1998-2008. Un vaste panel de pvd est analysé en utilisant différentes techniques économétriques et spécifications, surtout pour tenir compte de l’endogénéité de certaines variables. Nous trouvons que l’effet des ide sur la scolari...

Remittances are playing an increasingly important role in the economies of developing countries. In this paper, we study the effects of these flows on Pakistan’s labour market. We employ the 2007–2008 Household Integrated Economic Survey and Probit as well as Propensity Score Matching techniques to examine the impact on labour participation, quanti...

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the Indian migrants' role in attracting outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) from India to their respective host countries. Diasporas play a crucial role in augmenting trade, foreign direct investment and prosperity of a country. They facilitate acquisition and exchange of technical knowhow, market informati...

Remittances, Inequality and Poverty in Pakistan: Macro and Microeconomic Evidence

This study examines the role economic freedom plays in attracting Indian outward foreign direct investment to various countries, Investments by Indian multinationals to various continents are studied along with aggregate investment outflows. Results show that Indian outward FDI do appear to prefer economically free economies. Government size, ease...

This paper studies the impact of human capital on the adoption and diffusion of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) in the Pakistani firms using the World Bank Enterprise Survey 2002-07. The paper considers various indicators of human capital and measures of ICT adoption and diffusion. On-the-job training, manager's level of qualifica...

This paper studies the education-employment nexus in the context of Senegal. Using the 2005 Senegal Household Survey, we find that households’ heads with higher education (lower secondary level and above) are less likely to be self-employed but more likely to be working in the public sector. Disaggregation by gender and location (rural vs. urban) d...

This paper examines the volatility of remittance flows to Pakistan using the ARCH model. We find overall remittances to be stable, whereas those from the Middle East and North America are relatively volatile, owing to fluctuations in the output of the host economies and the migrants' profile. Remittances from Europe are the least volatile and do no...

Remittances, Dutch Disease, and Competitiveness - A Bayesian Analysis

Pakistan has over the years been one of the major remittances receiving countries, getting as much as 10 per cent of its GDP as remittances. Remittances have regularly surpassed public and private foreign capital inflows. This has helped cover the country's chronic current account deficit and expanded the economy while at the same time, contributin...

This paper examines the macro and microeconomic links between remittances and poverty/inequality in Pakistan. Remittance inflows are disaggregated with respect to principal remitting regions, namely North America, the Persian Gulf and Europe. We found that remittances from the Middle-East have had a negative and significant impact on poverty and in...

This paper draws on the lack of a clear-cut consensus in the literature and investigates the relationship between human capital and economic inequality, focusing on the special case of developing countries where inequalities are rampant. The paper analyzes an unbalanced panel of 65 countries for the period 1980–2005. The results show that secondary...

Using household economic survey data for the years 2005-06 and 2007-08, we examine the economic, demographic and geographical characteristics of remittance receiving households in Pakistan. We find that altruism is the most likely motive behind the remittances sent back by Pakistanis living abroad. However, co-insurance and investment may also have...

We study the effects of FDI inflows on the Pakistani economy over the period 1961-2005 using the Johansen co-integration technique and the Vector Error Correction Model. We determine that FDI does have a positive effect on the economy, particularly in the short term. Foreign investment is found to have a less important role than domestic investment...

The role of Foreign Direct Investment in higher education in the developing countries (Does FDI promote education?)