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The purpose of this paper is to explore the way immigrant entrepreneurs (IEs) capture transnational opportunities in their home and host countries. Through an identity lens, this study adopts a qualitative approach in examining transnational entrepreneurship activities conducted by IEs from three countries (Indonesia, Pakistan and South Korea [henceforth Korea]) in one host country (Malaysia). The findings indicate that IEs' home-host country identities enable them to recognize and exploit entrepreneurial opportunities in multiple countries through unique resources difficult to be imitated by competitors in their home and host countries. This paper contributes to the international entrepreneurship literature by introducing an identity-sensitive model of immigrant entrepreneurship in transnational spaces which will be useful for policy and practice concerning trade and migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uses social accounting matrix multipliers and structural path analyses to estimate effects of COVID‐19 and related fiscal stimuli on five household groups. The COVID‐19 lockdown increased poverty in Pakistan by 15%, which was addressed using a $1.5 billion, digitally implemented Ehsaas Emergency Cash (EEC) program that reached 14.8 million poor households. The study's models show that the largest multipliers from Ehsaas program finance were in agriculture, as a 1 Rupee shock adds 0.225 Rupee income to households. About 30% of that gain was estimated to go to poor farm families. In contrast, our models find that construction and trade growth added three times as much income to poor nonfarm and urban households as to farm households. However, those sectors added only one third as much total income as agriculture. From the structural path analysis, the importance of capital assets in generating income was seen, as was the possibility of greater poverty reduction from sectors with proportionally fewer intermediate inputs and more value added. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 labour constraints arising from the migrant member's absence are binding and capital accumulation is suboptimal. Employing a set of endogenous treatment estimates, we test this hypothesis on data from 5636 rural households in Pakistan. Our findings show a substantial difference between recipient and non‐recipient households in terms of their economic behaviour. Recipient households make 100% less agricultural investment and generate 82% less production compared to non‐recipient households. The estimates are found to be robust when tested with alternate empirical techniques (Heckman Selection and matching). The impact is stronger in the case of households that receive domestic transfers, with 100% less farm investment and 77% less production than non‐recipient households. Remittances result in a decrease in production of both capital‐ and labour‐intensive crops, reflecting a decline in overall farm activity. Similar farm investment and cropping patterns are observed relative to the amount of remittances received. The results are robust to different model specifications and estimation procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study used an asymmetric ARDL model to analyse the asymmetric (positive and negative shocks) impact of foreign direct investment, personal remittances, total reserves, gross savings, and information and communication technology on economic growth in Pakistan from 1976 to 2019. The short-run and long-run results of the asymmetric autoregressive distributed lag approach show that total reserves have a negative and non-significant influence on Pakistan's economic growth. Similarly, the results of asymmetric ARDL show that positive shocks in personal remittances have a positive and significant influence on Pakistan's economic growth, but negative shocks have a negative and non-significant impact in both the long-run and short-run. The findings of the gross savings show that a positive shock has a favourable and non-significant impact on economic growth in both the long-run and short-run. The investigated outcomes of foreign direct investment show that positive shocks have a detrimental and considerable impact on the economy of Pakistan in both the long-run and short-run. Furthermore, information and communication technology has a negative impact on economic growth in both the long-run and short-run. The government of Pakistan may adopt better policies to build the country's infrastructure by employing foreign investment more effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study empirically investigated existence of U-Shaped relationship between workers' remittances inflows(WRI) and per capita income(PCI) in Pakistan. WRI can increase or decrease growth in per capita income depending on whether positive effects outweigh negative effects or vice versa. It is possible that in initial phase remittances affect growth negatively and in the later phase positively or vice-versa implying non-linearity. The study applied Johansen's Cointegration method to find long run relationship among variables using time series annual data from 1991-2017. The Error Correction Method was used to reconfirm long run relationship. The sources of time series data were World Development Indicators, World Bank and Pakistan Labour Force Survey (Various issues), Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. The results indicated that at first stage WRI affect per capita income negatively and later on after threshold level (WRI as percentage of GDP equal to 2.34) affect positively thus confirming existence of U-shaped relationship in case of Pakistan. The negative and significant coefficient of lagged ECM term in short run model confirmed convergence of the series towards equilibrium. It takes time for the benefits of WRI to outweigh their costs in the developing countries. The policy implication of the study is that optimal use of WRI is important for improvement in PCI in Pakistan. Policy makers need to understand nonlinear relationship where remittances affect growth positively after achieving certain threshold level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While inflow of remittances through informal channels are widely discussed in terms of their opportunity cost for the recipient country and likely instrument of illegal activities, the size of such inflows is indeterminate. Pakistan is on the forefront of global efforts to curb hawala transactions yet no consistent estimates are available. This study attempts to use an indirect macroeconomic approach to estimate hawala transactions from United State of America (USA), United Kingdom (UK), and Saudi Arabia (KSA) for the period 2010Q3 to 2019Q2. These three countries host around 50 percent of Pakistani emigrants and account for almost 55 percent of total remittances received in Q1FY20. Our estimates show that hawala transactions have significantly declined in Pakistan as percentage of official remittances from all three countries. This demonstrates that the enhanced monitoring, regulations and various policy measures by the Government of Pakistan have proved instrumental in reducing hawala transactions over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communities in the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region of Pakistan are highly vulnerable to climate change. Capacity building of local communities is integral to adopt an evolving strategy to address adverse effects of climate change. This paper examines the significance of adaptive capacity through training and orientations and its efficacy to address climate induced hazards. Data from remittance receiving 246 households in treatment group and 247 households in control group were collected from selected villages of Districts Hunza and Nagar in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. The difference in difference (DiD) method was used to examine the impact of the intervention—adaptation and effects. The results of the study revealed that enhanced capacity building of local communities in terms of financial literacy, investment in flood preparedness and adoption of disaster risk reduction have significant impact and corelation with improved resilient planning strategies and practices. The study recommends further actions, trainings and to governmental and non-governmental organizations to emphasize on proper utilization of remittances and to orient the mountain communities about proper plans and actions to mitigate the climate change impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research discovers how international tourism affects the economic growth of selected Asian states, e.g., Bangladesh, China, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, throughout 2001–2019. To attain this objective, we have employed various regression estimation approaches, e.g., Fixed Effect Model (FEM) and Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS) technique. The statistical results of the applied techniques reveal that international tourism activities have a positive and significant effect on the GDP growth rate because such kinds of activities considerably contribute to creating opportunities that lead to hoist economic activities and economic growth. Moreover, an influx of tourism increases tourism activities and operations, which opens further doors to opportunities and generates revenue for the government. Similarly, the GDP per capita has been positively and significantly influenced by international tourism activities. The government and host country should emphasize the activities and operations regarding tourism and should also concentrate on the dynamic role, importance, and sensitivity of tourism operations in under-analyzed economies. This research brings a new arrangement of the variable, which has never been considered in prior literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of remittances on household expenditure inequality is extensively documented in the development literature. Yet, it is relatively less focused on its effect at the household level. In the context of Pakistan, higher labour migration offers enough scope to examine the expenditure inequality across the remittance-receiving and non-receiving households. This study analyzes the effect of external and internal remittances on expenditure inequality of households in Pakistan. The study uses data from PSLM—HIES 2018–2019 survey. The quantile regression results suggest an unequal expenditure distribution across the household. The external remittance-receiving household is significantly higher in expenditure per capita across the distribution vis-à-vis internal migrant or without migrant households. The study concluded that the current level of endowment is higher in the external remittance-receiving household, which is a significant source of expenditure gap across the household categories. The aftermath of the mean decomposition model suggests that the relatively higher income of the external remittance-receiving household significantly contributes to the expenditure gap across the household categories. The findings from quantile decomposition suggest that external remittances cause more discrimination for the affluent household than the poor ones. The study's implication suggests some policy measures to ease the access to international migration to improve the expenditure distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluating the long-term impacts of social assistance programs is usually not possible as pure control groups dissolve into treated ones. This paper makes use of data where the treated and control groups remained mostly unmarred. We examine two types of Pakistani social assistance i.e., lump sum transfer (LST) versus unconditional cash transfer (UCT) and determine which is more effective in enhancing household income after a decade. The UCT has continued over time thus enabling us to see if there is any cumulative effect of this in comparison to the onetime LST received to the treatment group. The setup of initial randomization of beneficiaries to treatment and control status has not received any form of researcher intervention and thus continues to induce random variation. For evaluation, a cross-sectional survey is conducted in a district of the Sindh province of Pakistan. Propensity Score Matching is employed across recipient and control households to evaluate the treatment effects. The matching is done for households receiving LST and UCT and also between LST and non-recipients of any assistance. The empirical analysis suggests that the LST permanently increases the total household income. The difference in the household incomes of LST and UCT recipients, in the long run, is large and significant. The same is true for LST recipients and non-recipients of any form of assistance. Sensitivity analysis indicates no hidden bias. Considering limited fiscal space availability, understanding which type of social assistance can be more effective for social mobility, is an important public policy decision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Pakistan, one household in six receives remittances from family members working elsewhere. Using household data from a national living standards survey, we find that propensity to receive remittances is strongly associated with a higher number of dependent girls relative to total children in a household. The effect is significant for younger households and for households with lower permanent income, and increases as girls approach expected marriage age. After controlling for other demographic and economic factors known to be associated with migration, we conclude that the need to save for dowry to be paid on the marriage of a daughter is likely to contribute to the labor export decision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the multi-dimensional approach through which the Pakistani state envisages, cultivates and practices state–diaspora relations. It examines the bureaucratic initiatives and official narratives to understand how the state extends its reach across its borders to bring the overseas population into its domain to fulfil the national agendas. The paper further argues that the state-diaspora relations in Pakistan are being developed through two main shifts: a) the way the state moulds its own identity in relation to the diaspora, and b) the way the state attempts to shape or create a diasporic identity for the overseas population. The paper adopts the analytical lens of why, who and how, to describe the motivations behind diaspora engagement, the discrepancies created between different diaspora groups and modes of engagement with these groups. From a neoliberal governmentality optic, these processes explain how the Pakistani state involves the diaspora members as partners in development, politics and governance and also treats them as subjects of governance and surveillance through identification and categorisation. It concludes that the Pakistani state's enhanced interest in diaspora engagement is to articulate nationhood in a transnational setting to reconfigure state hegemony in a globalised context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To achieve sustainable future for all, United Nations' (UNs') Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs-2030) reinforced the formulation of social, economic and human development policies. Pakistan is a country with high population growth rate, among top ten recipients of foreign remittances but facing an acute problem of stagnant human development outcomes over the years. Of note, Pakistan's economic growth is considered as growth without human face (see Easterly in The political economy of growth without development: A case study of Pakistan, 2001). It is, therefore, important from public policy point of view to understand the short-and long-run dynamics of the relationships between important social, demographic and economic factors. Accordingly, this paper investigates the short-and long-run relationships between population growth, government social spending, foreign remittances inflow and aggregate level of human development in Pakistan using Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach of cointegration and error correction models. The cointegration test results showed that there is cointegration among the variables to proceed with the estimations of long-run relationships. Our empirical results confirm the existence of short-and long-run relationships between population growth, remittances inflow and human development in Pakistan. Population growth inversely while remittances inflow positively influenced Pakistan's human development status both in the short-and long-run. The empirical findings of our study call for designing and implementing robust development policies—that result in effective and sustainable human development—mainly towards viewing population from a more humanitarian and equitable perspective in Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization has expanded labor market interconnectedness, and countries are striving to take advantage of this opportunity by sending their work force to countries where labor is in demand. On the other side, unfavorable events such as COVID-19 can impose restrictions such as lockdowns, travel bans, and social distance, all of which have caused problems for migrant workers and reduced remitted household budget allocation. Using the two-sample t-test and the PLSM 2014-15 dataset, this study compares the budget allocation of remitted and non-remitted households to food and non-food items. In addition, the distribution of remitted households by province and region, as well as remittance sources also determined. The results show that the Punjab province has the highest percentage of remitted households (51%), while Balochistan has the lowest percentage (1.4%). Furthermore, in Punjab, Bank is the most common channel of receiving remittances, whereas Hundi is in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The results of a two-sample t-test show that between remitted and nonremitted families, there is a significant difference in mean monthly budget allocation to food and non-food items. Remitted households spend more on food, education, health, and gas usage than nonremitted households on a monthly basis. As a result, the study suggests that increasing job opportunities both inside and outside Pakistan could be a viable policy option for increasing remitted and non-remitted household budget allocation. Enhancing bank remittances channels could be a viable policy option for increasing remittances and consequently increases households' budget allocation to food and non-food items. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper determines the effect of international remittances on the healthcare utilization of childbearing mothers in Pakistan using the Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement (PSLM) survey, 2018–19. The study reports a significant and positive effect of international remittances on the healthcare outcomes of childbearing mothers. Importantly, the remittance-receiving households have 0.615, 0.208 and 0.306 times the odds of the non-receiving households, utilizing prenatal healthcare, postnatal healthcare, and healthcare decision making, respectively, and all of them are statistically significant. Consequently, the analysis confirms that remittance receiving-households do in fact influence and increase the likelihood of utilizing prenatal healthcare, postnatal healthcare and decisions about medical treatment for women. As regression-based estimation of remittances is prone to selection bias due to the nature of the non-experimental data set, we also used propensity score matching methods, which also confirmed a significant and positive effect of international remittances on healthcare outcomes of the childbearing mothers. Thus, financial support or social development programs by the government or non-governmental organization are pivotal in enhancing the healthcare outcomes and ultimately the living standards of childbearing mothers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Despite the reasonable surge of remittances and imports in Pakistan, very less attention has been given to this area. To bridge the gap, this study aims to explore the relationship of worker's remittances and imports of Pakistan at both aggregate and disaggregate levels. Also, this research focuses on investigating whether remitted income substitute or complement imports of the country. Design/methodology/approach: To achieve these goals, the authors use annual time-series data from 1974–2016. Findings: Empirical findings obtained from the autoregressive distributed lag model method suggest that remittances substitute imports in Pakistan. It is also found that remittances not only substitute aggregate imports but also act as a substitute at different disaggregated levels. Further, it is documented that higher economic growth increases imports, whereas the real exchange rate for imports is inversely related to imports at both levels. Originality/value: These empirical findings also draw some substantive policy implications for the state owners and policy advisers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a result of the economic crisis in Pakistan, debt has had a negative impact on life and is perhaps one of the biggest causes of rising deprivation over the decades. This study examines the impact of debt services on income distribution in Pakistan, analyzed with time-series data from 1984 to 2018. This has shown that currency devaluation is a threat to income distribution in developing countries. The previous analysis shows that international remittances to developing countries have a positive effect. The Autoregressive Distributed Lags (ARDL) was the method used to examine the impact of debt on income distribution. The findings illustrate the significant and positive relationship between debt service and Gini Coefficient Index, which shows that an increase in debt will result in an increase in income distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foreign remittance is the second-largest source of foreign exchange in Pakistan which makes international migrant workers key players in the balance of payments equation of Pakistan. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are the most common destinations for unskilled migrant workers from Pakistan. With the increasing costs of migration and the sluggish economic performance of the Middle East in recent years before the pandemic, unskilled workers in the region are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain the flow of remittances to their families. This study contributes to the literature on remittances by: (1) identifying the determinants of sending remittances by unskilled Pakistan migrants in KSA and UAE; (2) finding the determinants of the wage differential between foreign jobs and local jobs of unskilled Pakistani workers; and (3) estimating the average time that a worker needs to potentially repay the costs of migration. Data for the empirical analysis came from the Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD) and the International Labor Organization (ILO) 2015 Migration and Recruitment Costs Survey in Pakistan. The findings suggest that experience and income are the most important determinants of remittances. However, the returns to education and experience are lower in KSA and UAE for unskilled labor as compared to Pakistan. Moreover, the economic costs of migration are high for these workers as it takes between five and nine years to recover the costs of migration. Unskilled migrants are important assets for Pakistan that will boost foreign reserves and reduce the balance of payment deficit. However, the opportunity cost of migration is high for educated and experienced workers and labor migration policies should consider both the costs and benefits of unskilled migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remittances are the major of South Asian economies. A large number of migrants migrate from their countries to multiple places and they send remittances to their homes. This research highlights a strong connection between remittances and their macro-economic effects on Pakistan. Some of the researches have been conducted on the remittances in Pakistan and most of them focused on two categories either on the migration or on the flow of remittances in the South Asian countries. But this study attempted to provide a view not only on the flow of remittances over the last decade but also established connections between flow of remittances and macro-economic growth in this country. This research conducted on important country of South Asia namely: Pakistan. The main focus of this research is to define inwards flow of remittances and its macro-economic effect. The expected finding of this research will be the facts that the selected country' financial condition largely dependent on remittances sent by their overseas diasporas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an attempt to identify causes of inflation in Pakistan primarily to identify the effect of remittances on inflation because it is observed that in case of high inflation periods, the remittances also increases concerning their behavior and dependency. Recent literature on Pakistan's economy highlighted that Pakistan is facing the problem of high inflation and data related to remittances also shows a major increase in remittances, signaling the connection between these two variables. For this purpose, yearly data is collected through various national and international reports for the period of 1971 to 2021. For empirical purpose, an Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model (ARDL) technique is applied to measure short run and long run effects of concerned variables. The study concluded that the effect of remittances is negligible in short run as well as in the long run. Whereas, the effect of exchange rate and oil prices are significant both in short run and in the long run. Similarly, the study identified money supply affect inflation only in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remittances are a significant source of foreign income in Pakistan. In order to stabilize the flow of remittances in Pakistan, significant determinants of workers' remittances should be identified. Therefore, in this paper, the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) technique was adopted to identify the potential determinants that affect the flow of workers' remittances to Pakistan. Additionally, the Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bound test was applied to explore the long-run and short-run effects of potential determinants on workers' remittances. The results of this study suggest that in the long-run, internal conflicts and investment returns negatively affect the flow of workers' remittances to Pakistan, whereas, real effective exchange rate (REER), external conflicts, and the production of major crops positively affect the flow of workers' remittances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the effects of foreign remittancesand financial sector developmenton Pakistan's economic growth during 1975-2019. Autoregressive Distributed Lag bound test has been applied to the data based on the results obtained from Phillips Perron and Augmented Dickey-Fuller tests. The findingsreveal that foreign remittances heighten economic growth both in the short-run and long-run. However, financial sector development turned significant in the short run and in the long-runits impact becomes insignificant. The findings suggest that the government needs to reduce the transaction-cost of sending remittances to the country and should take measures for financial sector development for boosting up the economic performance of the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The people from developing countries like Pakistan move to developed countries to earn their bread and butter. Consequently, such migrants remit a handsome part of their earnings to their dependents living in homeland. Foreign remittances have multidimensional impact on the economy of a developing country. The study evaluates the impact of foreign remittances on income inequality in Pakistan by estimating the set of fixed effect and random effect models using the pooled data from eight household income and expenditure surveys between 1998/99 and 2015/16. Gini coefficient as well as generalized entropy measure is used to estimate income inequality, but the results remain intact. It is observed that foreign remittances have statistically significant favorable impacts on income inequality in Pakistan. Further, the results are robust and insensitive to control variables (e.g. income and poverty measures, headcount ratio, poverty gap and squared poverty gap). The policy measure is that Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment (BEOE) should be empowered to explore the job opportunities in developed countries. The government should assist the migrants through subsidizing the visa and migration processes to capitalize the foreign remittances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The studies in recent era exhibit that the financial inclusion has become a scorching issue in playing its vital role while improving the lives of vulnerable and underprivileged households' well-being. But, the microdata impact of financial inclusion on household welfare is not being analyzed to substantial extent in Pakistan yet. Therefore, it is imperative to examine the effects of financial inclusiveness on the living standards of individuals to persuade them toward formal financial inclusion. Thus, the study attempts to explore the link between an expanded formal financial system and poverty alleviation through smooth consumption levels, providing access to credit and investment facilities to the individuals. For this purpose, the household level data of Household Integrated Economic Survey (HIES) for the time-period of 2013–2014 to evaluate the microlevel effect of formal financial inclusion, realizing solitarily for the remittance receiving households have been used. The well-being of households receiving formal financial inflows got highly affected by facilitating the remittance receivers through instant, reliable and frequent transfer of funds. Therefore, the main objective of the study is to investigate the effect of formal financial transfers on the socio-economic status of remittance receiving and nonreceiving individuals. The outcomes of the study suggest that the household welfare is greatly influenced by the formal financial inclusiveness along with other variables such as annual income, education level of the family, number of earning members, loans borrowed by the family, land and building ownership, and the head employed are found to be positively and significantly determining the household's welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In this paper, the authors develop and estimate a small open economy dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model with an enriched micro-founded specification to account for foreign remittances, an important source that helps bridge the trade gap in many developing and emerging market economies. Design/methodology/approach: Although the authors' specification provides a general frame for the analysis of the role of workers' remittances, they motivate and calibrate the model with specific focus on Pakistan, where most of the trade deficit is met through the remittance channel. Findings: The results indicate that a negative shock to workers' remittances hampers real growth via decreased consumption and imported investment goods, while it builds pressure on exchange rate and hence worsens current account balance. These results indicate that too much dependence on workers' remittances to help meet foreign exchange deficits may potentially leave the economy in doldrums in case sizable negative shocks occur to the flow of foreign remittances. Originality/value: The authors develop and estimate a small open economy DSGE model with an enriched micro-founded specification to account for foreign remittances, an important source that helps bridge the trade gap in many developing and emerging market economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the association between foreign remittances and poverty (incidence and severity) in the Punjab province of Pakistan. Logit regression is used to deal with binary headcount ratio, while the instrumental variable approach is employed to avoid possible endogeneity. Household‐based data, covering more than 40,000 household units in Punjab, are used for the empirical estimations. After controlling for several variables, such as the number of dependents of households, age, gender, and education of the household head, the results indicate that foreign remittances' inflow reduces the incidence and severity of poverty in all three regions of the Punjab province, North Punjab, South Punjab and Central Punjab. The South Punjab, however, is found to be poorer based on headcount poverty and severity of poverty as compared to the other two regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In its 50th edition of key indicators for Asia and the Pacific 2019, the Asian Development Bank reports that Pakistan with $21 billion remittance ranks 5th in the top 10 remittance sending countries of the world. The inflow of remittances helps the families of migrants and community in the broader context to improve their conditions and lives at many levels; (a) family's wellbeing and (b) community relationship and development. The migrants normally send remittances for families in the first instance to accommodate their daily essential needs and additionally to spend paying back loans, make savings and finally make safe investments in order to receive continuous income in future. But in many cases these remittances remained focused and consumed in nonproductive activities, a pattern that has been observed in case of many developing countries around the globe. This is probably due to the fact the families suddenly find themselves in a situation where they have liberty to move from poverty stricken conditions to a more benevolent change. In the case of community development, the remittances of the migrant workers are allocated in the shape of funding to a number of planned activities such as health, education, roads, sanitation, water supply etc. This research was conducted in Karrianwala village in Gujrat district of Pakistan with an aim to investigate the impact of foreign remittances on the community development that comprises of small or large enterprises for the overall wellbeing of the people. In this particular village the foreign remittances were evidently effective in improving the community situation, especially in installation of water supply, pavement of streets and sanitation during 1990s. Although, these projects were planned out and started out by a development committee comprising of conscientious and responsible members chosen by consensus from all major biradary [Urdu: Community] groups, financial support of Gujrati diaspora living across the world provided the much needed impetus for development. The researchers conducted an ethnographic fieldwork to collect data by using In-Depth Interviews (IDIs) technique from a set of respondents including: (a) members of the village development committee, and (b) the heads and elders of left behind families having at least one active migrant member who contributed financially to these developmental activities. In addition, two Key Informants (KIs) were also taken on board to get their detailed perspectives on the issues at hand and additionally they also validated the information collected through IDIs. The results showed a positive correlation between the inflow of foreign remittances and community development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International migration and remittances from oil‐exporting Gulf countries are important sources of employment, income and foreign exchange for Pakistan. This study investigates the asymmetric impact of oil prices on remittances to Pakistan from GCC countries, over the period 1980 to 2018, by employing the recently advanced non‐linear panel pooled mean group (PMG) model. The findings show that oil prices and remittance are asymmetrically associated. The increasing oil prices have a significant positive effect only in the long run, whereas reducing oil prices reveal a significant negative effect only in the short run. Findings of other explanatory variables show that the economic condition in host countries, exchange rate, and trade relations have positive effects only in the long run, whereas the economic condition in the home country has significant negative effects in the long run and positive effect in the short run. This study urges oil exporters to stabilise oil supply and prices, and Pakistan to enhance trade relations, exchange rate adjustments and financial development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foreign Remittances have gained great importance in the economies of developing countries including Pakistan. At present, remittances have become a major source of revenue for Pakistan. There has been enough work done in the past on the macroeconomic determinants of remittances however, microeconomic determinants were either rare discussed or then not studies with accurate statistical estimation. To bridge up the gap, the present study has attempted to explore the socio-economic determinants of remittances by utilizing data of 10 different villages of district Bannu to establish a relationship between foreign remittances and their socio-economic determinants. All the diagnostic tests were performed. The OLS estimation results revealed that all the factors (except property at home) i.e. earning abroad, experience abroad, number of dependents and education of emigrants in Pakistan have positive and significant impact on the inflow of remittances to their households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study examines the role of the agriculture and foreign remittances in mitigating rural poverty in Pakistan. Methods: The data used relate to the period 1980– 2017 and are sourced from the World Bank and the Economic Survey of Pakistan produced annually by the Ministry of Finance. The ARDL technique was used to calculate the effects of agriculture and foreign remittances on rural poverty. Results: The results of this study indicate that agriculture helps to mitigate rural poverty in the long run, but that foreign remittances are more effective in reducing rural poverty in the short run. In this paper, results confirm the existence of correlations between agriculture, foreign remittances and rural poverty. Conclusion: The outcomes of this study support the call for the government to introduce agricultural credit schemes for the rural population of Pakistan. Moreover, the government should take steps to enhance diplomatic relations with other countries and simplify policies and visa application procedures for Pakistani workers. Finally, this study suggests the government should simplify procedures for the transfer of foreign remittances to Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the association between remittances inflow and investment. The data of five major South Asian countries that receive a significant portion of remittances including India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh are considered from 1990 to 2016. Pooled ordinary least square (OLS), the fixed effect within group estimator (FEWGE), fixed effect (FE) and random effect (RE) are used for the analysis of the data. Unit root tests were employed and then followed by a pooled mean group (PMG) analysis to analyse the long-run relationship between private investment and remittances while controlling for several other variables, such as real-interest rate, economic growth, and the interaction between remittances inflow and business freedom. We use the error correction mechanism (ECM) to find the short-run relationship among variables. Our findings reveal that private investment is positively affected by remittances inflow. Moreover, remittances flow with low business freedom opposes the positive association in the case of these sampled countries. We recommend channelising remittances and lower barriers to business freedom, which may pave the way for a conducive investment-friendly environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This study explores the effect of workers' remittances on domestic investment in four selected South Asian countries: Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, using contemporary time series estimation techniques from 1980 to 2017. The estimated results of the ARDL bounds approach to cointegration analysis have revealed that among selected South Asian countries, Pakistan has witnessed a significant negative effect in the long run. Similarly, the findings of other forms of capital flows also revealed varying effects across the countries considered. This study urges the transformation of aggregate economic behaviour from consumption to the production side, by adopting policies that would encourage domestic saving and investment activities. In this regard, among others, reduction in the interest rate and the interest rate spread would be beneficial. It urges the identification of factors that conditions varying effect of workers' remittances and other capital inflows to mitigate negative effects into positive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary I examine the causal effects of long-term exposure to conflict, measured at the micro level, on households’ receipt of remittances, among households residing in areas affected by the 2010 floods in Pakistan. Using a dataset of 7802 households, representative of all flood-affected areas of Pakistan in 2010, I employ IV estimation to overcome the endogeneity of conflict exposure and remittance receipts, and control for a range of confounding factors. I find that, contrary to the literature from country-level case studies, long-term exposure to conflict reduces households’ likelihood of receiving any remittances at all, as well as the average amounts of remittances received. However for households in the lowest food consumption expenditure quintile, conflict has a positive effect on the likelihood of remittance receipts, which provides evidence for the existence of heterogeneous effects as well as a significant micro–macro gap in understanding the causal effects of conflict on remittance receipts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Saudi Arabia is the largest source country of remittances to Pakistan since the 1970s. This study examined the impact of home versus host country's economic conditions on remittances from Saudi Arabia to Pakistan. The ARDL bounds testing is used on the annual data set from 1973 to 2014. The study concluded that economic growth in the host country and economic crises in the home country increase remittances. 1% decrease in domestic output increases remittances by 2.79% while 1% increase in sending country's output growth increases remittances by 5.2% in the long-run. The bilateral trade has a positive while financial deepening has a negative impact on inflows. The impact of oil shock is insignificant. We suggest cautious foreign policy as remittances depend significantly on the host country's economic condition that is not directly under the control of the home country but remittances can be sustained with bilateral trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper employs GMM method to examine the impact of macroeconomic, financial and political factors on remittances to Pakistan using data spanning 1972–2012. It is estimated that inflation has significant and inverse relation with remittances indicating less investment by diaspora due to unstable macroeconomic conditions. The dummy variable of 2001 terrorist attacks has significantly positive impact on remittances. Furthermore, financial liberalization index is negatively related to remittances as it increases peoples’ access to loans. Furthermore, democracy induces migrants to remit to their homes. The findings of this study points toward the substantial impact of economic and noneconomic variables on remittances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the relationship of foreign capital inflows, namely foreign direct investment, workers’ remittances, and external debt with economic growth of Pakistan by employing time series data from 1976 to 2015. Cointegration results indicate that foreign capital inflows and economic growth have a significant relationship with economic growth in the long run. Ordinary least square results indicate foreign direct investment has a significant and negative effect on economic growth, whereas a significant positive effect of remittances and external debts on economic growth is found. Rolling windows analysis highlights the yearly effect of three different models. Two different sensitivity analyses confirmed that initial results are robust. The final section concludes the study and provides some policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study examines the effects of FDI (foreign direct investment) on export performance for a single country Pakistan, using 30 years data from a period 1981 to 2010. The ordinary least square estimation results indicate significant positive effect of terms of trade on economic growth. Furthermore, volatility of terms of trade has significant positive effect on economic growth. To test the robustness of initial results, sensitivity analysis has been performed using different additional variables, sample size and various proxies of volatility variable. The initial results were found robust despite the inclusion of various variables in the basic model and use of various proxies for volatility of terms of trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the financial costs, time involved in migration and benefits at household level. A household survey has been conducted to investigate about characteristics of migrants, transaction costs and sources of financing by which overseas migration is financed. Results of PSM technique explored that overseas migration conveys worthwhile benefits as measured by their total expenditures, food expenditures, non-food expenditures, clothing expenditures, expenditures on pots and pans, expenditures on vehicles and saving levels. Establishment of technical training institutions, creation of micro-finance institutions and enhancing their functioning as well as sensitization about 'Pakistan Remittance Initiative' would be some of the policy options in order to tackle with the problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty is such a social problem which itself begets so many socio-economic evils in a country. It never lets the government of a country to sit easy and focus on some other issues. Almost all countries who are running through this lurch; at there, governments, policy advisors and researchers are always busy in formulating strategies to combat poverty. Therefore; feeling the significance of the topic, this study is designed to empirically test the impact of economic growth, workers remittances, rural population and literacy rate on poverty in Pakistan. The empirical findings of the study reveal that economic growth; workers' remittances and rural population significantly deteriorate poverty. Moreover; it has found that there exists bidirectional causality between economic growth and poverty and between workers' remittances and poverty in Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The workers' remittances contribute the second largest share in the foreign exchange reserve in Pakistan which is facing chronic trade deficit. The purpose of the study is to explore economic determinants of remittances flow to Pakistan from 12 major markets. The data from 1990 to 2013 is taken from various national and international data sources. Panel fixed effect and random effect model is employed to explain the economic behavior of remittances inflow. The result of our regression model shows that the two variables, namely productivity growth of the recipient country and the level of income of originator country have positive effects on remittances, whereas, the distance between the two countries have significant negative. The results thus validate gravity model on migrant's remittances to Pakistan. The real exchange rate shows significant positive, whereas the interest rate and unemployment level in remittance sending country have significant negative impact. The dummy variable for a common language and Gulf countries shows significant positive impact indicating the importance Gulf region for international migration and remittances to Pakistan. The policy implication of this study is that Pakistan should export remittances to countries with higher economic growth and lower interest rate and unemployment to enhance access to workers' remittances. It should make its domestic environment investment friendly and adopt policies to encourage remittances for investment purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the impacts of migrants on native and destination areas of Chitral and Peshawar districts, Pakistaifi. In this study district Chitral is the native area, whereas provincial capital Peshawar Is the destination point. Out of total 5,000 migrants, a sample of 500 respondents were randomly selected, consisting of 250 migrants in district Peshawar and 250 respondents of their respective dependent family members in district Chitral. The objective of the study was to assess the impacts of migrants on native and destination areas with reference to dependent variable of migration and independent variable of income. However, the intervening factor was the cost of traveling from Chitral to Peshawar. Primary data was collected using interview schedule as an Instrument. Moreover, Chisquare test was used to explore the relationship in dependent and independent variables. The analysis reveals that therje is non-significant co-relation between purpose of sending money, the persons who manage the remittances in the family at the native place, migrants' frustration in love and affection for their families, tfie development of new habits of the migrants at destination point and monthly income. The analysis further reveals that a positive change in respondent's behavior, effective utilization of remittances and adaptive behavior of migrants at destination has been found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the synergistic causal effects of remittance inflows, urbanization, and quality of governance on multidimensional food security in Pakistan using large-scale time-series data over the period of 1973–2019. We use a broad-spectrum approach to empirically estimate temporal symmetrical relationships. The analysis revealed that utilization of worker's remittance has a significant negative impact on multidimensional food security but not on food access. Urbanization growth was also found to be negative and had a significant effect on all dimensions of food security. On the other hand, we found an overall positive relationship of governance quality, agricultural share to GDP, and government development expenditures for food availability, access, utilization, and stability. The empirical analysis suggests that utilization of remittances in a developing country such as Pakistan has the potential to negatively influence food security by decreasing the area of cropland because of non-agricultural-induced investment. To deal with this problem, scholars should collaborate across multi-disciplinary boundaries and leverage the advantages of multidimensional research design to study the effects of capital inflows and various dimensions of food security. As policymakers and researchers become aware of these complex relationships, more can be done to understand the opportunities and risks for national, household, and individual food security and sustainable development. • The "food security" issue in the context of multidimensional is a growing interest. • The study examines the dynamic effects of urbanization, and quality of governance on multidimensional food security. • Urbanization growth was also found to be negative on all dimensions of food security. • We found an overall positive relationship of governance quality with food availability, access, nutrition, and stability. • Remittances has the potential to negatively influenced multidimensional food security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 Persian Gulf and Europe. The positive association holds for all the top five migrant-hosting countries of Pakistan. The findings point in favour of an altruistic behaviour of migrant remittances at the macroeconomic level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) and workers’ remittances on private savings of Pakistan. This study employs ARDL bound testing co-integration approach, rolling window analysis, Granger causality test, Toda and Yamamoto Modified Wald causality test and variance decomposition test. Results indicate the significant positive impact of FDI and workers’ remittances on private savings in the long and short run. Causality analyses confirm the bidirectional causal relationship of FDI and workers’ remittances with private savings. It is recommended that policy makers should form friendly policies to attract more FDI and workers’ remittances in the country which leads to increase private savings in Pakistan. This leads to increase more fund for financial intermediaries to increase domestic investment opportunities in the country. This paper makes a unique contribution to the literature with reference to Pakistan, being a pioneering attempt to investigate the impact of FDI and workers’ remittances on private savings of Pakistan by using the long annual time series data and applying more rigorous econometric techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study revealed the socioeconomic impact of remittances on the rural dwellings of Potohar Region in Pakistan. The dates presented in the article were collected by using qualitative anthropological techniques. In the study, 52 households were observed with one or more than one of their family members as overseas migrants. International remittances are received which contribute to the socioeconomic uplift of households, poverty reduction and upward income mobility. Transformations in living standards were observed. Socially and economically deprived households started depicting construction of big luxurious house building that represented not only comfort, modern trends of lifestyle, but also served symbolic representation of foreign money. International remittances served as a sign of prestige. The overseas migration served as a cushion to absorb economic stress. Further, one or more family members served as a strong socioeconomic back and prestige for the rest of the household members in their native region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migration from Pakistan is extended over decades. There is a variety of forces behind the cross border movement, economic objectives can be singled out the dominant. One of the important aspects of outmigration is inward remittances. Investigating the trend pattern of migration and remittances the study finds that stock of overseas workers, their skill composition, and regulatory measures taken after 9/11 have played pivotal role in generation of remittances. After a brief discussion on some characteristics of remittances the study shows how important inward remittances to countries like Pakistan are in shaping decisions at national and household level. At the end some policy alternatives of remittance maximization are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]