Impact of foreign direct investment on the exports of five major sectors of Pakistan’s economy:A governance perspective

This study investigates and analyses empirically the impact of Foreign Direct Investment(FDI)inflows on the exports for a panel series of five large-scale manufacturing industries of Pakistan during the period 2000-2020.For this purpose,we establish export production function as based on endogenous growth theory in which role of FDI is considered as additional determinant of export.The Pedroni residual-based co-integration test and Error Correction Model(ECM)are applied for the long and short-run relationships.Pedroni residual based approach highlighted that human capitals,domestic capitals,foreign direct investments,exports,and domestic sales are co-integrated in the long run.According to results of ECM,coefficient of FDI appears to have statistical significant impact on exports and has a positive sign in the long run.Whereas,FDI does not contribute to export growth in the short run but it takes time to influence the growth patterns of the sector.On the basis of theoretical notion of endogenous growth theory,long-run coefficient of FDI may be interpreted as evidence in favour of the hypotheses that FDI has an impact on exports via export development.Thus,it can be concluded that“FDI-based endogenous growth theory”is valid in the case of Pakistan.

Projecting impact of CPEC on Pakistan’s electric power crisis

The commencement of China–Pakistan Economic Corridor has led to the appreciation of Pakistan’s economic outlook from 5.4%to 5.8%by the World Bank.The upgraded outlook is a welcome sign but it is still trivial,essentially attributable to the electric power crisis,which approximately trims 2%of Pakistan’s economic growth annually.Almost 60%of the CPEC(China–Pakistan Economic Corridor)funds are directed at Pakistan’s energy sector,hence,demanding careful attention of both researchers and policy analysts alike.The study is based upon a meta-analytic review of literature concerning CPEC and Pakistan’s energy sector.The results of the study demonstrate that CPEC is an easing agent for Pakistan’s energy crisis(82.30%).The results also highlight points of concern,including inadequate planning(47%),dilapidated electricity distribution system causing losses(64.7%),and an unsustainable energy mix(64.7%).The study further validates the findings via Spearman’s Rho-Correlation.The rρvalue for the possible“resolution of Pakistan’s energy crisis”is 0.5426 achieving a significance level of 98%and a corresponding p-value of 0.0252.The significant negative rρvalue attained is−0.4894 which establishes the fact that lack of planning can hinder the energy crisis resolution.

An Empirical Analysis of Defense-Economic Growth Relationship

Most of the developing and developed countries try to make peace and promote it but still it is seen that large portion of the overall global GDP is spent on the defense sector. This study surveys defense-growth nexus by incorporating openness to trade, external debt, gross capital formation and labor force in production function. The study uses annual time series data over the period 1972-2016. For estimation purposes, the study employed ADF unit root test and P-P unit root test for testing stationarity properties, ARDL Bound test to cointegration used for testing long run relationship. The empirical evidence of the study reveals that Economic growth is positively affected by spending on defense sector, capital investments, labor force, and openness to trade in long run while external debt has a negative effect on economic growth. Apart from this, empirical evidence also suggests that in short run;there is positive imperative role of capital investment, defense spending, and openness to trade in growth process, while external debt retards the pace of economic growth. Results of the study indicates that defense spending could be used as a fiscal tool for achieving sustainable growth, government should invest high R&D in defense.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Brand Community Engagement:Dual Mediating Roleof Brand and Community Identifications in the Chinese Decor Industry

Despite a plethora of studies on how corporate social responsibility(CSR)generates favorable consumer outcomes,the existing literature provides limited insights about how CSR may affect inter-consumer connection and brand community engagement.Enhancing consumer engagement in the brand community is one of the key marketing objectives for strengthening the brand-consumer relationship.This study aims to explore the role of corporate social responsibility in enhancing brand community engagement and examines the dual mediating role of brand identification and community identification.Quantitative research was conducted and an adapted questionnaire was used.Survey data were collected from 405 Chinese consumers,and structural equational modeling was used to test the hypothesis.Results demonstrated that CSR motivates consumers to engage with the brand community.Further,brand identification and community identification perform the role of partial mediators.

Pakistan and the BRICS Plus in the New Era:A Perspective of Neo-Functionalism

China proposed the idea of‘BRICS Plus’in 2017.However,this hint exasperated India owing to its diverse political and strategic preferences.Conspicuously,the reason for India’s disapproval relates to a probable role for Pakistan through the BRICS plus.Particularly,in the backdrop is China’s progress on regional integration through the Belt and Road Initiative(BRI)and the significance extended to the China Pakistan Economic Corridor(CPEC).In fact,inimical impulses for Pakistan were also felt when India attempted to label Pakistan as a country‘promoting state-sponsored terrorism’through a BRICS summit held in Goa in 2016;the move was later vetoed both by China and Russia.Meanwhile,India’s bilateral relations with China also lacked synergy,which sometimes impact their interaction within the BRICS framework.If viewed through the Neo-Functionalism framework and its concept of‘spill-over,’BRICS plus can reinforce incentives of cooperation in various sectors within a larger group of countries.Interest groups will begin to flourish at a regional level and domestically these groups will lobby their governments to further integrate.This will be overall critical for BRICS in order to steadily engage the world order as a multilateral forum.The question is,will India let go of bilateralism and accept the role of regional countries,particularly Pakistan?This article intends to explore the very concept of the transregional organisation of BRICS and the impact of the nature of relations between India and China.It also illustrates how states in the region,specifically Pakistan,have an intrinsic potential to complement the transregional agenda of BRICS and BRICS plus,particularly through its strategic geographic location and CPEC.For the persistent rise of BRICS,members will have to let go of bilateralism and allow the countries on the periphery to play their role.