Is devaluation contractionary? Empirical evidence for Pakistan

The paper examines the effect of real devaluation on economic growth. In the empirical model we include few other theoretically justified variables e.g., money supply, foreign remittances, and government spending as they appear relevant for Pakistan. The ADF unit root test is used for stationarity of the series. Also, to capture possible structural breaks due to currency regimes shifts, the Saikkonen and Lütkepohl unit root test is used. We apply the ARDL bounds testing approach to cointegration to explore a long run relation among the series; and the variance decomposition method and impulse response function for the direction of causality. The findings affirm cointegrating relation among the series. Real devaluation exerts contractionary effect on economic growth. The results should help in formulating a comprehensive trade policy including the use of competitive devaluation as a tool to correct balance of payments problems.     

Climate resilient planning in Bangladesh: a review of progress and early experiences of moving from planning to implementation

Bangladesh is one of the first least developed countries (LDCs) to develop a long-term climate change strategy, the Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (BCCSAP). Two funds were set up after developing the BCCSAP, one using government resources (BCCTF) and the other using donor resources (BCCRF). This paper uses the “building blocks” framework to analyse changes that occur when progressing from planning to finance and implementation by comparing the BCCRF and BCCTF. This analysis reveals how governance enablers are influenced by political economy dynamics that steer funding decisions and implementation outcomes, and provides lessons for countries pursuing climate resilience.     

Allelic distribution of nine short tandem repeat (STR), HLA-DQA1, and polymarker loci in an Omani sample population

Allele frequency distributions of nine short tandem repeat (STR) loci, D3S1358, vWA, FGA, D8S1179, D21S11, D18S51, D5S818, D7S820, and D13S317, HLA-DQA1 and polymarker (PM) loci were studied in a sample population from Sultanate of Oman, Middle East. Blood samples were collected from 162 unrelated individuals. For all STR, HLA-DQA1 and PM loci, no deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, based on the exact test, were observed. The most discriminating loci were D18S51 (PD=0.966) and FGA (PD=0.964), while the least informative locus is GYPA (PD=0.585). The allele frequency data may be useful in forensic case work.     

Violence among Arab elementary school pupils in Israel

This article examines the prevalence of violence in primary schools attended by Arab children in Israel and the relationship between such exposure and violent behavior among these children. Participants are 388 Arab children (aged 10 to 12 years) living in three localities in Israel. The research focuses on three of the child's roles in relation to violence: witness, victim, and perpetrator. An adapted Arabic translation of the Violence Exposure Scale-Revised is administered to children in group settings. The children report more exposure to moderate levels than to severe levels of violence. Boys are exposed to more violence as victims, and witness and perpetrate more violence than girls do. Multiple regression analysis shows that the experience of being a victim predicts violent behavior in the children, above the effects of age and gender. The limitations of the study and its implications for future research and theory development are discussed.     

Age at menarche and the related issue: A pilot study on urban school girls

Age at onset of menarche was determined for a group of newly menstruating urban schoolgirls in Bangladesh. Their age at onset of menarche was correlated with their weight, height, and per capita food expenditure (PFE). Results indicated that these girls began menstruation at 12.67 years of age, which is well ahead of rural girls. Age at onset of menarche was positively correlated with weight and negatively correlated with PFE. A strong inverse relation between weight and height of newly menstruating girls indicated the existence of some unstable trend in their physiological processes.Major interests are population education, adolescent psychology, and education.     

Corporate social responsibility commitment of small‐to‐medium enterprises and organizational competitive differentiation: Stakeholder pressure,market orientation,and socioeconomic context effects

This paper aims to examine the role of stakeholder pressure and market orientation in explaining the corporate social responsibility (CSR) commitments and the organizational competitive differentiation of small and medium enterprises. The socioeconomic context, that is, favorable versus unfavorable, was used as a moderator in above links. The results verify the strong influence of stakeholder's pressure on CSR commitments and the influence of stakeholder pressure and market orientation on organizational competitive differentiation. The socioeconomic context confirms to have a significant moderating role in the hypothesized links. In a favorable context, stakeholder pressure turns out to be relevant in explaining CSR commitments and the organizational competitive differentiation, and CSR commitments itself also have a significantly positive effect on organizational competitive differentiation. In an unfavorable context, market orientation provides a significantly positive support to CSR commitments and organizational competitive differentiation.     

Factors influencing individuals' intention to adopt mobile banking in China and Pakistan: The moderating role of cultural values

Rapid development of smartphone technologies in Asian countries has increased the demand of mobile banking in financial services and mobile commerce. Current research is conducted for mobile banking adoption in China and Pakistan. The social influence was added with technology acceptance model to investigate the direct effect on individuals' intention. Moderating role of cultural values was explored in the proposed model. Empirical study was performed for the data received from both countries to examine the developed model. Multiple and hierarchical regression analyses (IBM SPSS software) were carried out to test the proposed hypotheses. We have observed that perceived usefulness, social influence, and perceived ease of use are significant predictors of individuals' intentions to adopt m‐banking in Pakistan, whereas the perceived usefulness is an important predictor in China. The moderating role of cultural values was observed as dampening factor in positive relationship between social influence and individuals' intentions.     

Beliefs of Sri Lankan medical students about wife beating

The article presents the results of a study on beliefs about wife beating conducted among 476 Sri Lankan medical students. Participants fill out a self-administered questionnaire, which examines six beliefs about wife beating. Most students tend to justify wife beating, to believe women benefit from wife beating, and to believe the wife bears more responsibility than the husband for violence against her. At the same time, most participants express willingness to help battered women. However, the vast majority oppose divorce as a solution to wife beating and are against punishing violent husbands. The results also reveal that a significant amount of the variance in each of the six beliefs are best explained by the students' patriarchal approach toward women and marriage and by their exposure to violence in their families of origin. The implications of the results for future research and theory development on beliefs about wife beating are discussed.