Rector Lahore School visits AIOU
January 28, 2015
Dr Shahid Amjad Chaudhry, Rector Lahore School of Economics visited AIOU, Islamabad. Dr Shahid Siddiqui, VC AIOU presented university shield to Dr Shahid Amjad Chaudhry.
Labels: Lahore School
posted by S A J Shirazi @ 1/28/2015 12:17:00 PM,
Lahore School Case Study Competition 2014
January 13, 2015
The Lahore School Management Society held their first case study competition titled “Lahore School Case Study Competition-2014” on November 29, 2014. The event was attended by more than 200 undergraduate and postgraduate students including the participating teams and members of Lahore School Management Society.
This competition was intellectually stimulating and created excitement both in the participating students and audience. This competition provided an out of the classroom setting where students had actively engaged in academically oriented interaction. the best part of the competition was the announcement of Cash Prizes and their distribution by the jury panel heads.
Labels: Academic Club, Lahore School Management Society, LSMS
posted by S A J Shirazi @ 1/13/2015 12:31:00 PM,
Business Fiesta
The Entrepreneurial and Business society hosted its first workshop “Business Fiesta’14”at the Mahmood Chaudry Library (MCL) on November 27, 2014. The student officials and representatives of Lahore School Entrepreneurial and Business Society conducted this competition. The event was attended by more than 150 undergraduate and postgraduate students including faculty members (Prof F.A.Fareedy, Mr Saad Shahid, Mr Faizan Khalid, Mr Javed Qureshi, Mr Khalid Mansoor, Miss Rabia Sohail and Miss Atiqa.).
Four young entrepreneurs from Lahore (Mr.Amer Sarfraz, Partner and Vice president of Bramerz, Ms.Saba Sharjeal, Owner of The Mad Chef, Mr.Waqas Ali, Founder of Markhor and Mr.Qasim Zafar, Ceo of Savareeapp) were invited to talk to the audience and to give them an insight about the basics of entrepreneurship. These entrepreneurs included.
Moiz Hijazi (President of the Lahore School Entrepreneurial and Business Society) explained the future projects and events to be held in the upcoming spring semester. The workshop was concluded with a thank you note and the guests were presented with shields and flowers as a token of appreciation, by the society’s patron Mr. Fareedy and executive committee members Mr Faizan Khalid and Mr.Saad Shahid. It was followed by a lunch at the faculty lounge arranged for the guest speakers and faculty members. This marked an end to the first event of Lahore School Entrepreneurship and Business society.
Labels: Academic Club, Entrepreneurial and Business Society
posted by S A J Shirazi @ 1/13/2015 12:30:00 PM,
South Asian Economics Students’ Meet
The 11th South Asian Economics Students’ Meet (SAESM) was held in Thimpu, Bhutan from December 23-26, 2014. Seven countries participated in the event with each having a 10 member delegation. Team Pakistan comprised of undergraduate students from LUMS and the Lahore School of Economics.
The students competed in three different events: Research Paper Submission and Presentation, Budding Economist Competition and Team Quiz Competition. Azeem Arslan Hassan, BSc IV (B) and President of the Lahore School Economics Society, presented a paper on the sub-theme “Trade Facilitation and Competitiveness in South Asia”, and won the “Best Paper Award.”
Mehak Anjum Siddiquei, BSc IV (C), also presented a paper on the sub-theme “FDI and Technological Transfers within South Asia”, whereas Rohail Ashraf Sadiq, BSc IV (A), represented Pakistan in the Budding Economist and team quiz competition. The Lahore School students gave impressive performances in their respective categories and received a lot of praise for their efforts. Rohail Ashraf Sadiq made it to the Semi-final round of the Budding Economist competition and was a part of the four member Pakistan team that were runners’ up in the quiz competition. The students attended three days of academic activities and also enjoyed two days of retreat in Paro, Bhutan from 27th to 29th December.
Congratulations Team Pakistan!
Labels: Lahore School, Research, Students
posted by S A J Shirazi @ 1/13/2015 12:30:00 PM,
Growth model fuels inequality
January 07, 2015
According to a recent case study by Zunia Saif Tirmazee and Mariyiam Haroon of the Lahore School of Economics presented at a Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) seminar earlier this month, income distribution has been inequitable.
Pakistan has experienced tremendous economic growth over the last decade, but this did not reduce poverty and inequality. While discussing two indicators — efficiency and equity — the paper explained that efficiency required the overall improvement and equity required the improvement to be equitably distributed across various segments of the population.
Pakistan and the IMF, for the first time, seem to be almost on the same page about the current year’s economic growth forecast, despite the downside risks from militancy, monsoon floods and energy constraints.
This means that the country is now entering its average growth band of 5-6pc after a gap of seven years. It is estimated that the economy has the potential to reach 8-10pc growth in 5-6 years, provided the energy and security situation is improved and structural corrections are made sooner than later.
In the past too, Pakistan had seen swings in growth. But did this growth translate into an improvement in the lives of the majority of the population?
Most economists are not much impressed by the inclusiveness of past growth cycles, and strongly suggest that the government put in place policies at the beginning of another growth crest to benefit a majority of the people, rather than only a few.
According to a recent case study by Zunia Saif Tirmazee and Mariyiam Haroon of the Lahore School of Economics presented at a Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) seminar earlier this month, income distribution has been inequitable.
Pakistan has experienced tremendous economic growth over the last decade, but this did not reduce poverty and inequality. While discussing two indicators — efficiency and equity — the paper explained that efficiency required the overall improvement and equity required the improvement to be equitably distributed across various segments of the population.
The paper revealed that there has been an overall improvement as indicated by an upward shift of the concentration curve, but concentration curves got steeper over time, indicating efficiency without equity.
Between 2008-09 and 2010-11, the average per capita income was higher than the social mobility index, implying that income distribution was inequitable. And the income equity index is less than one across all regions for both years, which depicts a high level of inequality. However, the magnitude of inequality varied across regions.
The paper also noted that growth in per capita income was achieved at the expense of equity. This meant that increasing incomes were being channeled towards higher expenditures and were not facilitating savings. The paper concluded that growth was not inclusive since it was achieved at the expense of equity — as the benefits of growth were unevenly distributed, with the poor benefiting less than the rich.
Perhaps mainly because of this reason, the country is far from achieving 16 targets of the Millennium Development Goals set for 2015. These particularly relate to universal primary education, reduction in extreme poverty and hunger (notwithstanding major contribution by an effective BISP), gender equality and women empowerment and lowering of child mortality rates.
Over 12m children are still out of school. Half of young children are under nourished and more than 39m people are still defined as poor. And the population growth rate of 2pc suggests that Pakistan would become the 5th most populous nation by 2050, further constraining limited resources. The youth bulge is already emerging more as a challenge than a dividend.
The Human Development Index has put Pakistan at 146 out of 187 countries. India and Bangladesh improved to 135 and 142 respectively.
Launched in July, the planning commission’s Vision 2025 recognised these challenges and hinted at pursuing steps to achieve the goal of private sector-led growth for a competitive economy and sustainable growth.
Sakib Sherani, former principal economic adviser to the finance ministry, suggested inverting the pyramid and making people at the top pay more, with people at the bottom benefiting more from government spending. This would make growth more equitable.
He said there are several dimensions of non-inclusiveness in growth. The inequitable growth benefited more the owners of capital than labour, while the government had been prioritising spending that was not inclusive and skewed.
Mr Sherani stressed on the need for more attention for labour-intensive sectors like agriculture, construction and garments. Adjusting spending priorities, which the current government has taken, is a right step, he said.
Former chief economist of the planning commission Dr Pervez Tahir said inclusive growth could not be achieved through privatisation. He said the process was started in the 1990s for retiring debt, alleviating poverty, reducing the fiscal deficit, stopping the bleeding of the public exchequer, spurring investment and employment, and improving industrial performance.
Unfortunately, none of these objectives were achieved. Debt exceeded GDP in the heydays of privatisation. Poverty increased till 2001, while the fiscal deficit over the long-term has remained unsustainable. Investment has not increased; only ownership has changed. The share of investment in GDP has gone down from 26pc to 15pc, while unemployment has increased. And the privatised units showed no marked improvement. Efficiency and profitability have nothing to do with ownership, but with management, he added.
Labels: Lahore School, Research
posted by S A J Shirazi @ 1/07/2015 03:38:00 PM,
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