Women's Education, Spousal Agreement on Future Fertility Intentions, and Contraceptive Use in Pakistan.

In less egalitarian countries such as Pakistan, reproductive behaviors are gendered, with couples often disagreeing about their fertility goals. However, the dramatic changes in women's empowerment and messaging around reproductive behaviors in Pakistan in recent years may have affected how women's own characteristics and their concordance with their spouse on fertility goals are linked to contraception. Using matched couple data from two cycles of the Pakistan Demographic Health Survey (1990-1991 and 2017-2018), this paper examines the relative influence of husbands' and wives' fertility preferences, as well as women's education, on contraceptive use using linear probability models.

Urbanization, informal economy, and ecological footprint quality in South Asia.

In recent years, South Asian economies have observed rapid urbanization along with expanding informal economy that poses a serious threat to environmental quality. This study examines the impact of urbanization and informal economy on the ecological footprint of selected South Asian countries. Results indicate that urbanization and informal economy increase the environmental degradation in South Asia and the estimates are statistically significant in the long run.

Asymmetric effects of premature deagriculturalization on economic growth and CO emissions: fresh evidence from Pakistan.

This paper examines the relationship between deagriculturalization, economic growth, and CO emissions in Pakistan from the period 1975 to 2018 by employing a nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) model and Granger causality approach. The asymmetric ARDL findings show that there is a significant negative relationship between agriculturalization and economic growth, while deagriculturalization does not induce economic growth in the long run in Pakistan. Moreover, agriculturalization and deagriculturalization have a negative significant effect on Pakistan's carbon emissions in the long run.

Management of green economy in China and India: dynamics of poverty and policy drivers.

Poverty eradication and environmental degradation are the two crucial challenges, and they are highly interlinked in the modern era. However, countries are still more emphasized in attaining poverty alleviation and alleviating environmental pollution which require enormous attention. Our study is a novel attempt to scrutinize the effect of poverty on carbon dioxide (CO) emissions for India and China over the sample period 1987-2019.

Examining the asymmetric socioeconomic determinants of CO2 emissions in China: challenges and policy implications.

A better socioeconomic development is necessary for environmental sustainability. The current study scrutinizes the asymmetric socioeconomic factors of CO2 emissions in China by using the nonlinear ARDL approach. This study is based on annual data covering the period from 1980 to 2019.

Analysis of income inequality and environmental pollution in BRICS using fresh asymmetric approach.

With rapid economic growth, BRICS is facing enormous burdens of carbon emission and severe issues of income inequality. However, behind this economic success, the BRICS economies also face few thoughtful challenges to improve environmental quality by catching up the sustainable development goals. Consequently, the existing empirical research is concerned with the dynamic links between income inequality and CO emissions by using the novel nonlinear ARDL approach, but small attention has been paid to the BRICS in literature.

Geopolitical risks, energy consumption, and CO emissions in BRICS: an asymmetric analysis.

Environmental pollution is a geopolitical problem, and researchers have not considered it seriously yet. This study examines the asymmetric influence of geopolitical risk on energy consumption and CO emissions in BRICS economies using the non-linear autoregressive distributed lag model (NARDL) testing method over the period of 1985-2019. Therefore, we observed that in the long run, a positive and negative change in geopolitical risk has negative effect on energy consumption in India, Brazil, and China.

Green logistics, economic growth, and environmental quality: evidence from one belt and road initiative economies.

The significance of global green logistics in improving green economic activities is a critically considered and debatable research topic in the context of economic growth and environment. This study aims to analyze the growth and environmental effects of green logistics performance for One Belt and Road Initiative (OBRI) countries over the period 2007-2019. The study used panel data two-stage least squares (2SLS) and generalized method of moments (GMM) estimators with robust inferences.

A spatial-temporal decomposition of carbon emission intensity: a sectoral level analysis in Pakistan.

We examine the relative performance of the industry, services, and agriculture sectors in energy conservation and reduction in CO emissions in Pakistan using the "spatial-temporal decomposition" method by taken data from 2006 to 2016. An efficient way to achieve low-carbon economy targets is to decompose different factors contributing to CO emissions, including structure effect, intensity effect, GDP gap effect, energy use efficiency effect, and economic efficiency. We classify economic sectors into three groups based on performance, i.

Cash transfers and residential demand for electricity: insights from BISP, Pakistan.

We examine the causal impacts of the cash transfer program, namely the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP), on residential demand for electricity among ultra-poor in Pakistan. We also analyze the effects of BISP cash transfers on a household's decision to acquire electrical appliances. The empirical analysis is based on the fuzzy regression discontinuity design (RDD) using primary data collected from 1200 households.

Tradeoff between efficiency and perceived quality: evidence from patient-level data.

Objectives: To estimate technical efficiency scores of District Headquarter Hospitals (DHQHs) for obstetric services and to explore the relationship between the efficiency of DHQHs and the patients' satisfaction about the quality of services provided.

Design, Setting And Participants: Data from Health Facility Assessment (HFA) survey is used for efficiency measurement. The data on patient's perceptions and other control variables are taken from Client Exit Interviews part of the HFA survey.

Asymmetric effects of militarization on economic growth and environmental degradation: fresh evidence from Pakistan and India.

To examine the asymmetric effects of militarization on economic growth and environmental degradation, this empirical research analyzes annual data of Pakistan and India over the period 1985-2018 using the NARDL econometric model. The empirical results show significant positive militarization effects on economic growth, while non-militarization also shows positive effects on the economic growth in Pakistan and India. Estimation showed that a 1% increase in militarization (non-militarization) led to 8.

The asymmetric effects of fiscal and monetary policy instruments on Pakistan's environmental pollution.

Maintaining a balance between environmental quality and economic growth is now one of the common goals of fiscal and monetary policies in developed and developing economies. This study examines the asymmetric impacts of fiscal and monetary policy instruments on environmental pollution in Pakistan over the period 1985-2019 by employing the asymmetric or nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) framework. The outcomes indicate that in Pakistan, a positive and negative shock in fiscal policy instruments has a significant increasing influence on carbon emissions in the short run, while a positive and negative shock in fiscal policy instruments has a significant decreasing impact on environmental pollution in long run.

Double-hit scenario of Covid-19 and global value chains.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, labor force is greatly confined by quarantine (social distancing), and limited units of labor and capital are available at the workplace. Millions of employees have lost their jobs and are facing financial hardships. Likewise, capital owners have become illiquid and possibly insolvent within months.

Examining the asymmetric effects of Pakistan's fiscal decentralization on economic growth and environmental quality.

This study aims to investigate the asymmetric fiscal decentralization effect on economic growth and environmental quality by using Pakistan data from 1984 to 2018. Our findings demonstrate that expenditure decentralization has asymmetric effects on economic growth and CO2 emissions in short- and long-run in Pakistan. Therefore, positive and negative fluctuations in expenditure decentralization affect economic growth and CO2 emissions differently in Pakistan.

Estimating the price elasticity for cigarette and chewed tobacco in Pakistan: evidence from microlevel data.

Background: While there is a large literature on the magnitude of price elasticity of cigarette demand, less is known about the same for chewed tobacco. Moreover, the studies on cigarette demand in Pakistan tend to ignore the heterogeneity in the smoking behaviour. This study estimates price elasticity for cigarette and chewed tobacco demand across different income groups, provinces and regions; and use these coefficients for simulating Pakistan's tax policy and its impact on revenue and health outcomes.

FDI and environmental degradation: the role of political institutions in South Asian countries.

This study examines the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on environmental degradation by keeping in view the role of institutional quality (IQ) in the South Asian region. Second-generational unit root test is used to address the issue of cross-sectional dependency. Mixed order of integration enabled us to use panel autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) method to investigate short-run and long-run association.

Comparative efficacy of mitigation techniques for the detoxification of Prunus persica (L.) from selected pesticide residues.

Fruits are the valuable and important components of human diet. Among them, Prunus persica is a rich source of different minerals and dietary fibers. In Pakistan, the total annual production of P.

Uncovering Pakistan's Environmental Risks and Remedies under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a journey towards economic integration of Eurasia. The CPEC contains US$62 billion investment projects on energy, infrastructure, and other development projects in Pakistan. However, CPEC could enhance climate change vulnerabilities for the faltering economy of Pakistan due to its three possible environmental risks and repercussions.

Energy efficiency and underlying carbon emission trends.

The present study aims to quantify the impact of energy efficiency on environmental quality in the top five greenhouse gas-emitting countries, namely, China, USA, India, Germany, and Japan. Based on annual data set from 1971 to 2016, the study explores the role of technological innovations to protect environmental quality by reducing CO emissions of these countries by employing structural time series model (STSM) approach. The results show that CO emissions in China, India, the USA, and Germany are growing faster than energy consumption, while in Japan the former is growing more slowly than energy consumption.

Carbon footprint accounts of Pakistan: an input-output life cycle assessment model.

The Paris agreement (2015) seems a significant achievement towards a global mitigation policy to climate change. However, implementing the promised Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) targets by the participating countries has become a real challenge. In this aspect, the input-output life cycle assessment (IO-LCA) model provides an important assessment mechanism to design suitable abatement policies limiting the rising greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Pulmonary health risks of working at a cement plant in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.

Objective: To examine the risk and preventive factors of working in a cement plant.

Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted from July to September, 2016, at a leading cement manufacturing plant in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect data about the characteristics of exposed and unexposed subjects.

Development of plant-microbe phytoremediation system for petroleum hydrocarbon degradation: An insight from alkb gene expression and phytotoxicity analysis.

Aim of present work was to assess in-planta association potential of isolated endophytic bacterial strain Pseudomonas sp. (J10) (KY608252) with two cultivars of Lolium perenne L. (small & jumbo) and Arabidopsis thaliana L.

Correlates of preferences for home or hospital confinement in Pakistan: evidence from a national survey.

Background: Despite the pregnancy complications related to home births, homes remain yet major place of delivery in Pakistan and 65 percent of totals births take place at home. This work analyses the determinants of place of delivery in Pakistan.

Methods: Multivariate Logistic regression is used for analysis.