An Analysis of Sociocultural Barriers on Social Empowerment of Women in Sahiwal Division

The paper sets out to discuss impact of socio-cultural barriers on social empowerment of rural women in term of decision making related to their personal as well as social life in Sahiwal division. Pakistan is a patriarchal society characterized by patri-local residence and exclusion of women from the right of inheritance and succession, which pave ways for male-headed society. In addition, socio-cultural factors strongly favour male-dominance and an inferior status of females in all walks of life. A quantitative approach was adopted for carrying out current study. A survey instrument was designed and employed for data collection from 384 respondents from rural areas of Sahiwal division. The findings of the study revealed that less than one third (31.25%) of the respondents were consulted in decision-making about domestic matters. Likewise, more than half (51.8%) of the respondents were not independent in moving out of home for meeting any social need. Similarly, more than one third (41.4%) of the respondents were not free to visit their friends in the neighborhood. The study concludes that women in the rural areas are less empowered and still suffering socially, economically and psychologically in their day to day life. The study provides an insight for professional social workers, policy makers and stakeholders in public and private sectors for influencing policy-making and planning for revisiting and redesigning existing policies and plans intended for empowerment of rural women in Pakistan

Determinants of Corporate Borrowing a Comparative Study of Developed, Emerging and Developing Countries

Previous literature suggests that some predictions of the capital structure theory are portable across countries. But still there are persistent discrepancies and crossectional variations regarding choice of debt. Therefore not only firm specific, but country specific factors are also influencing firms’ choice of debt. The basic purpose of this dissertation is to investigate exactly which predictions of the theory are portable across and how debt choice is influenced by institutional features in developed, emerging and developing economies. This particular study analyzes and compares the determinants of debt ratios using firm specific data from 2006 to 2016 for a sample comprised of 9536 non financial firms from 27 countries. Our sample of countries includes 10 each from developed and emerging and 07 from developing economic block. Panel data models have been used to test the impact of 09 firm specific attributes on debt ratios in indi vidual countries. Comparison of results suggest that profitability and size of firm are two widely validated firm specific determinants of long term debt ratios across all countries irrespective of economic blocks they belong. Similarly assets struc ture and liquidity are consistent and most validated firms’ specific determinants of short term debt across all countries. Negative slopes of profitability, asset struc ture and liquidity are in line with pecking order hypothesis, while positive slope of size is in accordance with trade-off theory. Apart from profitability, size, asset structure and liquidity rest of regressors have different impact on leverage ratios in different countries. Thus we say that it is difficult to reconcile all firm specific factors under a single theoretical frame work. However theoretical predictions of pecking order theory are widely validated. We also examine the impact of 06, country specific attributes on average long term debt ratios in each economic block using panel data models. Regression outputs show that countries characteristics differently influence average long term debt ratios in the three economic blocks. Bond market development in advanced countries is the only positive significant factor that affects average long term debt in developed countries. Results of emerging block show that both legal integrity and bond market development significantly influence firm’s choice to employ debt. In contrast to emerging countries, our results suggest that improvement in legal enforcement and integrity actually encourages firms in the developing countries to borrow more in long run.