Macroeconomic Instability and Terrorism Nexus: Empirical Evidence in Case of Pakistan

The current study is an attempt to analyze the association between macroeconomic instability and terrorism in Pakistan over the period of 1970 to 2020. Six important variables are taken as a proxy to measure macroeconomic instability which includes external debt, budget deficit, trade deficit, real effective exchange rate (REER), inflation and unemployment. Results indicate that there exists a long run cointegration relationship between the indictors of macroeconomic instability and terrorism. FMOLS is employed to obtain the estimates and it reveals that budget deficit and external debt is negatively associated with terrorism. It indicates that government expenditures on different project such as infrastructure create economic opportunities, therefore, reduces terrorism. Furthermore, welfare programmes also improve the performance of socioeconomic variables that translates into harmonized environment which lessens violence. The variable of trade deficit, inflation and unemployment has positive impact on terrorism while REER is insignificant. In context of trade deficit, higher imports results in job loss of domestic industries, hence, it hits the vulnerable groups. Therefore, the opportunity cost of life of these groups reduces and it increases the probability to become a part of terrorist activities. Inflation also pushes the vulnerable groups in poverty by reduces the purchasing power and unemployed individuals are also easy target to get involve themselves in acts of aggression. This study also constructs the macroeconomic instability index including the six variables through principal component analysis (PCA). Results of this model show that macroeconomic instability index and GDP has positive effect on terrorism. In case of GDP, the plausible reason could be uneven income distribution that increases terrorist activities. For the policy implications, government need to divert the resources from non-productive to productive uses through the investment in such projects which has direct and indirect impact on the welfare. In this way deprived group will enjoy economic perks and engage themselves in productive activities rather than becoming a helping hand in terrorism.

Relationship of Parental Styles and Personality Functioning Dimensions of Students at Secondary Level

The aim of this present study was to examine the relationship of parental styles and effects of these parental styles on personality functioning dimensions (cooperativeness & effectiveness) of students at secondary level. The focus of this study was on four parental styles (permissive, uninvolved, authoritarian and authoritative).The objective of the study was to find out relationship between parental styles and personality functioning dimensions of students at secondary level. Parental styles have been identified as a contributing factor in child personality. In Pakistan very few researchers have focused on personality functioning dimensions (cooperativeness and effectiveness). The population of this study was including all the secondary level students of government schools and students' parents from Faisalabad city. The sample of this study comprised of two hundred male students and two hundred female students and their parents. Two research instruments were developed by researcher. One questionnaire was for students which contained thirty one statements and the one was for student's parents which contained thirty statements. The researcher translated these two instruments into Urdu and used them after pilot testing. Sixteen null hypotheses were tested to see the relationship between parental styles and personality functioning dimensions (effectiveness and cooperativeness) of students at secondary level. Data was analyzed by using Pearson Correlation. After analysis it was found that mostly parents has authoritarian parental style. It was concluded that all parental styles have significant effect on child's personality. It was found that uninvolved parents are very few. It was observed at the offspring's of uninvolved parents are negative and confused individuals. Along with it results show that the children of authoritative parents are more effective and cooperative in their dealings.