Interaction of Household Wealth and Women’s Working Status on Child Malnutrition: Evidence from PDHS-2013

Theoretically, it is supposed that women’s working status and household wealth independently contribute towards the children’s dietary status. The working women of the inferior socio-economic class are generally engaged in the informal sector or low paid work. It may be argued that such kinds of service cannot contribute to the nutritious prestige in children. To solve this puzzle whether woman's working status in all socio-economic setups is contributing to children’s nutritional status or not? This is the main focus of the research. A sample data of 1169 households from PDHS (2012-13) are used to explore the influencing factors of child malnutrition. The study employed the binary logistic regression which observes the likelihood of malnutrition in the children. Malnutrition is measured through CIAF. The interaction terms of the woman’s working status and five quintiles of wealth index have been created. The results disclose that working women belonging to the household of the first two quintiles of the wealth index and the fourth quintile of the wealth index are not contributing to the nutritious prestige of the children. Furthermore, in the third quintiles, the working status of women contributes to the nutritional prestige of children. It may be inferred that the socioeconomic status of the household is important for the nutritional welfare of the children, not the woman's employment. However, it may be concluded that women’s employment should be of the level that can support the socio-economic status of the household.

Determinants of Tunneling: A Study of Non-Financial Concentrated Firms in Pakistan

Conflicting interests of minority and majority shareholders in concentrated firms entice severe illegal tunneling. Tunneling is siphoning of firm’s resources by the controlling shareholders for their private benefits at the cost of minority shareholders. This consequently inflicts losses to minority shareholders, discourages investors and affects the entire firm''s operations. This study aims to examine determinants of tunneling in the non-financial concentrated firms and to predict the short and long run association of influential factors. Study is relying on the secondary panel data collected during 2000 to 2015. Firm’s annual report, Pakistan Stock Exchange and State Bank of Pakistan were used as data sources. Using Fixed Effect Model andARDL, results show that except executive compensation, all are statistically significant using inter-corporate loan as proxy for tunneling. Similarly, all the factors are statistically significant using cash dividend as proxy for tunneling. Results also present that these factors show a significant effect in association with tunneling for short and long run confirmed through ARDL. Theoretically, this study contributes to agency theory and economic theory of crime. While, practically the study contributes to investors, owners and regulatory institutions of the market. Findings of the study share thorough information to investors which may help them for better portfolio decision. Additionally, study also apprise a vast array of stakholders of the firms about the severity of the tunneling and its deep rooted impairments to entire firm’s operations. Recommendations of the study guide regulatory infrastructure of the market to establish and implement rules for shareholders’ protection, encourage investment and harness transparent business environemnts.