Fiscal Decentralization and Gender Parity in Developing Asia

The traditional fiscal decentralization theorem claims that decentralized government can provide the goods and services at local level more efficiently. However, empirically it is still to explore that how fiscal decentralization affects gender parity. This study empirically investigates the impact of fiscal decentralization on gender parity in developing economies of Asia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz, Mongolia, Myanmar, Thailand and Turkey. The study used dynamic penal da ta technique namely system GMM over the period of 2006-2020. The multidimensionality of fiscal decentralization is captured through three measures of fiscal decentralization i.e. Expenditure decentralization, revenue decentralization and composite decentralization. Further, it also examines the complementarity between fiscal decentralization and control of corruption to increase the gender parity. The results of the analysis show that expenditure decentralization is increasing the gender parity in developing economies of Asia. Additionally, control of corruption is a necessary reform to get the desired fruits of fiscal decentralization. Countries must focus on corruption aspect of local governments in implementing the expenditure, revenue and composite decentralization.

Investing Job Satisfaction of Teachers in Karachi, Pakistan: A Survey Study

Job satisfaction is an important but a very complex issue, as it is all about human behavior, which is difficult to measure (Saiti, 2007). Knowledge of an employees' level of satisfaction is important for both the organization and the employee because of its (job satisfaction) association with workplace productivity. Furthermore, the knowledge of employees' lack of satisfaction with certain facets of the job will also prompt necessary measures by the employer for improving that aspect, so that the employees' well-being and productivity can be improved. The studies around the area of job satisfaction have explored various aspects of a job and the relationship between job satisfaction and the contributing factors affecting it, which, sometimes, have yielded inconsistent and contradictory findings. The present study is an attempt to explore job satisfaction of teachers of private and government schools in the context of Pakistan. In particular, the study aimed at exploring the overall level of job satisfaction of teachers of Karachi, Pakistan and to see if there is a difference of satisfaction with job between government and private schools' teachers. An important focus of the study was to see to what extent demographic characteristics such as, age, qualification, length of service and salary affect teachers' satisfaction level. A questionnaire of Job Satisfaction Survey (Spector, 1985) was adapted and administered on 500 private and government teachers with a return rate of 69%. SPSS was used to analyze the data generated from the survey. The findings of the analysis revealed that the teachers were somewhat satisfied with their overall job. A comparison between private and government teachers showed that the private school teachers had a higher level of satisfaction with their job than their government counterparts. The analysis also revealed varied level of relationship between demographic characteristics and job satisfaction. The findings show that the level of job satisfaction decreases as the teachers' length of service increases. In a similar way, satisfaction with job also decreases as teachers' age increases. Salary was also found to have negative correlation with job satisfaction, which means the more the salary, the lesser the teachers' job satisfaction, whereas academic and professional qualifications were not found to have any association with job satisfaction