Field, E. & Vyborny, K. (ongoing). Women’s Mobility. Center for Economic Research in Pakistan.
http://cerp.org.pk/womens-mobility/
Women’s mobility outside the home in Pakistan is restricted both by social norms and security concerns. This restricts women’s choices to participate in the labor force, continue their education, and engage in other independent activities. Public transport interventions targeted for women have been extremely successful in many contexts in other countries. Similar approaches have been tried on a very limited scale in Pakistan and their impact on women’s mobility, labor force participation and empowerment has not been rigorously evaluated. This project aims to use a randomized controlled trial of women’s-only transport and transport vouchers in Lahore, Pakistan to test rigorously whether a simple intervention can give women expanded choices. The methodology will allow the authors to quantify the benefit of a reduction in cost, an improvement in safety and social acceptability, and the two combined, on women’s mobility, labor force participation, other activities outside the home, and empowerment. The results of this research will inform policy on how transport services can best be designed, adapted and expanded to improve women’s mobility and empowerment.
Naeem, S., & Zaman, A. (2013). For Love or Money? Motivating Workers (No. 2013: 90). Pakistan Institute of Development Economics.
http://www.pide.org.pk/pdf/Working Paper/WorkingPaper-90.pdf
The authors conducted a field experiment. They tested how employers can use socioemotional resources, such as appreciation and recognition, in order to signal intentions and create positive reciprocal relationships with employees. Results showed that these resources led to a significant gain in productivity. The study was extended to account for relative wage concerns both with and without appreciation treatment. Efficiency gains with appreciation appeared to be robust even after including information regarding relatively disadvantageous wage discrimination. However, workers’ without socioemotional resources exhibited strong resentment toward relatively lower wages by showing a significant systematic decrease in their labour supply. Our results suggest that workers not only compare their wages, as pointed out in previous literature, but also compare the socioemotional resources provided by their employer. This provides important evidence against one-dimensional comparisons of relative wages relevant to worker productivity.
Woodruff, C., Chaudhry, T. (2013). Incentives and productivity: Work groups vs. production lines. International Growth Centre.
http://www.theigc.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Chaudhry-and-Woodruff-2013-Working-Paper.pdf
The project focuses on the organization of production in a fan factory. The authors worked with one of the largest producers of fans in Pakistan on the role of incentives in workers performance. The factory was using batch production (separate team of workers build different components) however the factory owners noted that similar size producers in China use an assembly line that results in lower levels of in-process inventories. An earlier attempt to switch to assembly line was met with failure. The two factors inhabiting the switch from batch production to assembly line were; assembly line production is less tolerant to absenteeism and workers resist changes in production techniques proposed by management. Hence the owners felt it was imperative to reduce absenteeism for the switch to work. The study tests the impact of short-term financial incentives to decrease absenteeism and the transition to assembly lines. The authors test both individual and group incentives in a sample of 8 production teams. A combination of survey, observational, and administrative data has been used to gain an understanding of the nature of worker responses to these shifts in production. A worker-level survey was conducted to gather information on their backgrounds and attitudes (especially team orientation, cooperation, and flexibility). The use of a control group and data collection on other characteristics of workers will enable the researchers to understand intra-team interactions and worker- level characteristics correlated with successful transitions between production techniques.
Asghar Ali, Muhammad Naseem Akram, D. (2012). Impact Of Financial Rewards On Employee’s Motivation And Satisfaction In Pharmaceutical Industry, Pakistan. Global Journal Of Management And Business Research, 12(17).
http://journalofbusiness.org/index.php/GJMBR/article/view/813
In this research article, data of 186 employees working in Pharmaceutical industry is analyzed. The results indicated gender-wise and age-wise comparison of motivation and satisfaction of employees with respect to salary and position. Hypotheses were developed to find relationship between financial rewards, motivation and satisfaction of employees. A positive relationship has been found between financial rewards, motivation and satisfaction. Overall results indicate employees working in pharmaceutical industry are being offered good financial rewards. They are motivated in performing their duties and satisfied with their salary and job position.
Khan, S. U. K. (2005). Macro determinants of total factor productivity in Pakistan. SBP Working Paper Series.
http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/8693/
This study estimates the Total Factor Productivity (TFP) in Pakistan using conventional growth accounting process and then establishes its macro determinants. The growth accounting process helps segregate TFP from other sources of economic growth. The fundamental sources of growth namely labor, capital and productivity are calculated and TFP is highlighted as the most important source of growth in the paper. The data used in this study ranges from 1960 to 2003. The determinants are identified on the basis of a simple regression approach. The results of the regression are significant establishing the impact of a number of factors with TFP. The study confirms that macroeconomic stability, foreign direct investment, and financial sector development play an important role in the increase of TFP. However, education expenditures (insignificant) and openness to trade turn out to have negative association with TFP. The positive results of the financial sector development imply that financial sector may influence TFP through two channels that are known as quantity channel and quality channel. Easy access to credit enhances economic growth and the productivity of firm level and contributes to TFP of the overall economy.