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Showing all content in Pakistan
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Project
Reducing Pakistan's circular debt: Facilitating growth through energy sector reforms
Pakistan's power sector is in crisis. Although subsidies protect consumers from the real costs, the government is burdened with serious debt. The stock of debt in the power sector has reached a staggering ~1.72 trillion rupees (£8.56bn), nearly 4% of GDP. In comparison, Pakistan spends just over 2.4% of GDP on education; more is spent on subsidising electricity prices each...
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Project
Reinventing Pakistan's welfare state: Replacing energy subsidies with targeted transfers
A welfare state faces two fundamental challenges: targeting people who need support the most and delivering the benefits in a cost-effective manner. In some developing countries, weak data leads to poor targeting, while weak institutions lead to poor delivery mechanisms. This means that these limited benefits are often availed by the less deserving, leaving less behind for...
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Project
Urban property tax reform in Punjab
The Punjab Government is considering reforming its property tax valuation system and is analysing the impact of potentially shifting from the ARV-based system of property valuation to a capital value-based valuation system. Specifically, the government requires support in understanding the distributional and revenue consequences of this shift. Amongst the levers of tax...
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Publication - Working Paper
Persuasion and public health: Evidence from an experiment with religious leaders during COVID-19 in Pakistan
We use a Randomised Controlled Trial in Pakistan to test whether one-on-one engagement with community religious leaders can encourage them to instruct congregants to comply with public health guidelines when attending religious gatherings. Treated religious leaders are 25% more likely to tell a "mystery shopper" he must wear a mask to attend. Treatment effects are driven...
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Project
Leveraging public-private partnerships for service delivery in Pakistan
Citizens' expectations for the government to deliver increasingly complex services has grown considerably, which has also exposed serious limitations of the current governance system to deliver these services. A method of bridging the gap between demand and delivery in Punjab was through the creation of public sector companies, licensed under Section 42 of the Companies...
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Project
The design of anti-poverty interventions for the ultra-poor: Asset transfers or cash transfers?
A major challenge faced by governments in low-income countries is to permanently alleviate households from poverty. Recent evidence suggests that the “Targeting the Ultrapoor” (TUP) program pioneered by BRAC in Bangladesh has proven effective and portable across settings (Banerjee et al., 2015; Bandiera et al., 2017). As a result, there has been growing interest in the...
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Publication - Policy Brief
Improving public services: A case study of two not-for-profit companies in Punjab
Over the past decade, the Government of Punjab set up a number of government-owned public companies under Section 42 of the Companies Act 2017 to deliver specific public services such as waste management, public transport, infrastructure development, and skills training with the legal and financial autonomy necessary for efficiency and transparency. The experience...
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Project
Judicial access and development: Evidence from Pakistan
Effective justice systems can improve the living conditions of populations by addressing violations of political rights, promoting peaceful dispute resolutions, and supporting economic governance for development. Yet, three challenges affect the Judiciary in most developing countries, and specifically in Pakistan: poor access, especially for vulnerable populations;...
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Publication - Policy Brief
Understanding gender barriers in the Pakistani labour market: A deep dive in the job search process
The emerging reasons behind low female labour force participation rates in developing countries are a lack of access to safe transport, social norms, and the burden of household responsibilities. However, one area which has received less attention is the job search process itself. We use data from a job search platform in Lahore, Pakistan, to discuss the differences...
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Publication - Policy Brief
Engagement with local religious leaders to combat COVID-19 in Pakistan
COVID-19 remains a threat for the Pakistani economy and health care system. In this environment, congregational prayers, including obligatory Friday prayers, present significant risks for transmission of the virus if not managed properly. This policy brief measures the impact of one-on-one engagement with local religious leadership on the compliance of public health...