What Drives Remittances from Saudi Arabia to Pakistan? Home Versus Host Country's Economic Conditions

Saudi Arabia is the largest source country of remittances to Pakistan since the 1970s. This study examined the impact of home versus host country’s economic conditions on remittances from Saudi Arabia to Pakistan. The ARDL bounds testing is used on the annual data set from 1973 to 2014. The study concluded that economic growth in the host country and economic crises in the home country increase remittances. 1% decrease in domestic output increases remittances by 2.79% while 1% increase in sending country’s output growth increases remittances by 5.2% in the long‐run. The bilateral trade has a positive while financial deepening has a negative impact on inflows. The impact of oil shock is insignificant. We suggest cautious foreign policy as remittances depend significantly on the host country’s economic condition that is not directly under the control of the home country but remittances can be sustained with bilateral trade.     

URBAN TRANSPORT AND CRIME: EVIDENCE FROM UNANTICIPATED MASS TRANSIT STRIKES

We examine the effects of mass transit strikes on criminal behavior in Los Angeles County utilizing a unique dataset of reported crimes between 2000 and 2007. Geocoded location and time information pertaining to each offense accommodates a fine grained difference‐in‐differences panel data analysis. We find that in locations affected by the strike, aggravated assaults rose by 18.7% while aggregate property crimes increased by 5.7%, relative to their mean. This increase in crime was disproportionately larger in lower income neighborhoods, which report higher usage of mass transit, suggesting local isolation of both criminals and victims as a mechanism. (JEL J52, K42, K31)     

论WTO之“国民待遇”原则在我国的实践

国民待遇原则是世贸组织的一项重要原则。我国加入世贸组织后,世贸组织的有关规则对我国的法制建设正在产生直接的影响。而外商投资法律环境与国际接轨将首先取决于“超国民待遇”原则与“低国民待遇”原则向世贸组织之“国民待遇”原则的转变。世贸组织规则的切实贯彻与落实,在一定程度上会推动我国向法治社会转型的进程。