The effective regulation of industrial water pollution can only be ensured when the regulatory charge/tax is equivalent to the cost of pollution abatement. Pakistan’s principle manufacturing sector is textile industry which is termed as the back bone of its economy and earns major share of foreign exchange for the country. The textile processing is the largest water polluting sub-sector of textile industry in Pakistan. The input and output data from 45 textile processing firms are used for the present analysis. Distance function values are applied using ordinary least squares method to estimate parameters for a translog form of the output distance function for textile processing firms in Pakistan. Shadow prices of BOD and COD (undesirable outputs) are obtained from the translog parameter estimates. These prices are negative for all 45 firms in the sample showing consistent results with those found in other studies. These shadow prices are useful estimates which can be used to set pollutant specific emissions charges/taxes corresponding to the existing emission standards so that the polluting firm will have incentives to comply with the standards.

The study investigates whether family transitions are related to behavioural and self-esteem problems in elementary school-aged males in Kuwait. Boys between the ages of 8 and 10 are divided into two groups: a group whose families have undergone a transition within the past three years and a group whose families had not undergone such a transition. The two groups are compared in problems with conduct and self-esteem as measured by the Child Behaviour Checklist-6/18, and on the Self-Esteem Index. The study does not find statistically significant relationships between having undergone a family transition and the students’ conduct and self-esteem. Transitions in the families of young Kuwaiti boys do not seem to be precursors of conduct problems or low self-esteem.  Future research could study conflict factors in families to determine whether conflict is related to both problems with behaviour and self-esteem.

This empirical study on factor substitution and technical change in Bangladesh agriculture uses the translog cost function which belongs to the family of flexible forms and does not a priori restrict the value of the elasticity of substitution. Using the function, both substitutability and complementarity relationships between inputs are found in Bangladesh agriculture. Most of the own elasticities of demand for farm inputs are found to be less than one. There are also evidence of land and labour saving technical changes and presence of fertiliser and irrigation using technical changes.

The paper examines the link between microfinance and the fight against poverty in developing countries. It explores the issues and the limits of the major approaches (welfarist and institutionalist) in microfinance and presents different forms of contract in microfinance. It further analyses the current status of microfinance in developing countries, its characteristics, and its articulation with the policies against poverty and inequality. Recent policies against poverty, advocated by both the donors and developing countries, view the microfinance sector as a key tool of public policy by establishing regulatory frameworks and framing national policies relating to microfinance.

The paper explores the existence and the stability of the Phillips curve using time series data for North Cyprus, a small developing economy.  ADF unit root test is employed to check for stationarity. ARDL and DOLS approaches to cointegration are used to explore the long run relation and ECM to understand short run dynamics. The predictive properties DOLS are better than those of the conventional methods. The estimates point to the existence of Phillips curve both in the long and the short run. CUSUM and CUSUMsq tests confirm the stable relation.