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This research was aimed to check the relationship between the economic cost of education and the behaviour of parents towards child labour. Primary data was used to investigate the impact of the economic cost of education on parents’ behaviour towards child labour. One hundred and fifty selected parents were interviewed through a structured questionnaire. Seventy five parents were selected from the group who did not want to send their children to work, and seventy five parents were selected from the group who wanted to send their children to work for comparative analysis. Binary Logistic Regression model was used for empirical findings. The results showed a strong positive relationship between the economic cost of education and the behaviour of parents towards child labour. So it is concluded that the economic cost of education can be one of the main determinants of favourable behaviour of parents towards child labour. As a policy suggestion, it is recommended that free quality of education should be provided by the public sector to address the chronic issue of child labour.

Exchange rate volatility plays a pivotal role in shaping the trade policy of a country. This paper utilized a yearly time series and panel data to explore the relationship between exchange rate volatility and export growth of the selected developed countries (Poland, Sweden, UK, Italy, Germany, France, Denmark, Austria, and Belgium) between 1980-2020. Pooled Mean Group (PMG) and individual cointegration techniques were applied to evaluate the impact of exchange rate volatility on export growth in two-time horizons, i.e., short-run and long-run. Results confirmed that, in the long run, exchange rate volatility was cointegrated with export growth. The study further validated that in case of panel data, in the short run, exchange rate volatility suppresses export growth. At the same time, in the long run, it aids in accelerating export growth. At disintegrate level, in the short run, results were relatively insignificant except for Sweden and Italy, which had shown negative and significant association with export growth. In contrast, the long-run analysis revealed a significant positive impact of exchange rate volatility in most of the cases. Also, in case of panel data, if estimated elasticity is negative, then real depreciation could lower the real exchange rate and widen the export base. As exchange rate volatility could promote or hinder export activity, therefore, it is important for policymakers to consider exchange rate volatility while formulating the trade policy of the country. Also, stable and sustainable management of the exchange rate would bring stability and promotes long-term growth in an economy.

Purpose: Fiscal decentralization is an emerging phenomenon in Pakistan from the last few decades. A large number of studies have been investigated the socio-economic and political effects of fiscal decentralization in Pakistan. But none of the study has examined that how fiscal decentralization has affected gender parity in education in Pakistan. Design/Methodology/Approach: This study empirically investigated the dynamic relationship between fiscal decentralization and gender equality in education by employing different measures of fiscal decentralization and used autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL) bounds test approach for cointegration testing for the period of 1975 to 2020.  The bounds tests suggest that the variables of interest are bound together in the long run when gender parity in education is dependent variable. Findings: The long run relationship is also confirmed by the significance of associated equilibrium correction. The robust analysis of this study suggest that fiscal decentralization is improving gender equality in education particularly education expenditure decentralization and revenue decentralization. Implications/Originality/Value: The results are important for fiscal policy formulation in public and social sector in Pakistan. Further, these results might be helpful for other developing countries that share a common experience in applying fiscal decentralization reforms and struggling to reduce gender disparity in education sector.