Dr Muhammad Abrar ul Haq | University of Bahrain (original) (raw)

Papers by Dr Muhammad Abrar ul Haq

Quality & Quantity, 2021

The key objective of this study is to analyze the moderating effect of farmers' attitude between ... more The key objective of this study is to analyze the moderating effect of farmers' attitude between the resources of farmer and poverty incidence in rural areas. For this purpose, 650 small farmers were selected through the stratified random sampling technique and face to face interviews were conducted by using a structured questionnaire for data collection. The proposed model was analyzed through PLS-SEM technique. Empirical findings of the current study reveal that the resources of farmer has a significant and negative impact on multidimensional poverty indices. Moreover, the findings also concluded that the resources of farmer has a direct negative effect on poverty incidence, meanwhile, attitude of the farmer significantly and negatively moderates the effect of farmer's resources on poverty incidence. In framing the policies of rural development, the current study emphasized the need for strategies related to increasing agricultural productivity and allied activities. Similarly, the current research also recommends that seminars may be arranged to provide vocational training to improve the farmers' attitude for better utilization of common, social and human resources. In addition, credit support may also be offered to small farmers which can drastically reduce their poverty incidence.

2020 International Conference on Data Analytics for Business and Industry: Way Towards a Sustainable Economy (ICDABI), 2020

We are living in an era of information and technology that have given us an upper hand in benefit... more We are living in an era of information and technology that have given us an upper hand in benefiting from the innovation that has been invented for a different cause. Talking about e-business one thing we all have in mind is 'the activities taking place online' in terms of buying and selling products & services, where neither the buyers nor sellers physically interact with each other, where the buyer is a consumer and the seller being the merchant processes the trade via the internet. This research analyzed how the economic growth of the country is getting impacted by e-business. For this purpose, the data from 1982 to 2018 have been extracted from data stream repository, government data bank, ministry of finance and national economy (Kingdom of Bahrain) and world bank data. As per our economic growth model, the study identified the hypotheses that consist of three variables (e-business, population growth, saving rate) that affect the most the economic growth. The current study has applied the Autoregressive Distributed Lag model for the empirical analysis, as the extracted data's stationary level was generated via the UNIT Root to test the data is stationary. The empirical results of the study concluded that e-business is significant at 1% with the beta value of 0.10, saving rate is significant at 5% with the beta value of 0.25 and population growth is significant at 10% with the beta value of 0.60. Lastly, the study strongly suggested that government spending should emphasize on technology enhancement, literacy rate as well as internet penetration, as these things mainly focus to e-business business that further boost the gross domestic product of the country.

2020 International Conference on Innovation and Intelligence for Informatics, Computing and Technologies (3ICT), 2020

As cities expand, so does their energy use. And as cities strive to become "smart," renewable sol... more As cities expand, so does their energy use. And as cities strive to become "smart," renewable solar and wind power can play a crucial role in helping them achieve their goals. Therefore, this research paper analyzes the effect of using renewable energy on households energy cost. For this propose, primary data was collected from 100 households using a structured questionnaire through purposive sampling technique. Furthermore, the linear regression model was applied to analyze the hypotheses and findings indicate that the use of solar energy has a negative and significant effect on household energy cost in Bahrain. Moreover, the empirical findings also confirmed that the total income of the household significantly and positively moderates the effect of solar energy usage on household energy cost. However, family size and average education negatively moderate the effect of solar energy usage on household energy cost. Therefore, the study suggested that government should encourage to build the future buildings especially the public buildings and housing societies by installing the solar panels at their roofs to cut the energy cost and to deal the environmental issue.

Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business, 2021

There are many asset prices which are interlinked and have a bearing on the stock market index. S... more There are many asset prices which are interlinked and have a bearing on the stock market index. Studies have shown that the interrelationship among these asset prices vary and are inconsistent. The ultimate aim of this study is to examine the dynamic relationship between gold price, oil price, exchange rate and stock index. Monthly time series data has been utilized by the researcher to examine the interrelationship between four variables. The relationship among stock exchange rate index, oil price and gold price have been undertaken using regression and granger causality test. The results indicate that the exchange rate and oil price have an indirect influence on NIFTY; whereas gold price had a direct impact on NIFTY. It is evident from the results that volatility in the price of gold is mainly dependent on the exchange rate and vice versa. All the variables affect NIFTY in some way or the other. However, gold has a direct and vital relationship. From the study findings, it can be concluded that macroeconomic variables like commodity prices and foreign exchange rate, gold and oil, have a strong relationship on the return on securities at the national stock exchange of India.

Quality & Quantity, 2020

Encouraging women as entrepreneurs in the recent scenario are the government initiative over the ... more Encouraging women as entrepreneurs in the recent scenario are the government initiative over the globe. Some women started these small enterprises to support their living and their families, however, the commitments are minor and significant numbers of projects are probably not increasing in the long run. Thus, the current study aims to explore the factors contributing in motive behind female entrepreneurship to participate in the economic development as an effective entrepreneur by leading a successful business based on their specifics characteristics. Using factor analysis with the data of 80 female entrepreneurs, the study concluded that there are nine indicators that contribute significantly to become a successful entrepreneur. Therefore, the current study suggests that there must be a ceaseless effort to move, stimulate and coordinate with women entrepreneur while developing the policies to promote women in business meanwhile, women itself need to attempt and update themselves inside the changing over occasions by methods for adjusting the pristine time benefits. Women ought to be taught and talented persistently to assemble the capacities and information in the greater part of the viable districts of business administration. This will encourage women to exceed expectations in choice-making process and expand a decent business.

Majority of the rural people from developing countries are dependent on agriculture sector and th... more Majority of the rural people from developing countries are dependent on agriculture sector and the major source of energy is traditional biomass. Due to radical climate changes, their dependency on traditional biomass and agriculture sector increases their vulnerability and deteriorates the environment as well. Therefore, this study attempts to highlight the potential of using renewable energy options to reduce this vulnerability. The focus of present research is the efficient utilization of solar energy and biomass using improved cooking stoves. Additionally, the vulnerability can be reduced by optimizing solar energy utilization and enhanced individuals' adaptive capacity with the use of improved cooking stoves. The environmental benefits of the use of improved cooking stoves through solar energy are also discussed. It is concluded that the efficient use of biomass and solar energy reduce individuals' susceptibility and improve their socioeconomic status, education, health and climate change as well. These findings provide the guidelines to the regulators that they should enhance their focus towards renewable energy to reduce this vulnerability.

Global Social Welfare, 2020

Loneliness is an unpleasant feeling within which an individual finds oneself under strong emptine... more Loneliness is an unpleasant feeling within which an individual finds oneself under strong emptiness and depression due to the poor social connections and consequently leads to deterioration of one's well-being. This phenomenon may become even worst in the case of older adult widows. Therefore, the current research aimed to analyze the moderating effect of education and skill among loneliness of adult widows on their social and mental well-being. The data was collected from 200 widows (60 years old or above) of government pensioners (scale 1 to 16) who receive their pensions from the National Bank of Punjab (NBP) and Bank of Punjab (BOP) through structured interviews using purposive sampling. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was applied for analysis using Smart-PLS (v.3.3). The findings of this study concluded that loneliness has a negative effect on social and mental well-being of older adult widows; however, the moderation effect of skills and education level altered the level of loneliness and brought a positive significant effect on mental and social well-being among the older adult widows. Therefore, it is recommended that projects of older adult education and skill enhancement may be launched based on inclusive models at the government and community level. Furthermore, opportunities of paid or volunteer work may be provided to educated and skilled older adult widows for their active and productive engagement towards society. To heal the negative effects of loneliness among them, drop-in centers may be established for their physical participation in recreational activities with new associates and companions.

The key objective of this study is to develop a household Empowerment Index for a quick descripti... more The key objective of this study is to develop a household Empowerment Index for a quick description of household empowerment. Household empowerment was gauged through the first-hand data gathered through face-to-face interview of household head form the rural households of Pakistan. In the process of data collection, multi-stage cluster sampling method was employed which involved twenty-four villages of southern Punjab and 600 heads of the household who were interviewed. With a view to assigning a weight of indicator variables, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was applied. The findings indicate that there are three pillars of the household empowerment: economic empowerment, social empowerment and above all political empowerment. The said three pillars are based upon the ten sub-pillars which further contain 42 indicators that contribute significantly to household empowerment.

The purpose of this study is to check the impact of various political events on Karachi stock exc... more The purpose of this study is to check the impact of various political events on Karachi stock exchange. For this purpose nine major political events were taken under study during the period of 2007 to 2012. These events were Emergency rule of Musharaf, Benazir Bhutto Assassination, 2008 General Elections of Pakistan, Resignation of Musharaf, Restoration of Chief Justice of Pakistan, Abbotabad Operation, Salala Attack, De-seating of Prime Minister and 2012 Elections of USA. For the purpose of this study, these events were divided into two categories one is those events that caused changed in government policy and the other is those events that did not caused change in government policy. "t" statistics was used to check the significance of every event. Results showed that only those events affected the returns of Karachi stock exchange that caused change in government policy where those events which did not cause change in government policy had no effects on returns of Karachi stock exchange. Moreover it was also seen that Karachi stock exchange readjust itself very quickly i.e. effect of any news did not last for more than two days.

The current study aimed to investigate how the household empowerment can potentially reduce the r... more The current study aimed to investigate how the household empowerment can potentially reduce the rural poverty incidence. The data were collected through multistage random sampling from the rural households of 24 villages in Southern Punjab, Pakistan. A total of 600 households were selected as sample pool. Face-to- face interviews with the household heads were conducted. The household empowerment was measured through an index that was adopted from Abrar-ul- haq (“An assessment of the role of household empowerment in alleviating poverty in Southern Punjab, Pakistan” (Ph.D. Dissertation), School of Economics, Finance and Banking, Universiti Utara Malaysia, 2017). The binary logit model was used to analyze the impact of household empowerment with other control variables on poverty incidence. The results of the current study confirm the negative nexus between household empowerment and poverty incidence of rural households as the study reported that the probabilities (odds ratio: 0.877) of being poor are reduced by increasing the empowerment (in every aspect, economically, politically, and socially) of the households, and the results are statistically significant at the 1% level of significance. Based on empirical results, this study suggests that household empowerment has significant potential to reduce poverty incidence in the rural areas of Southern Punjab, Pakistan.

English is most frequently used language in the global communication and considered to be the key... more English is most frequently used language in the global communication and considered to be the key to success. In spite of the efforts made by the government to achieve acquired level, the failure rates in English in Pakistan is very alarming. In order to investigate this problem, this study was aimed to unveil the gap between the learning objectives of English and the actual condition of primary school students in Sargodha (Pakistan). A random sample of 180 students from six primary government schools of Sargodha district was selected. The data were collected through an achievement test based on contents set by the Punjab textbook board. The collected data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics and ANOVA. The results revealed a gap between the required SLOs (students' learning objectives) and the students' acquired competency level in English at primary level. Further, the variables; teachers' content knowledge, gender of the students; type of school and parents' education found significant factors that affect students' competencies in learning English. The study recommended that every school should possess an environment where facilities of teaching language skill are provided keeping in view the above factors. English is most frequently used language in the global communication and considered to be the key to success. In spite of the efforts made by the government to achieve acquired level, the failure rates in English among Pakistani's students is very alarming. In order to investigate this problem, this study was aimed to unveil the gap between the Learning objectives of English and the actual condition of primary school students in Sargodha (Pakistan). It was found that conceptual gaps in all four competencies (reading, writing, comprehension and speaking) at earlier stage cause continuous deterioration in students' English language competency in later years. Possible reasons behind this situation were found that the deficiency of learning environment for English language and teachers' methodology for teaching English language which make the learning objectives unrealistic for the primary school students.

This conceptual paper reveals the hypothesized link between entrepreneurial network and small fir... more This conceptual paper reveals the hypothesized link between entrepreneurial network and small firm performance and the mediating effect of dynamic capabilities on the mentioned relationship. The theoretical grounds of the entrepreneurial network, dynamic capabilities and small firm performance established this conceptual framework. This paper adopts the Resource Based View (RBV) which claims that firm valuable strategic resources (entrepreneurial network) and capabilities (dynamic capabilities) both are important to make firm successful. Similarly, Dynamic Capability View (DCV) support and verify this conceptual framework. It means the stronger entrepreneurial network will lead to develop dynamic capabilities, which will ultimately cause the higher firm performance. Therefore, this paper incorporates two strategically important variables namely, entrepreneurial network and dynamic capabilities to enhance the small firm performance, whereas RBV suggests that firms make progress on the basis of resources and capabilities. Entrepreneurial network and dynamic capabilities both are regarded as the important elements to combat the lower firm performance in current turbulent business environment. By keeping in view, the theoretical foundations of RBV and DCV, this paper proposes a conceptual framework in examining the mediating role of dynamic capabilities on the relationship between entrepreneurial network and small firm performance.

Gender differences have been widely observed among developing countries whenever it comes to inve... more Gender differences have been widely observed among developing countries whenever it comes to investigate the position of women on research grounds. Therefore, in current research, the relationship between employment and empow-erment is being focused generally and particular attention is paid to the individual's ability to approach job opportunities and working environment at the communal level. Moreover, women's access toward resources and contribution level to the accumulated family earnings within the family units is also observed. The study used primary source of data of 500 households which was collected from four districts of Punjab, Pakistan through a multistage random sampling technique. In this study, four indicators have been chosen in order to measure women empow-erment and hierarchical multiple regression was applied to have a look at multiple professions and groupings of empowerment. The findings indicated that women in particularly few professions hold the higher chance of getting empowered, in addition, those particular professional attributes seem interconnected by some of Muhammad Abrar ul Haq

Women well-being has number of socioeconomic and developmental implications. Early child developm... more Women well-being has number of socioeconomic and developmental implications. Early child development is directly linked with well-being of mothers and educated women demand lower children. However, the existing literature hardly focused this area, therefore, the current study has investigated the impact of women wellbeing on fertility and early child development. For this purpose, this study constructed women well-being index to measure the well-being of the women by using four dimensions, economic well-being of women, social well-being of women, political awareness of women and satisfaction of women in different aspects of life. Moreover, early child development index has considered as proxy for child development which covers four dimensions of early child development, literacy-numeracy of children, physical growth of children, learning of children and socio-emotional development of children. In this connection, the data was collected from thirty-six districts across the Punjab province, Pakistan. By applying descriptive and regression analysis, the study found that women well-being has positive association with all domains of early child development. However, women well-being and its dimensions have negative relationship with fertility. Therefore, improvement in well-being of women may a suitable strategy especially for developing economies to enhance early child development and to reduce demand of children.

Springer, 2018

Poverty is viewed in different ways owing to its multidimensional concepts. A common view of pove... more Poverty is viewed in different ways owing to its multidimensional concepts. A common view of poverty is that when one is unable to satisfy their certain basic requirements but it has been generalized that poverty is not only the lack of food and hunger, rather the low access towards other facilities by the government and inability to take part in the social or local decisions by community are also considered among the constituents of poverty. Therefore, the key aim of the current study is to investigate the effect of household empowerment on the participatory poverty of rural households. Primary data was used in the current study which was collected through multi-stage random sampling from the rural household of twenty-four villages in southern Punjab. For this purpose, a face-to-face interview of 600 households was conducted by authors. The household empowerment was measured through an index which was adopted from Abrarul- haq (An assessment of the role of household empowerment in alleviating poverty in southern Punjab, Pakistan (Ph.D. Dissertation), School of Economics, Finance and Banking, Universiti Utara Malaysia, 2017). The ordered logit model was used to analyze the impact of household empowerment on participatory poverty. The results of current study indicate that the household empowerment, remittances, agriculture occupation, agriculture experience, secondary occupation, household size and female-male ratio have a negative impact on participatory poverty. Therefore, based on the findings, the study suggested that participatory poverty may be reduced by improving household empowerment in the said area of southern Punjab, Pakistan.

Executives or top management in any organization play the central role in designing firms' polici... more Executives or top management in any organization play the central role in designing firms' policies including their own remuneration, investments and capital related decisions. Due to their prime importance, executives have greater access to all important information related to organizations. If such personals have greater control over the board or organization, it alludes as managerial power. Concisely, if managerial power is high then the management may misuse such information for their personal benefits. Therefore, considering the importance of managerial power, the current study aims to investigate the effects of managerial power and executive remuneration on firm performance. In order to empirically test the proposed relationships, the current study applied PLS-SEM approach by using the data of Sugar & Allied industry of Pakistan Stock Exchange for the year 2014. The results of the current study indicated that direct effect of managerial power on firm performance did not exist, however, the empirical findings showed that managerial power had a significant effect on executive remuneration. Furthermore, managerial power also significantly influenced the firm performance through the executive remuneration or remuneration mediated the relationship between managerial power and firm performance. Therefore, the current study suggests that firm should take necessary actions to reduce the managerial power and design the pay of top management in a way that any harmful action of managers against the firm's wealth would significantly affect their own benefits.

Climate change has become one of the biggest issue across the globe as most countries have been b... more Climate change has become one of the biggest issue across the globe as most countries have been bearing the consequences of this phenomenon on a global scale. Countries have been drafting environmental regulations to help mitigate the environmental pollution caused by climate change. Therefore, the implications of environmental policies in various sectors of the economy are dependent on state regulations. The main objective of this study is to investigate the impact of corporate governance on environmental performance. Furthermore, this study examines the impact of institutional regulations on the relationship of corporate governance and firms' environmental performance. The data was collected from the top 120 manufacturing companies that are based in Pakistan, India, China and Bangladesh. The binary logit regression methodology was employed in this study. The results indicate that the attributes of corporate governance have a positive and significant impact on green performance. In addition, the results were also positive and significant on the moderating role of institutional regulation for corporate governance and firm performance. Hence, based on the empirical findings, this study recommends strict environmental institutional regulations to further enhance environmental performance.

Poverty is defined as the lack of access to basic human necessities and can be stated as a situat... more Poverty is defined as the lack of access to basic human necessities and can be stated as a situation of destitution which can be harmful and might affect the lives of individuals at numerous levels moving around psychological, mental and physical aspects. In order to elaborate poverty in a simpler way, we can define it as scarcity of fundamental human needs including food, shelter, clothing, medical care and safety, information, education and access to capital. This research has aimed to analyze and discuss the role of household empowerment in relation to incidence of poverty and participatory poverty. Moreover, current research also suggests that household empowerment can contribute to poverty reduction. The relationship between poverty and household empowerment have been discussed. Fundamental assumptions inherent in the meaning and measurement of household empowerment and its impact to reduce poverty have been discussed.

It is a common belief that women in Pakistan have limited rights or privileges in a male dominate... more It is a common belief that women in Pakistan have limited rights or privileges in a male dominated society. Women fare batter in urban areas and middle and upper sections of society. The condition of women rights in rural areas is very alarming. Women faced different kinds of violence such as sexual violence perpetrated by their family members, domestic abuses including spousal murder, beating, threat, honor killings, torture, acid attacks and child custody problems. Islam and most of the international organizations condemn the women rights violation. The feminist movement started worldwide to protect women rights and gender-based violence. The current research focused all those violations which women have to face in their domestic life. The case study of Bahawalpur indicates the conservative environment and its impact on women rights violations. The descriptive and analytical method of study has been used. The data was collected through a structured questionnaire from different areas of the district Bahawalpur. The Legal and punitive measures cannot succeed unless social customs, norms and societal mentality are changed. Better Education facilities, opportunities of employments and proper social and political participation can overcome this issue. Moreover, the proper implementation of law and justice after violence is necessary to eliminate this problem in the Pakistani society.

Springer, 2017

The issue of decision-making ability is paramount to women’s empowerment. The current study inten... more The issue of decision-making ability is paramount to women’s empowerment. The current study intends to examine the role of women’s autonomy in decision-making by considering the resources that needed to demolish the restrictions at various levels including cultural and institutional. To highlight the influence of the decision-making process among women based on gender power relationships, various programs, researches, and policy debates have been commenced. This study examined the decision-making ability among the rural women of southern Punjab as a source of their empowerment. A cross-sectional survey design using quantitative techniques was employed. A multistage cluster sampling technique was adopted to generate information. Total twenty-four villages from three divisions of southern Punjab (Bahawalpur, Multan, D.G. Khan) and 600 women were selected as respondents. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, that is, frequencies and percentages. The principle component analysis was used to validate the items of each variable. The findings revealed that out of the six decision-making variables considered in the paper, the respondents were found to have low decision-making ability in the studied area. The paper concluded that rural women have a relatively lower level of decision-making ability on issues concerning them, their household and the society at large.