Speaker: Dr. Azam Chaudhry (Lahore School of Economics)

Moderator: Dr. Ali Cheema (LUMS, IDEAS, CERP)

Date: 26th May, 2022  

Time: 5:00 PM (PKT)

Productivity growth is seen as the key driver of long-run economic development but Pakistan’s total factor productivity growth has been mostly stagnant since the 1970s. This talk looks at a few key reasons underlying the differences between exporters and non-exporters in the Pakistani context to understand where the disconnect with export-led growth may lie.

First, the panelists examine how agglomeration relates to firm entry and productivity, considering both new and established clusters. Second, they focus on how different types of innovations affect firm productivity and growth and if they are related to export status. In Pakistan, exporters tend to be the largest firms, while innovation and firm growth mainly arise from smaller firms. Third, they also consider whether opening up to trade, following the examples of the Asian Tigers, holds promise to advance firm-level productivity. Finally, the discussion examines if intra-industry linkages between exporters and non-exporters can magnify and promote broader productivity growth through spillovers.

Dr. Azam Chaudhry is the Professor of Economics, the Dean of the Faculty of Economics and the Pro Rector of the Lahore School of Economics. His research interests include Innovation and Technological Change, Institutional Economics, Economic Growth and Development, Behavioral Economics, Economic and Social Networks, Political Economy and Industrial Organization. He has recently coauthored “Home-based Enterprises: Experimental Evidence on Female Preferences from Pakistan”. He is the recipient of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Chairs Programme, 2021. Dr. Azam has a B.Sc. (Hons.) in Economics from the London School of Economics, UK and a M.A. and PhD in Economics from Brown University, USA.

Dr. Ali Cheema serves as the Director at MHRC and is an Associate Professor of Economics at LUMS. He is a Senior Research Fellow at IDEAS Pakistan, co-founder of CERP, and a co-lead academic of the IGC’s Pakistan programme. His areas of research include development, gender, political economy and local governance. His work has been accepted in leading journals, such as the Journal of Political Economy, Science, and the American Political Science Review. He holds a PhD in Economics from Cambridge, an MPhil in Economics and Politics from Cambridge, a BA hons in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) from Oxford where he was a Rhodes Scholar.