Mr. Muhammad Azeem Qureshi is an Assistant Professor of Finance at Institute of Management Sciences, Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan Pakistan (BZU). After completing his MBA in 1989, he worked for the largest open-end mutual fund of Pakistan, National Investment Trust Limited (NIT), for over seven years managing their long-term investment portfolio. During his stay at NIT he has also earned his banking diploma from Institute of Bankers in Pakistan, a premier professional body of banking in Pakistan. Realizing the importance of research and academia Mr. Qureshi joined BZU in 1997 bringing his rich professional experience to teach courses in corporate finance and investment at MBA level during which he became familiar with systems approach and system dynamics methodology. He then joined M.Phil. Program of University of Bergen (UiB) in 2002 which he completed in 2004 by defending his thesis titled ‘Firm Value Management – A System Dynamics Perspective’. He is currently doing his PhD at UiB.
Mr. Qureshi has presented a number of papers in peer reviewed international conferences. He is also a member of professional bodies like System Dynamics Society, Institute of Bankers in Pakistan, Pakistan Society of Development Economists and Council of Social Sciences Pakistan.
Abstract: Abstract: Purpose â The purpose of this paper is to assess how investment, financing and dividend policies may affect firm value.
Design/methodology/approach â The paper develops a system dynamics-based model by using âfinancial management approach,â âcapital structure approach,â âresource-based approach,â and âsustainable growth approachâ to identify investment, financing and dividend policies that may help maximize the firm value.
Findings â Adequate investment in productive assets is the first step to achieve value maximization objective. Low debt capital structure plays a dominant role to maximize the firm value, contrary to the suggestions generally found in corporate finance literature. Rather insignificant role of firm's short-term financing policy is observed. A consistently stable dividend policy is also a prerequisite of firm value maximization.
Research limitations/implications â The limitations of this study include: the competitors' actions are not modeled; human resources and other intangible resources are not modeled; instead of market debt, debt is assumed to be bank debt. Future studies may bring in the competitors' actions, intangible assets including human resources, and may also consider to model debt as market debt.
Practical implications â The firms operating in favorable product market conditions should keep their operating and financial risks low which will also maximize their firm value. On the other hand, the firms facing unfavorable product market conditions have to make a trade-off to minimize operating risk vs financial risk.
Originality/value â Usually the studies test one policy in isolation. However, this may probably be the first study that simultaneously tests various combinations of investment, financing and dividend policies that may help maximize the firm value.
Abstract: This paper examines the impact of public expenditure on human development in Pakistan. It develops a system dynamics model to estimate population, primary education rate and access to basic health care given exogenous gross domestic product (GDP) and public spending on education and health. It predicts development path of population, primary education and access to basic health care. The results show that high economic growth may not result into better human development indicators. On the contrary, high spending on education and health will improve human development indicators even if the economy grows at a relatively lower rate. It suggests a threshold of 3% of sustained economic growth rate as a pre-requisite to plan for human development in Pakistan. With that in place this paper suggests anchoring of public policy to human development by allocating more public funds for human development.
Abstract: The positive relationship between education and sustainable economic development is now widely recognized. This study develops a dynamic model for population and primary education of Pakistan. Education sector in Pakistan is operating in both public and private sectors. Financial allocations, believed to be instrumental for universal primary education, by public sector are available to some extent from different publicly available sources while the same by private sector are not. Based on its assumptions this study estimates private sector investment in primary education sector in Pakistan, predicts development path of its population and literacy, and suggests financial policy to meet the challenge faced by Pakistan to achieve universal primary education by 2015.
