https://ojs.umt.edu.pk/index.php/eer <p style="text-align: justify;">Empirical Economic Review (EER) is a multidisciplinary journal published by the Department of Economics and Statistics, Dr Hasan Murad School of Management (HSM), University of Management and Technology (UMT) Press, Lahore, Pakistan. EER brings forward the prevailing topics in the fields of economics, finance and public policy simulating a thought-provoking debate leading to an insight of theoretical and empirical research. Within this orientation, the journal provides a focus for theoretical, applied, interdisciplinary, history of thought, and methodological work with a strong emphasis on realistic analysis, the development of critical perspectives, the provision, and use of empirical evidence and construction of policy.</p> Department of Economics and Statistics, Dr. Hasan Murad School of Management (HSM), University of Management and Technology Lahore, Pakistan en-US Empirical Economic Review 2415-0304 <p style="text-align: justify;">EER follow an open-access publishing policy and the full text of all the articles is available free, immediately upon acceptance. Articles are published and distributed under the terms of the <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0">Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License</a>. Thus, work submitted to EER implies that it is original, unpublished work of the authors; neither published previously nor accepted/under consideration for publication elsewhere.&nbsp;On acceptance of a manuscript for publication, the corresponding author on the behalf of all co-authors of the manuscript will to sign and submit a completed Copyright and Author Consent Form.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">The authors will be responsible for any information written/informed/reported in the submitted manuscript. Although we do not require authors to submit the data collection documents and coded sheets used to do quantitative or qualitative analysis, we may request it at any time during the publication process, including after the article has been published. It is the author's responsibility to obtain signed permission from the copyright holder to use and reproduce text, illustrations, tables, etc., published previously in other journals, electronic or print media.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Conflict of interest statements will be published at the end of the article. If no conflict of interest exists, the following sentence will be used: "The authors declare no conflict of interest." Authors are required to disclose any sponsorship or funding received from any institution relating to their research. The editor(s) will determine what disclosures, if any, should be available to the readers.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Authors are not permitted to post the work on any website/blog/forum/board or at any other place, by any means, from the time such work is submitted to UMT journals until the final decision on the paper has been given to them. In case a paper is accepted for publication, the authors may not post the work in its entirety on any website/blog/forum/board or at any other place, by any means, till the paper is published in UMT Journals.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">The authors may, however, post the title, author’s names and their affiliations and abstract, with the following statement on the first page of the paper - "The manuscript has been accepted for publication in UMT Journals". After the publication of the article, it may be posted anywhere with full journal citation included and it is encouraged by EER to do relevant efforts for dissemination of research.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">All articles published in UMT journals are open-access articles, published and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits reproduction, distribution, derives and commercial use, provided the original work is properly cited and authors and the publisher is properly identified.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">All authors who send their manuscripts to UMT Journals and whose articles are published will retain full copyright of their articles. Notwithstanding this, the author(s) grant UMT Journal(s), its editors, publishers, owners and other persons associated and other users/readers, a license to use the article as described in the License Agreement section below. In the future, UMT may reproduce printed copies of articles in any form. Without prejudice to the terms of the license given below, we reserve the right to reproduce the author's articles in this way.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Licencing Agreement</strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">The EER follows the licensing agreements by Creative Common Attribution 4.0, which indicates that:</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Share -</strong>copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Adapt- </strong>remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Author E-prints</strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">UMT supports a range of author benefit policies with respect to providing authors with an e-print and the opportunity to purchase offprints. E-prints are sent out automatically to the corresponding authors of articles published ahead of print and in print issues. A link is provided allowing the author to download the article directly from the UMT journals website and forward the link onto their co-authors. Please refer to the manuscript submission guidelines for the policy of the journal in which you are interested in submitting or publishing your article.&nbsp;</p> https://ojs.umt.edu.pk/index.php/eer/article/view/2263 <p>The current study aimed to investigate the relationship between<br>agricultural exports and environmental quality in developing countries<br>over the time period of 2002 to 2021. Using panel data regression analysis,<br>the study tested the impact of agricultural exports on ecological footprint<br>(EF) of cropland. Both, EF of cropland production and consumption were<br>used to investigate the Pollution Haven Hypothesis (PHH), Pollution Halo<br>Hypothesis, and the theory of ecological unequal exchange (EUE). The<br>results showed that agricultural exports significantly contribute to EF of<br>cropland in developing countries, providing the evidence in favor of PHH.<br>Furthermore, the study also found some evidence of ecological unequal<br>exchange since agricultural exports were observed to increase the EF of<br>cropland production, however, they did not affect the EF of consumption<br>in developing countries. The study highlighted the need for suitable<br>agricultural practices, eco-friendly policies, and international cooperation<br>to mitigate the environmental impacts of agricultural exports in<br>developing countries.</p> Sheeza Ramzan Bhutta Ayesha Ashraf Mehvish Shafiq ##submission.copyrightStatement## http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 2025-12-30 2025-12-30 01 13 10.29145/eer.82.01 https://ojs.umt.edu.pk/index.php/eer/article/view/2262 <p>Service exports play an important role in Pakistan’s economy and its valuable foreign exchange while showcasing the country’s strengths in sectors like information technology, finance, and tourism. They support economic diversification, generate employment opportunities, and enhance Pakistan’s competitiveness worldwide. This study discovers the link between digital technology adoption and Pakistan’s service exports. A key contribution is the development of a Digital Economy Development Index (DEDI) for the period of 1993–2023, highlighting the country’s digitalization trends and their connection with service export performance. Using the ARDL approach, it studies the impact of digital economy development (DEDI), financial depth, domestic lending and the real effective exchange rate on Pakistan’s service exports. The results disclose that DEDI has a positive and significant long run effect on service exports, underscoring the critical role of digital transformation in improving trade performance. In contrast, financial depth shows a negative and significant long-term impact, indicating slow adaptation within the financial sector in supporting service trade. Domestic lending to the private sector has an insignificant bearing on services exports in both the long term and the short term whereas the REER has a positive significant effect in the short term. The study recommends advancing the digital economy and digital infrastructure to strengthen Pakistan’s service exports by increasing connectivity for companies engaged in service exports by investing in high-speed internet, effective data centers, and cloud computing infrastructure. Moreover, enhancing financial policies, credit access and implementing comprehensive training programs for digital upskilling to thrive in the digital economy is needed.</p> <p><br><br></p> . Samia Uzma Zia Saud Ahmad Khan ##submission.copyrightStatement## http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 2025-12-30 2025-12-30 14 32 10.29145/eer.82.02 https://ojs.umt.edu.pk/index.php/eer/article/view/2116 <p>This research looks at how economic policy has affected the paths of Middle Eastern countries from 1950 to 2000 in the light of severe oil price changes, political upheaval and recurrent instability. The research using three key development lenses, structural transformation, rentier-state theory and institutional economics, demonstrates their analytical relevance in the study. Oil revenues gave economies more power but also exposed them to more volatility. Also, recurring wars and persistent political instability imposed heavy and long-lasting economic and social costs on these countries. Countries that strengthened their institutions and sought real diversification were better able to absorb shocks and maintain growth over time. The study employs a balanced panel for seven economies, and uses history and econometrics to test these propositions. The analysis uses well-known macroeconomic measures which are growth, unemployment and inflation. Also included are measures of oil income, intensity of conflict, and quality of governance. Evidence from fixed-effects and difference-in-differences models supported by interaction terms and instrumental-variable checks suggests that while oil windfalls may induce an initial growth spurt, in the longer run, they make countries more vulnerable. Similarly, while conflict may have an instantaneous negative growth effect, in the longer run, conflict depresses growth. On the other hand, enhancing institutional quality significantly multiplies the capacity of states to manage volatility and support recovery. According to the findings, the policy agenda should focus on building stronger institutions while managing realistic diversification and fiscal management system. So, it should have the capability of smoothing commodity cycle issues. Further, it remains highly relevant to the region while the world is gradually moving toward a post-oil world economy.</p> Basima kzar Hasan Sakna Jahiya Faraj ##submission.copyrightStatement## http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 2025-12-30 2025-12-30 33 62 10.29145/eer.82.03 https://ojs.umt.edu.pk/index.php/eer/article/view/2172 <p>Despite being socially disapproved and contradictory to the cultural and religious values, the practice of cross dressing is in vogue in Pakistani society. This qualitative research study aimed at in-depth exploration of phenomenon of Male-to-Female (MTF) cross dressing as well as its socio-economic implications for the family life of cross dressers. The study also intended to explore factors consequential to the raising trend of MTF cross dressing in Pakistani society. The study was conducted in twin cities i.e. Islamabad and Rawalpindi. A sample of twenty (20) MTF cross dressers was selected through purposive sampling technique. Interview guide was used as a tool of data collection. The collected data was analyzed through thematic analysis. Findings of the study revealed that inspiration &amp; role modeling, peer group influence, amusement &amp; entertainment, non-satisfaction with the gender identity and economic miseries were some major causative factors consequential to the MTF cross dressing. The findings also divulged that dual gender performance has severe socio-economic repercussions including migration, non-acceptance by the family &amp; society, Non availability of favorable work conditions, stigmatization &amp; victimization, facing discriminatory attitude, physical &amp; sexual assault, sense of deprivation regarding rights, social security as well as economic issues. Dual gender performance has also strong negative influence on the family life of cross dressers. The study recommends that it is need of the hour to develop a mechanism of registration &amp; certification for the real trans-people through their medical checkup so that effective policies, based on actual trans-population, may be formulated for the welfare of transgender community as well as to protect &amp; safeguard their fundamental human rights.</p> Ibad Ullah Sajid Raja Imran Sajid Adeela Rehman Abubakar Nazeer Chaudhary ##submission.copyrightStatement## http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 2025-12-30 2025-12-30 62 85 10.29145/eer.82.04