Trade Openness, Institutions and Industrial Growth in Pakistan: An Application of Bayer and Hanck Cointegration Test

Abstract

Per Capita Income and productivity of industrial sector are very low in developing nations including Pakistan as compared to developed nations. Three reasons have been mentioned in the literature for this difference; geographical differences, role of international trade and the quality of institutions.This study examines the short run and long run impacts of trade openness, and quality of institutions, on the growth of industrial sector of Pakistan, using time series data over the period of 1984-2013.TheCobb- Douglas production function has been augmented by adding quality of institutions, trade openness, and financial development variables to probe their impacts on the industrial growth. The most recently developed combined cointegration technique by Bayer and Hanck (2013) has been usedto check the cointegration among the variables. Long run empirical results show that trade openness, and quality of institutions positively contributes to the growth of industrial sector. These resultssuggest that better quality and well-functioning of the institutions is a pre requisites to boost the foreign trade, and the growth of industrial sector of Pakistan. Keywords: Trade Openness, Institutions, Industrial Growth, Pakistan