Economic Dialogue: International Journal of Policy and Practice (EDIJPP) is a fully open access journal published by the Department of Economics, Virtual University of Pakistan. • All content is freely available to readers, researchers, institutions, and the public without subscription fees. • There are not any article processing charges (APCs). All publication costs are fully covered by the Virtual University of Pakistan as part of its commitment to advancing scholarly research in public management and operations. • Articles are published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), permitting unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited. • The journal is archived and indexed in the Virtual University’s institutional repository and other academic databases to ensure long-term visibility and preservation.