The Impact of Rice Import Policy on Community Economic Welfare in East Java

This study aims to identify policies, levels of imports, production and consumption in East Java, to analyze the impact of rice import tariff policies on production and consumption and also the community welfare changes in East Java. The data that used in this study are secondary data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), BULOG, and other research. The method of analysis uses the 2SLS simultaneous equation and the economic surplus simulation. The results showed that from 2004 to 2018, East Java always had a higher rice production rate than the consumption, but still continued to do rice import to maintain price stabilization. The simulation of a tariff increase causes an increase in production and a decrease in consumption, and vice versa. Liberalization of the rice trade (tariff exemption) has led to greater economic welfare, but from a distribution point of view, producers receive a smaller surplus than consumers, which means that the benefit distribution aspect of government policies is not realized, so the government must pay more attention to producer surpluses and consumer surpluses without much disadvantage one of the parties.

Theological Revolution and the Idea of Equality

The transition in Europe from a predominantly agricultural society dominated by a landed aristocracy to an emerging commercial one with an expanding bourgeoisie gave birth to a reformulated expression of Christianity whose doctrines could better legitimate the new institutions and practices of commercial society. Whereas Catholicism provided an ideology that justified the landlords’ capture of economic surplus, Protestantism legitimated the emerging bourgeoisie’s ability to do the same. Protestantism’s privileging of work and asceticism afforded social respectability to the bourgeoisie and ideological support for its capturing a share of society’s surplus. It gave legitimacy to the harsh social treatment of a rising class of wage workers who had been separated from any ownership, control, or ready access to the means of production. Protestantism served as a transitional religion between a traditional agricultural world dominated by Catholic doctrine and a more modern commercial one dominated by secular thought.

Banking on the Underworld. A Strictly Economic Appreciation of the Chinese Practice of Burning (Token) Money

The custom of burning mock-money as a symbolic offering of nutrients and sustenance to one's ancestors in the Afterlife is here analysed in terms of its economic meaning and significance. The theme is treated from two different angles. One is that of the political economy of the gift, which concerns itself with the final uses to which society conveys its economic surplus. The other is that of monetary institutionalism, which seeks to understand what the practice itself actually represents in light of the monetary arrangements that rule the economic exchange within the community itself. The thesis is that, at a first remove, the custom appears to fall into the category of “wasteful expenditure,” in that it is not manifestly conducive to any augmentation of the system's efficiency. But on a subtler level, it is not precisely so for two orders of reasons. First, because the custom is habitually accompanied by subsidiary donations; second, because, in this donative moment, the custom importantly reveals, through its conversion of real cash into “sacrificial” token-money, a constitutive yet hidden, property of money, namely its perishability.

Method of assessing the economic availability of fish products to ensure food security

Продовольственная безопасность помимо прочего означает доступность продуктов питания для всех членов общества. Исходя из этого, одна из задач управления продовольственной безопасностью состоит в обеспечении такого режима функционирования рыночного механизма, при котором достигается баланс между спросом и предложением продовольствия на уровне общественно приемлемых норм его потребления. Целью статьи является совершенствование технологии и инструментов управления продовольственной безопасностью РФ в той их части, которая предназначена для оценки состояния и разработки мероприятий по повышению экономической доступности рыбных товаров. Методология исследования базируется на сочетании теоретических положений концепции благосостояния и микроэкономического анализа. В работе исследуются закономерности спроса на рыбные товары, служащие оценке их доступности с позиции частного и общего благосостояния. Для этого используется модель расчета экономического излишка потребителя, позволяющая в явном виде оценивать экономическую доступность рыбных товаров. На основании полученных результатов предлагаются возможные направления принятия управленческих решений в сфере продовольственной безопасности, нацеленные на повышение доступности рыбных товаров. Food security means the availability of food for everyone in society, among other things. Therefore, one of the goals of food security management is to ensure the functioning of the market mechanism, when a balance is achieved between the demand and supply of food and a socially acceptable level of its consumption is ensured.. The purpose of the paper is to develop food security management tools in the Russian Federation designed to assess the state and develop recommendations for improving the economic availability of fish products. The research methodology is based on a combination of the concept of welfare and microeconomic analysis, when economic accessibility is characterized by certain market parameters. The paper examines models of demand for fish products, which then serve to assess accessibility from the point of view of private and general welfare using the model of economic surplus. The obtained results allowed us to propose directions for making managerial decisions in the field of food security aimed at increasing the availability of fish products.

Social-Costs Perspective Impacts of Cybercrime in World-Economy, Country-Wise: Policy-Guidance under Piecemeal Approach

Today’s technology-driven human-society(s) country-wise are counted more than ever before where UAE-society is no exception. Tech-users here compete for comparative time-saving options for marginalizing operating costs. It has resulted in huge data usages, a high number of users & devices, which has attracted criminals for taking advantage, which is called cybercrime. Addressing cybercrime, the UAE, like many countries, is not out of control by-laws. However, laws like cybercrime for its society are not always for absolutely eliminating the crime. Thus, besides cybercrime law in place, UAE needs a piecemeal approach in practice where one department may vary from approaches of other-department. With awareness about risky online behaviors & options, tech-users as defenders are needed to invest their efforts. This study has laid out the foundation of the proposal, Akim’s Model-2021, using the Theory of Consumer Choice & Behaviors and Welfare Analysis. Tech-user’s actual utility-received is the sum of utility-received from awareness & own-effort and utility-received from cybercrime-law. Any changes to services received from joint efforts may risk tech-user, to be a victim. Welfare analysis shows tech user's actions - awareness & own-effort, besides cybercrime-law can create, Net Social-gain, which largely depends on tech user's actions. Tech-user’s economic surplus is greater than government expenses for implementation of cybercrime law in UAE. Net-loss to the UAE is the sum of deadweight loss and net-loss to tech producers for underutilized resources.

The Battle over Patents

Do patents facilitate or frustrate innovation? Lawyers, economists, and politicians who have staked out strong positions in this debate often attempt to validate their claims by invoking the historical record—but they typically get the history wrong. The purpose of this book is to get the history right by showing that patent systems are the product of contending interests at different points in production chains battling over economic surplus. The larger the potential surplus, the more extreme are the efforts of contending parties, now and in the past, to search out, generate, and exploit any and all sources of friction. Patent systems, as human creations, are therefore necessarily ridden with imperfections; nirvana is not on the menu. The most interesting intellectual issue is not how patent systems are imperfect, but why historically US-style patent systems have come to dominate all other methods of encouraging inventive activity. The answer offered by the essays in this volume is that they create a temporary property right that can be traded in a market, thereby facilitating a productive division of labor and making it possible for firms to transfer technological knowledge to one another by overcoming the free-rider problem. Precisely because the value of a patent does not inhere in the award itself but rather in the market value of the resulting property right, patent systems foster a decentralized ecology of inventors and firms that ceaselessly extends the frontiers of what is economically possible.

Introduction: The Battle over the Surplus from Innovation

Do patents facilitate or frustrate innovation? Our starting point for exploring this question is the recognition that patent systems are products of battles over the economic surplus created by innovation. The features of these systems take shape as contending interests at different points in the production chain seek advantage in any way they can, and consequently they are riven with imperfections. The most interesting intellectual issue is not how patent systems are imperfect, but why historically US-style patent systems with all their imperfections have come to dominate other methods of encouraging inventive activity. The essays that follow this introduction suggest that the creation of a tradable but temporary property right facilitates the transfer of technological knowledge and thus fosters a highly productive decentralized ecology of inventors and firms.

GLOBAL COVID-19: WHAT ISLAMIC ECONOMIC AND FINANCE CAN DO? INDONESIA EXPERIENCE

Pandemic of COVID-19 has shocked and spread all over the world, including Indonesia. This research was conducted with the aim to lay out the role of Islamic economic and finance policies, as well as to propose a number of solutions which could be offered to solve various problems in time of the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia. By using descriptive qualitative approach, this research attempts to analyse various concepts that found in the research process trough content analysis techniques and library research. The results show that within the framework of Islamic economic and finance, some strategies that we can employ to dispose the social impact of COVID-19 such as: (1) distribution of direct cash assistance from zakat and infaq, collected by zakat and other social institutions; (2) strengthening infaq programs for various needs; (3) strengthening waqf programs, including cash waqf for social waqf projects, productive waqf, combination of social-productive waqf, or cash waqf linked sukuk; (4) superior venture capital assistance for the business sectors or Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs); (5) the qardh al-hasan scheme; (6) strengthening MSMEs businesses; (7) improvement of Islamic economic and finance literacy; and (8) the development of Islamic financial technology. If the above programs using Islamic economic and finance instruments could really be encouraged, the economic surplus would be re-established and the acceleration of economic recovery could be realized, while at the same time reducing poverty and supporting the achievement of equitable distribution of income and wealth.

Ex-Ante Evaluation of Economic Impacts of Adopting Improved Forages in the Colombian Orinoquía

Forage-based cattle systems play a key role in rural economies of developing countries in terms of food security and poverty alleviation. However, they can generate negative environmental impacts by contributing to increased greenhouse gas emissions, land degradation, and reduction of biodiversity. As a result of that, large amounts of resources have been allocated to research and development (R&D) in forage material improvement and a broad range of improved materials were released showing superior characteristics in terms of productivity and environmental impacts compared to native or naturalized materials. However, data are still scarce on both the economic and environmental “yields” of investments in R&D activities around improved forage materials. Through an ex-ante evaluation, this study aims at estimating the potential “yields” of the investment in R&D and diffusion activities of the improved forage variety Brachiaria brizantha 26,124 cv. Agrosavia Caporal in the Colombian Orinoquía region. The analysis used two evaluation methodologies: 1) a combined discounted free cash flow model and Monte Carlo simulation using the simulation software @Risk to determine the impact on individual welfare, and 2) an economic surplus model an risk analysis to determine the potential social benefits of the technologies and their distribution among producers and consumers, considering changes in adoption rates, productivity levels and probability of success. The results suggest that the evaluated material presents important economic benefits for the study region and results in a positive return on the investments made in R&D activities. The results are a key input for decision making processes among public and private institutions involved in funding and executing the development of improved forage materials and will help to set research priorities and resource allocation.

The role of Islamic social finance during Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia’s economic recovery

Purpose This study aims to propose Islamic solutions to the Covid-19 health and economic crises, specifically using Islamic social finance (ISF) instruments, including zakat, infaq and waqf. Design/methodology/approach This study applies the qualitative content analysis method, guided by a model of composite approaches of poverty alleviation in Islam, integrated Islamic commercial and social finance (IICSF) and crisis management of Umar bin Khattab, to construct various programs and/or policy actions toward economic recovery in Indonesia. Findings The results show that ISF with its instruments, especially zakat, infaq and waqf could help the government and the economy to recover from the crisis. The proposed solutions include: save lives, including medical assistance using zakat-infaq and health-care waqf using waqf; save households, by creating a social safety net and graduation program using zakat-infaq; save businesses, especially micro-small enterprises (MSEs), through financial and business assistance (especially digital marketing) leveraging zakat-infaq-waqf and save financial institutions, especially micro-small financial institutions, by the development of cash waqf and the adoption of fintech and IICSF, especially in Islamic financial institutions targeting MSEs. Research limitations/implications This study is exploratory in nature, which needs further investigations using more sophisticated qualitative and/or quantitative methods. Practical implications If the above programs using ISF instruments are implemented, the economic surplus would be re-established and the acceleration of economic recovery can be realized. Social implications The successful adoption of ISF could at the same time reduce poverty, accelerate MSEs development and improve equitable well-being. Originality/value The Covid-19 pandemic has caused health, economic and social problems, which must be solved holistically, including ISF within IICSF.