Real Exchange Rates and Primary Commodity Prices: Mussa Meets Backus-Smith

We show that explicitly modeling primary commodities in an otherwise totally standard incomplete markets open economy model can go a long way in explaining the Mussa puzzle and the Backus-Smith puzzle, two of the main puzzles in the international economics literature.

Shifting the paradigms in waqf economics: towards renewed focus on socioeconomic development

PurposeThis paper critically reviews and analyzes the trends in waqf studies within the Islamic economics literature. It analyzes the recent developments and debates in waqf reform and advances the argument for prioritizing research on waqf economics; the waqf dimension that is concerned with modelling how to utilize it to enhance productivity, consumption, redistribution, investment and saving, and generally contribute sustainably towards poverty reduction, economic empowerment and development.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is conceptual in nature, focusing on a systematic historical analytical review of waqf studies in Islamic economics literature.FindingsDespite the documented historic role of waqf in constructing the Muslim socio-economic architecture as the third economic sector and a mechanism for civilizational development and renewal, it received little attention in the early writings on modern Islamic economics. While the past one decade has witnessed a renewed interest in waqf research, most studies focus on its legal, juristic and administrative aspects in addition to the nostalgic reflections on its past glories. Little attention is comparatively given to the socio-economic aspect, which represents the actual raison d’être for its institutionalization.Practical implicationsAn important task ahead of the current generation of Islamic economists is to formulate waqf-based development models that are rooted in proper diagnosis and deep understanding of the current socio-economic realities of the OIC member countries for the purpose of uplifting living standards and stimulating sustainable socio-economic development.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the debate on priorities in waqf studies and practice and can trigger further discourses and research on the future of research in waqf economics.

Organizational Design: Culture and Incentives

Why do some organizations perform so much better than others, and often persistently so? While the economics literature traditionally emphasizes the importance of incentives, other social sciences focus on the role of organizational culture. Yet very little is known about how an organization's incentive structure and its culture jointly shapes its performance. This paper therefore develops a formal model of how an organization's incentives and culture interact. The model offers a unified explanation for a variety of empirical phenomena, including why an organization's culture can be difficult to change and why there can be persistent performance differences across companies even when they have access to the same technology and resources.

Valuing plant genetic resources in genebanks: Past, present and future

Though the intrinsic value to society of plant genetic resources conserved in genebanks may be recognized, assigning a cardinal value to them remains elusive. This chapter summarises the main messages from applied economics literature on genebank values that began in the late 1990s, a recent set of studies undertaken by the CGIAR Genebank Platform and Crop Diversity Trust, and assessments of national genebanks. Three points are salient: the value of information; the demand for a diversity of approaches to document the diversity of ways that genebanks benefit society; and the need to establish priorities for collecting and conservation based on cost-effectiveness. Cost-effectiveness will require a) carefully targeted investments in characterization, evaluation, and genotyping, along with management of the resulting data, and its use to develop packages of breeder- and researcher-oriented materials, and b) investment in supportive research and various organizational optimization procedures, including automation.

De la littérature comme économie du plaisir

First examined from the point of view of economics, Literature is part of the bookindustry, the words “production” and “consumption” defining the relationship between the authors (assisted by publishers, printers, booksellers…), and the readers, whose pleasure is the final cause of the trade. But if we limit our outlook to the book in itself, it is still legitimate, considering for instance the “economy” of a narrative or of a poem, to speak of the management of the pleasure of reading, which runs from incitation to orgasm, as in a psychoanalysis of fire. It remains to ask if the sexual model may be pertinently applied to the type of gratification derived from reading. Should not we, instead, resort to the concept of sublimation to better understand reading as it is praised by Society in its valorization of socially useful activities?

Evaluating Mergers and Divestitures: A Casino Case Study

Despite frequent use in practice, merger remedies receive little attention in the economics literature. We analyze the 2013 merger of two casino operators and the subsequent divestiture of one St. Louis casino. Using public data from the Missouri Gaming Commission, we employ a difference-in-difference framework with other Missouri casinos as the control group to estimate separate effects of the merger and divestiture on each St. Louis casino. Results indicate the merged firm benefited from efficiencies, resulting in lower prices and higher quantity; however, the divested casino performed worse than before the merger. Synthetic control estimates confirm these results. This study raises questions about whether to assess remedies by the performance of the divested asset or the consumer welfare of the entire merger. It also raises questions regarding remedy endogeneity: do firms face incentives to offer declining assets? Both have applicability beyond this case, supporting the need for further research. (JEL L1, L4)