Institutional Challenges of Economic Reforms: Tunisia during Democratic Transition

This paper focuses on the challenges of economic reform in post-revolution Tunisia. It underlines the importance of a mixed approach between political economy (positive) and normative economic analysis to implement an effective public policy reform agenda. The post-revolution situation underlines the need for a progressive consensual reform strategy to preserve the interests of different groups and overcome political and legislative polarization. Building an effective reform system in Tunisia will mean improving institutional public administration capacities, enhancing government leadership, and building an effective system of coordination, evaluation, and follow up.

IMPLEMENTATION OF NORMATIVE ECONOMY ON BUSINESS ACTIVITY IN THE PERIOD OF RASULULLAH SAW

Nowadays not all entrepreneurs implement the concept of normative economy in conducting their business activity, particularly Muslim entrepreneurs which it relates to Islamic Economic Principle. The purpose of this article is to analyze the implementation of normative economy on business activity in the period of Rasulullah SAW. This article uses qualitative methods with the analysis of literacy study approach. The result of this paper shows that Prophet Muhammad SAW has carried out business activities based on normative economic concepts that emphasize ethics in conducting business. As the Prophet said; I have been sent to perfect the moral standard, narrated by Abu Hurairah. The conclusion of this article is that ethics is a principal aspect in business since according to Islam those economic activities cannot be separated from ethics. Thus, it is essential for Muslim entrepreneur to implement ethics on their business activity.

Application of V. Pareto’s economic efficiency criterion in Russian judicial practice

The purpose of the research is to justify the productivity of the application of one of the two most common criteria of economic efficiency (V. Pareto principle) in Russian judicial practice. Justification is carried out by identifying the content of the Pareto criterion, assessing examples of its application by Russian courts and determining the conditions and limitations of such application. The methodological basis of work was the formal-legal method, which allowed to analyze the texts of judicial decisions on the use by the court of normative economic analysis of law; the comparative method, which was used to compare the theoretical foundations and practical features of the criterion of economic efficiency by the Russian judiciary. The results of the research were the author’s conclusions about the applicability of the Pareto criterion in the Russian reality and the formulation of the most likely areas of its use by the courts. Law as an object of scientific knowledge cannot be studied in isolation from its social, cultural, political and economic assumptions, as it is a central tool by which the state affects the economic well-being of society. To improve the practice of using this tool, it seems necessary to evaluate it from the standpoint of economic efficiency. In this regard, the further vector of evolution of Russian law will be more and more active use of methodological developments of economic theory, the application of the economic analysis of law developed in the United States in law enforcement practice. This leads to the need for interdisciplinary research on the conceptual and practical problems of using this direction in Russia. The novelty of the research lies in a comprehensive approach, to the problem of applicability of normative economic analysis of law in the judicial practice of the Russian Federation.

Rational Curiosity and Information-Seeking in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Curiosity is a powerful determinant of behavior. The past decade has seen a surge of scientific research on curiosity, an endeavor recently imbibed with urgency by the WHO, which set managing information-seeking as a public health goal during pandemics. And yet, a fundamental aspect of curiosity has remained unresolved: its relationship to utility. Is curiosity a drive towards information simply for the sake of obtaining that information, or is it a rational drive towards optimal learning? We leveraged people’s curiosity about COVID-19 to study information-seeking and learning in a large sample (n=5376) during the spring of 2020. Our findings reveal that curiosity is goal-rational in that it maximizes the personal utility of learning. Personal utility, unlike normative economic utility, is contingent on a person’s motivational state. On the basis of these findings, we explain information-seeking during the pandemic with a rational theoretical framework for curiosity.

THIRD CENTURY ISLAMIC ECONOMIC THOUGHTS YAHYA BIN UMAR AND AHMAD BIN HANBAL III H / 9 M

This article discusses the history of economic thought in the third century. Islam has provided all the guidelines or guidelines for humans to live in the world, both morally and economically. One of the most important economic activities that Islam promotes is the Qur'anic trade, and the hadith explains much about the profession. Where business is essential for the survival of humankind as civilization progresses on the surface of the earth, especially in the field of commerce where every trader competes for profit. Unfortunately, as the civilization of the traders begins to do everything to profit without regard to the rules laid down in the Shari'ah, One of the ways traders can benefit from unhealthy habits is to practice Siyasah al-Ighraq (dumping). And the people who talk about this are Yahya Bin Umar and Ahmad Bin Hanbal. The method in this study is library research aimed at studying the concept of a legal matter, using descriptive-analytical methods, normative-economic, and sociological approaches. The results show that the focus of Yahya bin Umar's attention is on the market rules that are reflected in the discussion of the bag (pricing). Implementation of prices (al-tas'ir) is a dominant theme in the book of Ahkam al-Suq, the author of the book, Imam Yahya bin Umar, repeatedly discussing it in various places. Apparently, he wants to say that price existence is an essential thing in a transaction and neglecting it can cause damage to people's lives. Related to this. Yahya bin Umar argues that al-tas'ir (pricing) cannot be done. Likewise, with Imam Ahmad, he criticized buyers who bought other people's goods at the same time. A seller who loses his price will monopolize the commodity, and if there is no competition, he can give it whatever he wants. Be more careful when making decisions. Imam Ahmad requested that such cases be remedied to avoid monopoly and other unpleasant practices.

Analysis of the Key Factors for Successful Public Policy Implementation: A Qualitative Study in Slovenia

This paper analyses the role and significance of the selected factors for the successful design and implementation of public policies in Slovenia and more broadly. Based on structured interviews and content analysis of the responses, we investigated the impact of predefined factors (i.e. strategic, institutional, normative, economic/financial, methodological/procedural, organisational/human resources/ICT support factors). The aim of the article is to analyse the case of Slovenia, to identify which factors contribute most to the successful design and implementation of public policies, and to provide a basis for comparison with similar countries or systems. The research findings imply several conclusions, particularly strategic factors, which have been identified as the most essential. The other findings are related to the lack of evaluation practice, the discontinuity of and early changes in government, which affect all aspects of policy execution and lead to poor intersectoral collaboration as well as insufficient and ineffective public debate. Not surprisingly, all of the identified hindrances are featured in the pertinent theories as necessary democratic dimensions of contemporary public governance. Contrary to the national context, the EU influence seems to expedite policymaking processes and contribute to the consistency of policies.

Adaptation of utility functions to reward distribution in rhesus monkeys

This study investigated the influence of experienced reward distributions on the shape of utility functions inferred from economic choice. Utility is the hypothetical variable that appears to be maximized by the choice. Despite the generally accepted notion that utility functions are not insensitive to external references, the exact occurrence of such changes remains largely unknown. Here we benefitted from the capacity to perform thorough and extensive experimental tests of one of our evolutionary closest, experimentally viable and intuitively understandable species, the rhesus macaque monkey. Data from thousands of binary choices demonstrated that the animals’ preferences changed dependent on the statistics of recently experienced rewards and adapted to future expected rewards. The elicited utility functions shifted and extended their shape with several months of changes in the mean and range of reward distributions. However, the adaptations were usually not complete, suggesting that past experiences remained present when anticipating future rewards. Through modelling, we found that reinforcement learning provided a strong basis for explaining these adaptations. Thus, rather than having stable and fixed preferences assumed by normative economic models, rhesus macaques flexibly shaped their preferences to optimize decision-making according to the statistics of the environment.

Economic Theory of Criminal Law

Criminal law consists of substantive and procedural parts. Substantive law is the set of rules defining conduct that violates the law. Procedural criminal law is the set of rules regulating the process of punishment. Substantive rules apply mostly to individual actors, and procedural rules apply to public enforcement agencies and adjudicators. Economic theory of criminal law consists of normative and positive parts. Normative economic theory, which began with writings by Beccaria and Bentham, aims to recommend an ideal criminal punishment scheme. Positive economic theory, which appeared later in writings by Holmes and Posner, aims to justify and to better understand the criminal law rules that exist. Since the purpose of criminal law is to deter socially undesirable conduct, economic theory, which emphasizes incentives, would appear to be an important perspective from which to examine criminal law. Positive economic theory, applied to substantive criminal law, seeks to explain and to justify criminal law doctrine in economic terms—that is, in terms that emphasize the incentive effects created by the law. The positive economic theory of criminal law literature can be divided into three phases: Classical deterrence theory, neoclassical deterrence, and modern synthesis. The modern synthesis provides a rationale for fundamental criminal law doctrines and also more puzzling portions of the law such as the doctrines of intent and necessity. Positive economic theory also provides a rationale for the allocation of enforcement responsibilities.