Economics - Research Publications
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ItemNo Preview AvailableThe Doha agenda and development prospects for intellectual property rights reform(Asian Development Bank, 2002)At the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference in Doha, a number of key declarations were made that will directly impact the operation of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). These declarations perform a multidimensional function: clarifying and reiterating existing rights and obligations, as well as setting out a negotiating agenda. By providing clarity on a number of critical issues, the Doha Ministerial Conference attempted to clear the way for future work on TRIPS. Overall, the Doha Declarations with respect to the TRIPS Agreement are seen as a major step for developing (and particularly the least developed) countries towards securing flexibility in the use of intellectual property rights (IPRs), especially with respect to public health issues. Specifically, the Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health helps to ensure that in situations where a national emergency has to be dealt with, the set of options is not limited by the architecture of international IPRs. More generally, it reiterates the ability of countries to interpret the TRIPS Agreement in a way that is beneficial to them or reflective of their needs. The right to exercise flexibility over IPRs has historically been available to countries during their industrializing phase. While the TRIPS Agreement does limit the flexibility a country has, much work has attempted to emphasize the scope for discretion a country has in the design of its IPR system. The results of the Doha Ministerial Conference can be seen as an attempt to further stress the flexibility within the TRIPS Agreement.
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ItemIndonesian Islamic banking in historical and legal context(The Federation Press, 1999)Since its emergence in the 1960s, Islamic banking has emerged as a new trend in the field of international finance. Despite its popularity throughout the Muslim world, many are still unsure as to what exactly Islamic banking involves. This article from the book Law and Society in Indonesia explores critical questions such as who the Muslim thinkers and movements are that have influenced the development of Islamic banking as we know it today, with its strong emphasis on interest-free banking; when Islamic banks first started to appear in the modern era; and how it was that the Islamic concept of riba (usury) came to be understood as interest, thus providing the raison d’être for much of today’s Islamic banking industry. It also explores the theory of profit and loss sharing as the basis of Islamic banking, and the aspects of this theory which are put into practice in the day-to-day reality of Islamic commercial banking. Using the case study of Bank Muamalat Indonesia (BMI), Indonesia's first major Islamic bank, this article also examines the rise of Islamic banking in Indonesia. In particular, it discusses BMI’s rise and establishment as a competitive player in Indonesia's commercial sector. The case of BMI is explored in the light of earlier discussions of the broader historical and legal context of Islamic thinking and the rise of modern theories of ‘Islamic banking’.
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ItemRethinking citizenship rights of non-Muslims in an Islamic state: Rashid al-Ghannushi's contribution to the evolving debate( 1999)Of interest to Islamists of the twentieth century has been the question of minority rights in an Islamic state and of how non-Muslim minorities should be treated: in particular, should they enjoy equal citizenship rights and responsibilities with Muslims? Traditional Islamic law did not accord equal rights to non-Muslim protected minorities (ahl al-dhimma), placing Muslims above them in several key areas. Notwithstanding the law, however, early Muslim rulers exercised some pragmatic discretion according to the imperatives of their day. With the Islamic revival of the twentieth century, the traditional view has been adopted by several Muslim thinkers and leaders, though the traditional view is at odds with the concept of the nation-state. The nation-state is built on a secular premise, with no single religious group favoured over another. Within this context, a number of Muslim thinkers have attempted to reinterpret the traditionally held view of ‘citizenship rights’. This article will focus on the contribution of one such thinker, the Tunisian Islamist Rashid al-Ghannushi, who espouses somewhat ‘liberal’ views on the issue and argues for rethinking on a number of related aspects. Commencing with some background to the problem, the article explores the issue of citizenship rights as espoused by Ghannushi and notes the key importance of the concept of justice as their basis, in his view. Specific rights examined are: freedom of belief, including for Muslims who wish to change their religion; the holding of public office by non-Muslims; equal treatment for Muslims and non-Muslims in terms of fiscal duties and benefits. Throughout his arguments, Ghannushi emphasizes justice as central to the issue, and as the basis of interpreting and developing related rules and laws. Although Ghannushi’s views are not entirely new, he goes well beyond what has been acceptable in Islamic law, and his contribution should be considered important in the efforts at rethinking Islamic law in this area.
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ItemThe need to rethink apostasy laws(Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2004)Recent high-profile cases and a number of Muslim scholars affirming the death penalty for apostasy have brought the issue of the pre-modern Islamic law of apostasy (riddah) back to the fore. Once largely ignored, apostasy is today vigorously debated among Muslims. The Qur’anic concept of non-coercion in religion was interpreted narrowly by pre-modern Islamic scholars, and excluded the right to convert away from Islam. In this chapter from the book Freedom of Religion, Apostasy and Islam, Saeed observes that this was a reasonable conclusion in the pre-modern context, when religious identity was enmeshed with political affiliation, and a person’s rights flowed from their membership of the religio-political entity. In the modern world, however, the author argues that there is ample reason to re-think these conclusions. Today, most Muslim nation-states recognize equal citizenship regardless of religion and are highly diverse. Large numbers of Muslims live as minorities in non-Muslim countries. Further, the death penalty for apostasy has weak textual support in the classical sources. The reaffirmation of pre-modern laws developed for different circumstances is unhelpful in the modern period. Pre-modern formulations of apostasy are particularly open to abuse in states which are authoritarian in nature, a feature of many Muslim states today. Moreover, the phenomenon of globalisation will mean more intensive linkages and mixes of people from different backgrounds. There is a need for an idea of religious freedom in Islam that accords with modern realities. Saeed argues that the weak textual basis of the law of apostasy and the greatly differing religio-political context of modern period are strong justifications for embarking on the task of reforming this law.
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ItemAn employment equation for Australia: 1966-2001( 2004-01)We model the relationship between hours of work and employment and argue thatunless actual hours are varying with a change in ‘standard hours’, actual hours shouldnot appear in the long-run component of an equation for employment. If howeverstandard hours are changing then it is desirable that this variable be incorporated intothe employment equation. Our theoretical model yields an expression for the elasticityof employment with respect to standard hours which shows that the elasticity isrelated to the size of the premium for overtime. Using quarterly data for the period1966:3 – 2001:3 we estimate a new employment equation for Australia incorporatingstandard hours of work. We find empirical support for our approach and we providenew estimates of the elasticity of employment with respect to the real wage and GDP.We also find a marked asymmetry in the response of employment to variations in realGDP and real wages in recession periods as against non-recession periods.
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ItemBudget balance and trade balance: kin or strangers. A case study of Taiwan( 2004-01)In line with the deterioration of Taiwanese budget deficits, the trade surplus has alsodecreased. It is the ideal time to investigate the relationship between budget balances andtrade balances. Unit root tests, cointegration tests, Granger causality tests and the VARsmodel are techniques used to test the Keynesian proposition and the Ricardianequivalence. The main findings are that Keynesian proposition is supported only by themodel using data of the whole period. There is no support for the Ricardian equivalence.That budget balances and trade balances being kin or strangers varies over periods of dataused.
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ItemModels with two or more public goods(Department of Economics, The University of Melbourne, 2004)
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ItemStochastic growth with nonconvexities: the optimal case( 2004-02)This paper studies optimal investment and dynamicbehaviour of stochastically growing economies. We assume neitherconvex technology nor bounded support of the productivity shocks.A number of basic results concerning the investment policy and theRamsey–Euler equation are established. We also prove a fundamentaldichotomy pertaining to optimal growth models perturbedby standard econometric shocks: Either an economy is globallystable or it is globally collapsing to the origin.
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ItemAsymptotic statistical properties of the neoclassical optimal growth model( 2004-02)The standard one-sector stochastic optimal growthmodel is shown to be not just ergodic but geometrically ergodic.In addition, it is proved that the time series generated by the optimalpath satisfy the Law of Large Numbers and the Central LimitTheorem.