Halal Certification for Financial Products: A Transaction Cost Perspective

We argue that although halal certification could potentially reduce the high transaction costs related to buying Islamic financial products, in practice these costs are just replaced by transaction costs relating to the certification itself. It takes considerable time (2–3 months) and money (USD 122.000) to obtain a halal certification. Partially, this is because the market is highly concentrated and non-contestable. About 20 individual Sharia scholars control more than half the market, with the top 3 earning an estimated USD 4.5 million in fees per year. Moreover, this market seems plagued with problems, most notably a strong incentive for excessively lenient certification, lack of consensus on what is considered halal and sub-standard governance practices. We discuss solutions to these problems and conclude that a neutral non-profit government entity should assume the role of halal certifiers.     

Retrospective and prospective views about the future of the multinational enterprise

This paper reflects upon Buckley and Casson's seminal volume The Future of the Multinational Enterprise (1976). Retrospectively, it examines the reasons for the impact of The Future on research in international business, on the one hand, while it reviews the merit of the different chapters in today's economic environment. The paper subsequently also introduces some prospective views on the use of internalization theory, which are elaborated upon in the other papers in this issue.     

论企业适合、适时、适度多元化

多元化经营是企业扩大经营规模、规避经营风险，追求协同效应的重要战略选择。但近几年来，我国许多朝阳企业却因盲目涉及多元化而改走麦城，一蹶不振，本文经过充分论证，提出企业采取多元低级战略应注意适合、适时、适度的问题。     

Comparison of solutions to the incomplete markets model with aggregate uncertainty

This paper compares numerical solutions to the model of Krusell and Smith [1998. Income and wealth heterogeneity in the macroeconomy. Journal of Political Economy 106, 867–896] generated by different algorithms. The algorithms have very similar implications for the correlations between different variables. Larger differences are observed for (i) the unconditional means and standard deviations of individual variables, (ii) the behavior of individual agents during particularly bad times, (iii) the volatility of the per capita capital stock, and (iv) the behavior of the higher-order moments of the cross-sectional distribution. For example, the two algorithms that differ the most from each other generate individual consumption series that have an average (maximum) difference of 1.63% (11.4%).     

粮农增收与粮食安全

粮食安全和粮农增收是中央政府、专家学者们关注的两个重大现实问题。但是解决这两个问题却会陷入一个两难选择境地。确保粮食安全会影响粮农增收,促进粮农稳定增收又会影响粮食安全。文章认为,这个两难选择根源于粮食生产的社会效益与个人经济效益、宏观经济目标与微观经济要求、产区提供粮食安全与销区享受粮食安全、粮食产区的生产义务与国家扶持义务之间的矛盾。要解决粮食问题内生的这些矛盾,必须从大政策、大粮食、大市场、大战略、大安全的角度综合解决。