Monocular UHECR Spectra as Measured by HiRes

We have measured the spectrum of UHE cosmic rays in monocular mode using separately both detectors the High Resolution Fly's Eye experiment. We describe the two detectors and the basic methods of analysis, and we present our measured spectra. We compare these spectra with that produced by an astrophysical source model with galactic and uniformly distributed extra-galactic sources. We also compare our spectra to the spectra produced by the AGASA experiment.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures. Contribution to the proceedings of ICHEP 200

Getting Income Shares Right: A Panel Data Investigation for OECD Countries

In this paper we reassess the conventional measure of the capital share in income by estimating the shares of inputs in income for 23 OECD countries for the period 1960-2003 utilizing panel data techniques. A share of physical capital of over 0.50, and not one-third as commonly accepted, is found to be robust to a variety of specifications of the production function and the econometric models used. Additionally, we find that following the first oil shock the share of physical capital dropped while the share of human capital rose. Consequently, using the conventional shares may have led to overstating the severity of the post-1973 productivity slowdown.OECD, Shares of Inputs, Growth Accounting, TFP, Panel Data

Financial Development and Economic Growth: Time Series Evidence from Egypt

This paper examines the causal relationship between financial development and economic growth in Egypt during the period 1960-2001 within a trivariate VAR setting. We employ four different measures of financial development and apply Granger causality tests using the cointegration and vector error correction methodology. Our results significantly support the view that financial development Granger-causes economic growth either through increasing investment efficiency or through increasing resources for investment. This finding suggests that the financial reforms launched in 1990 can explain the rebound in economic performance since then and that further deepening of the financial sector is an important instrument to stimulate saving/investment and therefore long-term economic growth.Financial development, Economic growth, Egypt, Granger causality, Error-correction models, Cointegration

Who Cares About Islamic Law?

The legal transplant in the Arab world, perhaps even in the Islamic world writ large, hasn’t had much luck by way of close study in US legal academia. Compared to its scholarly treatment in other non-Western contexts, such as Latin America and East Asia, the absence is glaring. This was not for want of scholarly interest in law in the Arab/Islamic world. Much has been published on Arab constitutions for instance, and you’ve had a few speakers in this lecture series, opine on the topic. Nor has there been lack of scholarly interest in types of legislation that had become symptomatic of our globalized world over the past two decades: foreign investment laws, intellectual property laws, oil and gas laws, and one must not forget that most unsavory yet pressing subject, national security and anti-terrorism laws. Rather, what is glaringly absent is the study of the “European Code”, the privileged form in which the legal transplant was first introduced only to become the permanent and defining feature of the contemporary legal system. There is a simple reason for this and I will state it bluntly. It is because Islamist scholars and their non-Muslim academic sympathizers either liberals with strong multicultural tendencies or “traditionalists” hostile to the modern nation state, have hogged the study of law in the Arab/Islamic world. A consensus of sorts has for long emerged among this block of scholars that the legal transplant was a colonial imposition that has displaced, with tragic consequences according to these scholars, the organic law of the Muslim. It is the latter that is worthy of study, typically referred to by them as “Islamic law”

Of Wife and the Domestic Servant in the Arab World

The author asserts to avoid common misunderstandings on the relevance of Sharia to modern women in the Arab World that a) Shari’s relevance to the lives of modern women in the Arab World has been largely confined to the area of family law, b) in the modern nation state Sharia has been codified, i.e., certain rules derived from Islamic jurisprudence on the family have been selected and passed as laws, each nation state having its own unique combination of such rules, c) the courts and the judges who adjudicate disputes on family law are either secular courts/judges, or judges trained in state-run judiciary institutions with specific instruction on the state-based modern understanding of what Sharia is and d) the code, rather than Quran, the prophetic traditions, or the school of Islamic jurisprudence, is the primary source of the law. The latter constitute secondary sources

Racial Profiling and the War on Terror: Changing Trends and Perspectives

Minorities in the United States have often been treated unfairly by law enforcement agencies. Prior to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the United States, Blacks were the main victims of racial profiling. Since the terrorist attack, however, Arabs and Muslims are becoming the primary targets for profiling by law enforcement agencies. There are some remarkable similarities between the profiling of Blacks and the profiling of Arabs and Muslims. In both cases, the fundamental problems with racial profiling are that it violates the civil liberties of innocent people and denies minorities the equal protection of the law. The War on Terror has redefined racial profiling. It has not only led to a shift in the target population, but it has also changed the ways in which racial profiling is conducted

Financial Developent and Economic Growth Nexus: Time Series Evidence from Middle Eastern and North African Countries

This paper examines the causal relationship between financial development and economic growth in five Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries for different periods ranging from 1960 to 2004, within a trivariate vector autoregressive (VAR) framework. We employ four different measures of financial development and apply Granger causality tests using the cointegration and vector error-correction (VEC) methodology. Our empirical results show weak support for a long-run relationship between financial development and economic growth, and for the hypothesis that finance leads growth. In cases where cointegration was detected, Granger causality was either bidirectional or it ran from output to financial development.Financial development, Economic growth, MENA, Granger causality, Error-correction models, Cointegration

Getting Income Shares Right: A Panel Data Investigation for OECD Countries

In this paper we reassess the conventional measure of the capital share in income by estimating the shares of inputs in income for 23 OECD countries for the period 1960-2003 utilizing panel data techniques. A share of physical capital of over 0.50, and not one-third as commonly accepted, is found to be robust to a variety of specifications of the production function and the econometric models used. Additionally, we find that following the first oil shock the share of physical capital dropped while the share of human capital rose. Consequently, using the conventional shares may have led to overstating the severity of the post-1973 productivity slowdown.OECD, Shares of Inputs, Growth Accounting, TFP, Panel Data