Unifikasi Kelompok Keagamaan Islam Berbasis Multi Interdisipliner menuju Masyarakat Madani

The purpose of this article is to reveal the problems of friction, conflict, and divisions that occur among Muslims, which are spread across several groups such as Nahdlatul Ulama, Muhammadyah, Jama'ah Islam, Tabligh Jama'ah, Salafi, and Ahmadiyah. In general, each group claims to be the most correct group, so they are trapped in bigotry based on their group, doctrin, tafwa, or their leaders. The method of this study is based on library research in which the approach is carried out in a multi-disciplinary manner, namely through the science of interpretation, hadith, ushul fiqh, and sociology. The method of this study is based on library research in which the approach is carried out in a multi-disciplinary manner, namely through the science of interpretation, hadith, ushul fiqh, and sociology. The results of the study found: 1) Islam highly upholds unity within the ummah. The prohibition of division has been imposed since the time of the prophet before the Prophet Muhammad was sent to the world. Therefore the existence of religious groups should be to strengthen people and religion, so as to try to avoid the perception of a single truth claim, so as not to be trapped in the fanaticism of the group, schools of thought, tafwa, as well as towards their leaders; 2) Unification of religious groups can occur if it is based on intellectual awareness. Because this awareness can penetrate across ideologies, ideologies, schools of thought, and/or cultures. Without this awareness, unification is difficult to achieve; and 3) Intellectual awareness can be achieved through intellectual collaboration between religious group leaders. In fact, this intellectual awareness is a gateway to civil society, which has the characteristics of being open to knowledge, egalitarianism, and equality in the community, respecting human rights, respect for achievements, and being highly civilized and abandoning primordial attitudes

Sanitary and phytosanitary standards as bridge to cross:

This research assesses the effects of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards in international trade by introducing a new concept, bridge to cross (BTC), with product standards. The BTC in this paper is the regulatory gap between the exporting and importing countries with regard to any particular SPS measure. Assuming that each country's standard is binding in its own domestic markets, the standard of the importing country emerges as an effective trade barrier only when it exceeds the standard in the domestic market of the exporting country. Given the need to account for unobserved heterogeneity (multilateral resistance) in empirical trade models, if SPS regulations do not vary significantly over time, the effect of the regulation cannot be identified. However, the effect of BTC can still be identified because it varies by the pair of countries involved in the trade. As an application we apply the method to an SPS regulation relating to aflatoxin contamination in maize. In our empirical analysis we find that the effect of BTC varies by the size of the exporter and that the effect is stronger for poorer countries.bridge to cross, Gravity model, multilateral resistance, sanitary and phytosanitary standards,

Are Friendly Farmers Environmentally Friendly? Environmental Awareness as a Social Capital Outcome

This paper examines the hypothesis that social capital at the individual level affects environmentally friendly practices. Social capital represents the social connectedness of the individual. An individual with higher social capital is more likely to have better exposure and access to information about the importance of environmentally friendly practices. We study sustainable agricultural practices among Georgia farmers and examine whether their social capital levels have any effect on, (1) their adoption of sustainable agricultural practices, and (2) the extent to which they engage in these practices. Using the Georgia Social Capital Survey our measure of social capital is associational activities. We address a number of econometric issues: potential endogeneity of the social capital variable, peer-group effect in the form of social pressure, and a sorting issue.Environmental Economics and Policy,

Community Development and Local Social Capital

While a substantial amount of research has been devoted to showing what social capital does, research explaining social capital itself lags behind. In this paper we examine whether local economic development can explain the variation in social capital across various geographical clusters in the state of Georgia. The findings show that even after accounting for various demographic and economic characteristics, the HDI explains the variation in a number of social capital levels (especially those measured by associational involvement) across various geographical clusters in the state of Georgia.Community/Rural/Urban Development,

Community Development and Local Social Capital

While a substantial amount of research has been devoted to showing what social capital does, research explaining social capital itself lags behind. The literature has a long tradition of examining the effect of social capital on local economic growth and development. In this paper we examine whether local economic development can explain the variation in social capital across various geographical clusters in the state of Georgia. We begin by devising a measurement tool, a Human Development Index (HDI), to measure community development. Our social capital measure includes associational memberships, voluntary activities, and philanthropy obtained from the Georgia Social Capital Survey. The findings show that even after accounting for various demographic and economic characteristics, the HDI explains the variation in a number of social capital levels (especially those measured by associational involvement) across various geographical clusters in the state of Georgia.economic development, human development, social capital, Agribusiness, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Labor and Human Capital, Public Economics, R00,

Regional Economic Impacts of the Shale Gas and Tight Oil Boom: A Synthetic Control Analysis

The dramatic increase in oil and gas production from shale formations has led to intense interest in its impact on local area economies. Exploration, drilling and extraction are associated with direct increases in employment and income in the energy industry, but little is known about the impacts on other parts of local economies. Increased energy sector employment and income can have positive spillover effects through increased purchases of intermediate goods and induced local spending. Negative spillover effects can occur through rising local factor and goods prices and adverse effects on the local area quality of life. Therefore, this paper examines the net economic impacts of oil and gas production from shale formations for key shale oil and gas producing areas in Arkansas, North Dakota and Pennsylvania. The synthetic control method (Abadie and Gardeazabal 2003; Abadie et al., 2010) is used to establish a baseline projection for the local economies in the absence of increased energy development, allowing for estimation of the net regional economic effects of increased shale oil and gas production

Regional Economic Impacts of the Shale Gas and Tight Oil Boom: A Synthetic Control Analysis

The dramatic increase in oil and gas production from shale formations has led to intense interest in its impact on local area economies. Exploration, drilling and extraction are associated with direct increases in employment and income in the energy industry, but little is known about the impacts on other parts of local economies. Increased energy sector employment and income can have positive spillover effects through increased purchases of intermediate goods and induced local spending. Negative spillover effects can occur through rising local factor and goods prices and adverse effects on the local area quality of life. Therefore, this paper examines the net economic impacts of oil and gas production from shale formations for key shale oil and gas producing areas in Arkansas, North Dakota and Pennsylvania. The synthetic control method (Abadie and Gardeazabal 2003; Abadie et al., 2010) is used to establish a baseline projection for the local economies in the absence of increased energy development, allowing for estimation of the net regional economic effects of increased shale oil and gas production

Nontariff Barriers as Bridge to Cross

This research assesses the effects of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards in international trade by introducing a new concept, bridge to cross (BTC), with product standards. The BTC in this paper is the regulatory gap between the exporting and importing countries with regard to any particular SPS measure. Assuming that each country’s standard is binding in its own domestic markets, the standard of the importing country emerges as an effective trade barrier only when it exceeds the standard in the domestic market of the exporting country. Given the need to account for unobserved heterogeneity (multilateral resistance) in empirical trade models; in reduced form gravity models, the effect of regulation cannot be identified as it varies at the level of importing country over time. This happens because correct accounting for multilateral resistance mandates exporter x time and importer x time fixed effects. However, the effect of BTC can still be identified because it varies over time by the pair of countries involved in trade. As an application we apply the method to an SPS regulation relating to aflatoxin contamination in maize. In our empirical analysis we find that the effect of BTC is higher for poorer countries. The results have a significantly different policy implication for market access of poor countries. Not only weaker standards in the importing country but tighter standards in domestic markets of exporters could have a significant positive effect on exports

The Disparate Influence of State Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) on U.S. Renewable Electricity Generation Capacity

Several papers have used panel data analyses to examine the effectiveness of U.S. state-level Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) in promoting renewable capacity development, but the findings are inconclusive. Estimation of average treatment effects, however, can mask the fact that RPS policies across states are disparate and the treatment states are heterogeneous. We use the Synthetic Control Method (SCM) to conduct individual case studies of the early adopter states. Our findings indicate that the impact of RPS varied across states. We find Texas to be unique among these early adopters in that RPS in Texas has led to increased renewable capacity

Is the 'Idiot's Box' raising idiocy? Early and middle childhood television watching and child cognitive outcome

There is widespread belief that exposure to television has harmful effects on children's cognitive development. Most studies that point to a negative correlation between hours of television watching and cognitive outcomes, fail to establish causality. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) we study young children between 5 and 10 years of age during late 1990s and early 2000s. We find strong evidence of negative correlations between hours of television watched and cognitive test scores. However, once parent's characteristics and unobserved child characteristics are taken into account these correlations go away. We find that hours of television viewed per se do not have any measurable impact on children's test scores. Our results are robust to different model specifications and instrumental variable estimates. We conclude that despite the conventional wisdom and the ongoing populist movement, proactive policies to reduce children's television exposure are not likely to improve children's cognitive development and academic performance.Television Child cognitive outcome Test score Panel estimation Instrumental variables