Economic Effects Of Islam

Timur Kuran "critically evaluates the analytic literature concerned alongside causal connections betwixt Islam too economical performance" inwards his evidence "Islam too Economic Performance: Historical too Contemporary Links," published inwards the most recent number of the Journal of Economic Literature (December 2018, 56:4, pp. 1292–1359). He is non interested inwards sweeping generalizations, simply rather inwards discussing function published inwards the the terminal 2 decades inwards the professional person economic science literature. From the abstract:

"Among the findings are the following: Ramadan fasting past times meaning women harms prenatal development; Islamic charities mainly create goodness the optic class; Islam affects educational outcomes less through Islamic schooling than through structural factors that handicap learning equally a whole; Islamic finance has a negligible outcome on Muslim fiscal behavior; too depression generalized trust depresses Muslim trade. The terminal characteristic reflects the Muslim world’s delay inwards transitioning from personal to impersonal exchange. The delay resulted from the persistent simplicity of the private enterprises formed nether Islamic law. Weak holding rights reinforced the private sector’s stagnation past times driving working capital missive of the alphabet from commerce to stiff waqfs. Waqfs express economical evolution through their inflexibility too democratization past times keeping civil lodge embryonic. Parts of the Muslim earth conquered past times Arab armies are especially undemocratic, which suggests that early on Islamic institutions were especially critical to the persistence of authoritarian patterns of governance. US convey contributed to the persistence of authoritarianism past times treating Islam equally an musical instrument of governance. As the earth started to industrialize, non-Muslim subjects of Muslim-governed states pulled ahead of their Muslim neighbors, partly past times exercising the choice of police push clit they enjoyed nether Islamic police push clit inwards favor of a Western legal system."

(Side note: The Journal of Economic Literature is published past times the American Economic Association, which likewise publishes the Journal of Economic Perspectives where I function equally Managing Editor. JEL is non freely available online, simply many readers volition convey access through library subscriptions.)

Here's some additional particular on a few of these points, simply Kuran's article has a wealth of greater particular on history, institutions, too economical studies:

Ramadan fasting past times meaning women

"The timing of Ramadan is based on lunar cycles rather than the solar year. Because lunar months are shorter than solar months, it moves most 10 days backwards every year, relative to the solar- based Gregorian calendar. The length of the daily dawn-to-dusk fast likewise varies, inwards this case because of interactions betwixt latitude and the fourth dimension of yr when Ramadan falls. Exploiting the variations inwards fourth dimension of year and length of fast, researchers convey identified both immediate too long- term negative effects on growth.

"Based on cross- soil comparisons, Campante too Yanagizawa-Drott (2015) notice that longer fasting depresses production and thus economical growth. Several other studies (Almond too Mazumder 2011; van Ewijk 2011; Majid 2015; Almond, Mazumder, too van Ewijk 2015) role intertemporal variations inwards particular countries to position how fasting during early on pregnancy affects the offspring’s prenatal development, physical attributes, educational achievement, too economical success. Their analyses present that individuals whose mothers fasted field they were inwards utero convey shorter lives, worse health, less mental acuity, lower educational achievement, too weaker performance in the undertaking market. The magnitudes inwards enquiry are substantial. Majid’s written report shows that adults exposed to the fast field inwards utero function 4.5 fewer hours per week. The Almond too Mazumder written report finds that mental disabilities stemming from exposure to the fast during calendar month ane inwards utero accounts for 15 pct of all mental disabilities amid Muslims. The evidence is overwhelming that the fasting ritual, equally currently practiced, depresses the global economical competitiveness."  

Islamic finance

"Islamic finance refers to a flat of fiscal transactions that are ostensibly gratis of involvement too compatible alongside Islamic teachings. It encompasses Islamic banking, asset- backed Islamic bonds known equally sukuk, Islamic insurance known equally takaful, along alongside Islamic credit cards, usual funds, stock indexes, mortgages, too microfinance. The Islamic finance marketplace was estimated to concord assets around $2 trillion inwards 2016 (Islamic Financial Services Board 2016). The figure represented 1 pct of the global finance marketplace of around $200 trillion. The global percentage of Islamic finance pales inwards comparison to the 24 pct percentage of Muslims inside the global population ... Evidently, entirely a minor percentage of the fiscal transactions past times or amid Muslims follows a self-consciously Islamic template. Nevertheless, inwards the Muslim earth too fifty-fifty beyond, the rising of Islamic finance represents a challenge to conventional finance. ...

"Scholarship on Islamic banking focuses on whether its actual operations differ inwards whatever commutation agency from conventional banking, which deals inwards involvement openly too without apology. In practice, various researchers convey shown, the returns of Islamic banks are statistically indistinguishable from those of the conventional banks with which they compete. They mostly ready their “profit shares” inwards advance through procedures that brand unproblematic transactions hold off complex. Hence, their returns sum to what most economists telephone outcry upwards interest. The argue why Islamic banks resort to involvement is non for lack of commitment to their charter. Rather, similar profit- maximizing conventional banks, they reckon involvement advantageous under weather condition of asymmetric data ..."

Islamic charities

"Self-consciously Islamic charities tend to outperform governments inwards providing social services. But the same is truthful of private secular charities. Evidently, the successes of Islamic charities stalk from superior organization, rather than Islam itself. Indeed, from an organizational standpoint, today’s Islamic charities harken to a greater extent than to the charities of advanced modern societies than to anything institute inwards seventh-century Arabia. Although Islamic charities mostly tout their services to the poor, past times too large their beneficiaries belong to the optic class."

If y'all would similar to a greater extent than Kuran, a starting betoken would last his 2 before articles inwards the Journal of Economic Perspectives touching on some of these same themes.

• Kuran, Timur. 1995. "Islamic Economics too the Islamic Subeconomy." Journal of Economic Perspectives, ix (4): 155-173.
• Kuran, Timur. 2004. "Why the Middle East is Economically Underdeveloped: Historical Mechanisms of Institutional Stagnation." Journal of Economic Perspectives, xviii (3): 71-90.