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...

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...

Recent academic and popular discussions of budget deficits rely upon a simplistic and, in large part, false conception of their effects. The recent literature ignores the fact that deficit effects depend on their source and on private sector responses to them. It also matters whether budget...

In late 2008 and early 2009, there has been a serious deterioration in the economic outlook of political leaders, the media and many economic analysts. Comparisons of recent performance and the outlook have degenerated into comparisons with the Great Depression of the 1930s, suggesting that the...

A popular and highly politicized theme today is that US workers are falling behind as their real wages fall and income gets redistributed to the rich. The Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution, led by Robert Rubin, Lawrence Summers and Roger Altman, is dedicated to the study of this...

This unique study discusses the theory of taxation in Islam and the role of Zakat in an Islamic economy. Zakat is a compulsory payment i.e. a tax in this sense paid to the government on one’s income and wealth. The Zakat rates are studied for their viability and effectiveness to fulfill fiscal...

Interest is prohibited in all monotheist religions; however, it features as an essential element in practiced capitalism. Interest based financial system has created two major havocs in last two decades i.e. in East Asia in 90s and in the Great Recession since 2007. This paper highlights the...

Poverty and inequality around the world has been rising over the last three decades and the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) seems a far fetched goal. In explaining underdevelopment, Classical Economics has offered many theories and models including but not limited to...