Theories of the economic evolution of societies and their diversity are critically examined, paying particular attention to the evolution of hunter-gatherer societies. An interdisciplinary approach drawing on anthropology and economics is adopted. Currently, three main stereotypes of the nature...

Economics has never been, nor could it ever be, free of value judgments. The economy is not isolated from the rest of society, cordoned off from the lively world of competing beliefs and values. Rather, questions of the organization of the economy, and of the economic policies to be pursued, are...

In this paper, the foundational rules governing human, economic and financial development in Islam, as understood from the Quran and from the life and traditions of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), are summarized. These rules pave the path to development as the basis of institutional structure,...

This paper examines the permissibility of the American Islamic mortgage sector use of the standard metrics synonymous with the conventional and conforming mortgage; debt to income ratio and loan to value. For this purpose, section one will discuss the formation of the traditional conventional...

Over the past decade, the term bioeconomy has emerged in both policy and academic discourse. Implying a technology-driven approach to wealth generation from organic materials, the term has taken hold with so far limited critical engagement. It is a contestable rather than contested term. Noting...

We have developed a self‐enforcing contract model to show that better economic fundamentals can help an area or a region under a weak rule of law – but with order – to attract foreign direct investments (FDIs), whereas lowering taxes does not necessarily help. Using a cross‐region...

Corruption is one of the world's most widespread political problems. It can be found on international, national and sub-national level. Access to education and other socio-economic services is of utmost importance for all humans. It is still not exclusively based on merit, but often rather...

This is a policy paper which examines the development challenges of the Caribbean island of Barbados against the backdrop of the government's decision to enter into a structural adjustment agreement with the International Monetary Fund in 2018. The paper gives an overview of Barbados' trajectory...

China has been growing at high rates during the previous three decades. The current process of rebalancing from an investment- and manufacturing-led growth model towards a consumption- and service-led model is associated with decreasing growth rates. We show that China's current state of...

Long-run development (in income) causes a large fall in the share of agriculture commonly known as the agricultural transition. We confirm that this conventional wisdom is strongly supported by the data. Long-run development (in income) also causes a large increase in democracy known as the...