Econ 490 - Business and Economic Environment in the Middle East and North Africa

Economics 490
Business and Economic Environment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)

1. In what ways arid climate and rarity of navigable rivers has affected the economic and political development of MENA before World War II? [25]
2. This question is about the theory of social orders developed by Douglass North and his associates.
(a) What are the key characteristics of limited access orders (LAOs)? In what ways are they different from open access orders (OAOs)? [10]
(b) What are the types of LAOs? [6]
(c) Which types of LAO best describe the regimes in MENA before World War II? [9]
3. This question concerns Timur Kuran’s thesis about Islamic Law and economic development in MENA and Adeel Malik’s critique of that view.
Kuran, Timur. 2004. “Why the Middle East Is Economically Underdeveloped: Historical Mechanisms of Institutional Stagnation,” Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 71-90.
Malik, Adeel. 2012. “Was the Middle East's economic descent a legal or political failure? Debating the Islamic Law Matters Thesis,” CSAE Working Paper WPS/2012-08.
(a) What is waqf? What are its functions and purposes in the Islamic society according to Kuran? [10]

(b) Based on Kuran’s thesis, what role did waqf play in the economic development of MENA before the concepts of judicial persons (such as corporations) were recognized in the legal systems of the region? [8]
(c) What are Adeel Malik’s criticisms of Kuran’s view of Islamic Law? What are the factors that Malik finds most constraining in the historical economic development of MENA? [7]

4. Compare MENA’s socio-economic and political structures with those prevailing in other regions of the world during the 13th through 19th centuries.
(a) What were the differences between MENA and Europe? [13]
(b) What were the differences between MENA and Japan? [6]
(c) What were the differences between MENA and Russia? [6]