Explaining the Stagnation of Commercial Institutional Innovation in the Islamic Middle East

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Abstract/Contents

Abstract: Timur Kuran’s explanation of the decline of commercial institutional innovation in the Islamic Middle East posits Qur’anic inheritance law as a potential obstacle to larger and longer-lasting commercial arrangements, which create pressure for such innovation. In this paper, I explore the logic of this theory by creating and analyzing a simple agent-based model of a mercantile society in agents choose contracts each round to maximize their utility. I use the model primarily to enumerate certain minimal parametric conditions on which Kuran’s argument could be predicated, and to suggest avenues for further empirical research that could support the theory’s claims.

Type of resource	text
Date created	May 2007

Author	Ahmad, Shameel
Primary advisor	Greif, Avner
Degree granting institution	Stanford University, Department of Economics

Subject	Stanford Department of Economics
Subject	Islamic Middle East
Subject	Timur Kuran
Subject	innovation
Subject	Qur'anic inheritance law
Genre	Thesis

Location	https://purl.stanford.edu/cw065sg6753

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Preferred Citation: Ahmad, Shameel. (2007). Explaining the Stagnation of Commercial Institutional Innovation in the Islamic Middle East. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/cw065sg6753

Stanford University, Department of Economics, Honors Theses

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