Background Info Timur Kuran Is Professor of Economics and Political Science, and Gorter Family Professor of Islamic Studies at D

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Background Info Timur Kuran is Professor of Economics and Political Science, and Gorter Family Professor of Islamic Studies at Duke University. His research focuses on social change, including the evolution of preferences and institutions. He is a leading authority on the economic history and thought of the Middle East. His current projects include a study of the role that the region’s traditional institutions played in its slip into a state of economic and political underdevelopment. Among his publications are Private Truths, Public Lies: The Social Consequences of Preference Falsification (Harvard University Press); Islam and Mammon: The Economic Predicaments of Islamism (Princeton University Press); The Long Divergence: How Islamic Law Held Back the Middle East (Princeton University Press, due October 2010); and an eleven-volume edited work, Mahkeme Kayıtları Işığında Onyedinci Yüzyıl İstanbul’unda Sosyo- Ekonomik Yaşam / Socio-Economic Life in Seventeenth-century Istanbul: Glimpses from Court Records (Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları, first volume due July 2010). The first two books have each been translated into several languages, including Turkish. After graduating from Robert Lisesi in 1973, he went onto study economics at Princeton University (AB 1977) and Stanford University (Ph.D. 1982). Between 1982 and 2007 he taught at the University of Southern California. He was also a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, the John Olin Visiting Professor at the Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago, and a visiting professor of economics at Stanford University. He is currently a member of the Executive Committee of the International Economic Association, edits a book series for Cambridge University Press, and serves on the editorial boards of five academic journals. .

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Cults of Personality, Preference Falsification, and the Dictator's
Cults of personality, preference falsification, and the dictator's dilemma Charles Crabtreex, Holger L. Kerny, and David A. Siegelz Abstract: We provide a novel rational explanation for why cults of personality exist: they solve the dictator's adverse selection problem in assigning subordinates to roles within the regime. Participation in a cult of personality is psychologically costly whenever it involves preference falsification, with the costs varying across individuals. Importantly, low psychological costs of preference falsification are correlated with traits the dictator values, such as unscrupulousness and ruthlessness, which we collectively term disposition-based competence. Under a wide variety of circumstances, this correlation makes participation in cults of personality informative from the dictator's point of view, allowing him to hire loyal and competent subordinates for the most important regime positions. In contrast to earlier formal work, our model implies that dictators can use cults of personality to avoid the loyalty-competence trade-off when promoting subordinates. We thank Quintin Beazer, Jens Grosser, Timur Kuran, Andrew Little, Eddy Malesky, Melanie Manion, Arturas Rozenas, Rory Truex, Nils Weidmann, and participants at the 2017 MPSA Conference and the 2017 ESTA workshop at Konstanz University for their very helpful feedback. x PhD cand., Department of Political Science, University of Michigan. y Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Florida State University. z Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Duke University. In 2001, Saparmurad Niyazov, who ruled Turkmenistan from 1985 to 2006, announced the publication of his first book. Called Ruhnama (The Book of the Soul), it contained answers to \all of life's questions" and became required reading in all schools, universities, and workplaces.
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Why the Middle East Is Economically Underdeveloped: Historical Mechanisms of Institutional Stagnation
Journal of Economic Perspectives—Volume 18, Number 3—Summer 2004—Pages 71–90 Why the Middle East is Economically Underdeveloped: Historical Mechanisms of Institutional Stagnation Timur Kuran millennium ago, around roughly the tenth century, the Middle East was an economically advanced region of the world, as measured by standard of A living, technology, agricultural productivity, literacy or institutional cre- ativity. Only China might have been even more developed. Subsequently, however, the Middle East failed to match the institutional transformation through which western Europe vastly increased its capacity to pool resources, coordinate produc- tive activities and conduct exchanges. True, the institutional endowment of the Middle East continued to evolve. But in certain areas central to economic mod- ernization change was minimal, at least in relation to the structural transformation of the West and, for that matter, the Middle East’s own evolution during the early Islamic centuries. In eighteenth-century Cairo, credit practices hardly differed from those of the tenth century. Likewise, investors and traders were using enterprise forms essentially identical to those prevalent eight centuries earlier. By the nine- teenth century, the entire Middle East was clearly “underdeveloped” relative to western Europe and its offshoots in the new world; and by the twenty-ﬁrst century, it had fallen markedly behind parts of the Far East as well. This essay offers reasons why the Middle East became underdeveloped. In particular, it points to certain
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The Waqf As Obstacle to Democratization
Institutional Roots of Authoritarian Rule in the Middle East: The Waqf as Obstacle to Democratization by Timur Kuran* First draft in progress: 21 October 2012 Abstract. The waqf is the closest thing under Islamic law to an autonomous private organization. Hence, in the Middle East the pre-modern waqf served as a key determinant of civil society, political participation, and trust in institutions, among other indicators and components of democratization. This paper argues that for a millennium the waqf delayed and limited democratization in the region through several mutually supportive mechanisms. By design its use of resources was more or less set by its founder, which limited its capacity to reallocate resources to meet political challenges. It was designed to provide a service on its own, which blocked its participation in lasting political coalitions. Its beneficiaries had no say in selecting the waqf’s officers, whom they could not evaluate. Circumventing waqf rules required the permission of a court, which created incentives for corruption. Finally, the process of appointing successive officials was not merit-based; it promoted and legitimized nepotism. The upshot is that, for all the resources it controlled, the waqf contributed minimally to building civil society. It served as part of an institutional complex that perpetuated authoritarian rule by keeping the state unmonitored and unrestrained by civil society. Keywords: Middle East, Ottoman Empire, Arab world, waqf, democracy, autocracy, civil society, collective action, corporation, corruption, nepotism, trust, institutional change, Islamic law, sharia JEL codes: H11, N25, P51, O53, Z12 * Professor of Economics and Political Science, and Gorter Family Professor of Islamic Studies, Duke University ([email protected]) T.
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Yale Ottoman Conference-Program.Pdf
New Perspectives in Ottoman Economic History The Yale Program in Economic History will sponsor a mini-conference on Ottoman Economic History to be held at Yale University on November 9th and 10th, 2012. The conference will start after lunchtime on Friday and end at lunchtime Saturday. More specific times, as well as the conference location, will be announced as plans firm up. The conference program is set. The conference will be open to the public. We will ask attendees to register so we can track numbers for coffee breaks, etc. We will post information about registration on relevant email lists and also at this site. Attendees who are not on the program are welcome for coffee breaks and the breakfast on Saturday, but will have to cover any other expenses themselves. Conference format: The conference will be run “workshop” style. All papers will be available on this website approximately three weeks before the conference. The authors will not present their paper; instead, they will have 10 minutes to summarize their results. Rather than have a formal discussant, we will immediately open the discussion to all participants. The moderator’s role will be to keep the conversation running smoothly. We hope this format will promote a lively discussion from authors and other participants alike. If you have questions about this event feel free to contact Lindsay DeFelippo ([email protected]) for administrative matters, or either of the two co-organizers. Timothy Guinnane ([email protected]) is the local organizer at Yale, and Seven Agir ([email protected]) is at METU.
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WJP Scholars Conference 2018 Agenda
WJP Scholars Conference, 2018 The Rule of Law: Subnational, Supranational, and Empirical Duke Law School, Oct. 26-27, 2018 AGENDA Thursday, Oct. 25th 6:30 – 9:00 PM Welcome Dinner (6:30 PM Cocktails; 7:30 PM Dinner) JB Duke Hotel, Meeting Room B Friday, Oct. 26th 9:00 – 9:10 AM Welcome and introduction Faculty Workshop Duke Law School Alejandro Ponce, World Justice Project Jack Knight, Duke Law Law School Tom Ginsburg, University of Chicago Law School 9:10 – 10:40 AM Subnational Governance and the Rule of Law Chair/Discussant: Margaret Levi, Stanford University Discussant: Jack Knight, Duke University Kevin Davis, New York University Data and Decentralization Mara Revkin, Yale University What Explains Taxation by Resource-Rich Rebels: New Data from the Islamic State in Syria Ethan Michelson and Alisha Kirchoff, Indiana University Public (Dis)trust in Law? Trust Gaps in China and Beyond 10:40 – 11:00 AM Coffee break 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM The Rule of Law Across Time and Space Chair/ Discussant: Maggie Lemos, Duke University Timur Kuran, Duke University Economic Harbingers of Ottoman Political Modernization: Evolving Anatomy of Power in Istanbul, 1600-1839 Federica Carugati, CASBS Stanford Judicial Review by the People Themselves: Democracy and the Rule of Law in Ancient Athens 12:00 – 1:15 PM Lunch: Anthony Lewis Award Presentation 1:30 – 2:30 PM Mexico Chair/Discussant: Rachel Kleinfeld, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Alejandro Ponce, World Justice Project The 2008 Constitutional Reform on Criminal Justice in Mexico – and its Impact on Due Process Julio Rios, CIDE Mexico City Authoritarian Legacies: Persistent Patronage Networks and the Erosion of Merit-Based Judicial Selection in Mexico 2:30 – 2:50 PM Coffee break 2:50 – 3:50 PM Demand, Compliance and Independence Chair/Discussant: Dan Rockmore, Dartmouth College Discussant: Georg Vanberg, Duke University Benito Arrunada, University Pompeu Fabrea The Demand for Judicial Services: An Exploration with WJP Survey Data Brad Epperly, University of South Carolina Expert vs.
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Timur Kuran Is Professor of Economics and Political Science, and Gorter Family Professor of Islamic Studies at Duke University
Timur Kuran is Professor of Economics and Political Science, and Gorter Family Professor of Islamic Studies at Duke University. His research focuses on (1) economic, political, and social change, with emphases on institutions and preferences, and (2) the economic and political history of the Middle East, with a focus on the role of Islam. His current projects include a study of the role that the Middle East’s traditional institutions played in its poor political performance, as measured by democratization and human liberties. Among his publications are Private Truths, Public Lies: The Social Consequences of Preference Falsification (Harvard University Press), Islam and Mammon: The Economic Predicaments of Islamism (Princeton University Press), and The Long Divergence: How Islamic Law Held Back the Middle East (Princeton University Press), all translated into multiple languages. He is also the editor of the tri-lingual, ten-volume compilation, Socio-Economic Life in Seventeenth-century Istanbul: Glimpses from Court Records (İş Bank Publications). After graduating from Robert Academy in Istanbul in 1973, Kuran went on to study economics at Princeton University (AB 1977) and Stanford University (PhD 1982). Between 1982 and 2007 he taught at the University of Southern California. He was also a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, the John Olin Visiting Professor at the Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago, and a visiting professor of economics at Stanford University. He currently directs the Association for Analytic Learning about Islam and Muslim Societies (AALIMS); edits a book series for Cambridge University Press, Economics, Choice and Society; (as of January 2017) co-edits the Journal of Comparative Economics, and serves on numerous editorial boards.
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Nyuad Institute
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Senior Seminar on the Wealth and Well-Being Of
Senior Seminar on The Wealth and Well-Being of Nations: Each year, seniors in the department of economics participate in a semester-long course that is built around the ideas and influence of that year’s Upton Scholar. By the time the Upton Scholar arrives in October, students will have read several of his or her books and research by other scholars that has been influenced by these writings. This advanced preparation provides students the rare opportunity to engage with a leading intellectual figure on a substantive and scholarly level. Endowed Student Internship Awards: A portion of the Miller Upton Memorial Endowments supports exceptional students pursuing high-impact internship experiences. Students are encouraged to pursue internships with for-profit firms and non-profit research organizations dedicated to advancing the wealth and well-being of nations. Charles G. Koch Student Research Colloquium and Speaker Series: With generous support from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, the department has initiated a research colloquium that gives students the opportunity to read and discuss seminal articles aimed at deepening their understanding of the market process. Students also develop original analysis that applies economic ideas to novel contexts. Colloquium participants receive close mentoring as they craft an article with the eventual goal of publication in a newspaper, magazine, or academic journal. The themes of the research colloquium and annual forum are supported with a speaker series featuring the next generation of scholars working on questions central to our understanding of the nature and causes of wealth and well-being. Annual Proceedings of The Wealth and Well-Being of Nations: The keynote address presented by the Upton Scholar is an important contribution to the public discourse on the nature and causes of wealth and well-being.
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Timur Kuran A
Timur Kuran Lectures and Readings Lecture 1: “The Rule of Law and Interest Rates: Clues from Ottoman Istanbul” Timur Kuran and Scott Lustig, “Judicial Biases in Ottoman Istanbul: Islamic Justice and Its Compatibility with Modern Economic Life.” Journal of Law and Economics, 55 (2012): 631-66. Lecture 2: “Economic Underdevelopment of the Middle East: Roles of Islamic Institutions.” Timur Kuran, The Long Divergence: How Islamic Law held Back the Middle East (Princeton University Press, 2011), chapters 4-7. Lecture 3: “Political Underdevelopment of the Middle East: Effects of the Islamic Waqf.” Timur Kuran, “Institutional Roots of Authoritarian Rule in the Middle East: Political Legacies of the Islamic Waqf,” working paper, Duke University, 2013 (pdf attached). Lecture 4: “The Economic Ascent of the Middle East’s Non-Muslim Minorities and Foreigners: Institutional Causes.” Timur Kuran, The Long Divergence: How Islamic Law held Back the Middle East (Princeton University Press, 2011), chapters 9-12. The University of Chicago The Booth School of Business of the University of Chicago The University of Chicago Law School Judicial Biases in Ottoman Istanbul: Islamic Justice and Its Compatibility with Modern Economic Life Author(s): Timur Kuran and Scott Lustig Source: Journal of Law and Economics, Vol. 55, No. 3 (August 2012), pp. 631-666 Published by: The University of Chicago Press for The Booth School of Business of the University of Chicago and The University of Chicago Law School Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/665537 . Accessed: 10/04/2013 13:50 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
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Islam and Economic Performance: Historical and Contemporary Links
Journal of Economic Literature, vol. 56 (2018), in press. Islam and Economic Performance: Historical and Contemporary Links Timur Kuran* Abstract. This essay critically evaluates the analytic literature concerned with causal connections between Islam and economic performance. It focuses on works since 1997, when this literature was last surveyed. Among the findings are the following: Ramadan fasting by pregnant women harms prenatal development; Islamic charities mainly benefit the middle class; Islam affects educational outcomes less through Islamic schooling than through structural factors that handicap learning as a whole; Islamic finance hardly affects Muslim financial behavior; and low generalized trust depresses Muslim trade. The last feature reflects the Muslim world’s delay in transitioning from personal to impersonal exchange. The delay resulted from the persistent simplicity of the private enterprises formed under Islamic law. Weak property rights reinforced the private sector’s stagnation by driving capital out of commerce and into rigid waqfs. Waqfs limited economic development through their inflexibility and democratization by restraining the development of civil society. Parts of the Muslim world conquered by Arab armies are especially undemocratic, which suggests that early Islamic institutions, including slave-based armies, were particularly critical to the persistence of authoritarian patterns of governance. States have contributed themselves to the persistence of authoritarianism by treating Islam as an instrument of governance. As the world started to industrialize, non-Muslim subjects of Muslim-governed states pulled ahead of their Muslim neighbors by exercising the choice of law they enjoyed under Islamic law in favor of a Western legal system. JEL codes: N25, N45, O43, O53, P51, Z12 *Department of Economics, 419 Chapel Drive, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708-0097, USA.
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Dari Konsep Ekonomi Islam Sampai Urgensi Pelarangan Riba; Sebuah Tawaran Ekonomi Islam Timur Kuran
ISLAMIC BANKING: Jurnal Pemikiran dan Pengembangan Perbankan Syariah, Volume 6 Nomor 2 Edisi Februari 2021│215 DARI KONSEP EKONOMI ISLAM SAMPAI URGENSI PELARANGAN RIBA; SEBUAH TAWARAN EKONOMI ISLAM TIMUR KURAN Havis Aravik Sekolah Tinggi Ekonomi dan Bisnis Syariah (STEBIS) Indo Global Mandiri Palembang Email: [email protected] Achmad Irwan Hamzani Universitas Pancasakti, Tegal Email: [email protected] Nur Khasanah IAIN Pekalongan Email: [email protected] Abstract Islamic economic thought became increasingly prevalent with the birth of various schools of thought in Islamic economics. One of them is the critical alternative school that was pioneered by Timur Kuran. This research will discuss from Islamic economics to the urgency of prohibiting usury; an offer of the East Kuran Islamic economy. With the aim of knowing and analyzing the extent to which Eastern Kuran's economic thought made significant contributions to the development of contemporary Islamic economics. This research is a qualitative research with a library research approach and all data obtained were analyzed using descriptive analysis methods. The results of this study indicate that Timur Kuran is one of the pioneers of the Critical alternative school which critically studies various concepts of Islamic economics and banking. Various forms of economic thought such as from the concept of Islamic economics are none other than modern doctrines that offer alternatives to the economic systems of Capitalism and Socialism. The emergence of an Islamic economy was none other than political- cultural, with the largest contribution coming from Pakistanis, zakat is a more effective safety net than a secular redistribution system and the waqf system does not yet have the flexibility needed for efficient resource use, and the Qur'an prohibits the practice of usury which involves compounding the debt of a loan that is unable to make payments according to a predetermined schedule.
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Institutional Roots of Authoritarian Rule in the Middle East: Political Legacies of the Waqf
Institutional Roots of Authoritarian Rule in the Middle East: Political Legacies of the Waqf by Timur Kuran* Draft in progress: 3 February 2013 Abstract. The waqf is the closest thing under Islamic law to an autonomous private organization. Hence, in the pre-modern Middle East it served as a key determinant of civil society, political participation, and trust in institutions, among other indicators and components of democratization. This paper argues that for a millennium the waqf delayed and limited democratization in the region through several mutually supportive mechanisms. Its activities were more or less set by its founder, which limited its capacity to reallocate resources to meet political challenges. It was designed to provide a service on its own, which blocked its participation in lasting political coalitions. Its beneficiaries had no say in selecting the officers, whom they could not evaluate. Circumventing waqf rules required the permission of a court, which created incentives for corruption. Finally, the process of appointing successive officials was not merit-based; it promoted and legitimized nepotism. The upshot is that, for all the resources it controlled, the waqf contributed minimally to building civil society. As a core element of Islam’s classical institutional complex, it helped to perpetuate authoritarian rule by keeping the state unmonitored and largely unrestrained. Keywords: Middle East, Ottoman Empire, Arab world, waqf, democracy, autocracy, civil society, collective action, corporation, corruption, nepotism, trust, institutional change, Islamic law, sharia JEL codes: H11, N25, P51, O53, Z12 * Professor of Economics and Political Science, and Gorter Family Professor of Islamic Studies, Duke University ([email protected]) Acknowledgment.
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