IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/wpaper/hal-00270475.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Islam and private property

Author

Listed:
  • François Facchini

    (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, EDJ - Laboratoire EDJ Economie-Droit-Justice - URCA - Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne)

Abstract

This article argues that the relative absence of economic freedoms in the countries of the Muslim world can be explained by the history of Muslim law, and more particularly by its conception of property rights. It shows that the main obstacle to the emergence of private property has been the status of land, originating out of the domination of the first caliphates. It recalls the effects of formal inequalities between individuals (men – women, men – slaves, Muslims – non-Muslims) on the one hand, and the effects of property restrictions on economic development on the other, but maintains that the heart of the blockage lies in the legal status of land, a status which protects public ownership and even extends it to cover water rights. This encloses the economy in a philosophy of enrichment where the opportunities for profit are artificially created through the rents seized by the ruling class. The conclusion is devoted to the future of economic freedom in the Muslim world.

Suggested Citation

  • François Facchini, 2007. "Islam and private property," Working Papers hal-00270475, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00270475
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-00270475
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hal.science/hal-00270475/document
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Timur Kuran, 2004. "Why the Middle East is Economically Underdeveloped: Historical Mechanisms of Institutional Stagnation," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 18(3), pages 71-90, Summer.
    2. Marcus Noland, 2007. "Religions, islam et croissance économique. L'apport des analyses empiriques," Revue française de gestion, Lavoisier, vol. 171(2), pages 97-118.
    3. Stephenson, Sherry M., 2005. "In: Aaditya Mattoo and Antonia Carzaniga, Editors, Moving People to Deliver Services, Co-publication of The World Bank and Oxford University Press (2003) 256 pages," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 141-143, February.
    4. Dawson, John W, 1998. "Institutions, Investment, and Growth: New Cross-Country and Panel Data Evidence," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 36(4), pages 603-619, October.
    5. Tarik M. Yousef, 2004. "Development, Growth and Policy Reform in the Middle East and North Africa since 1950," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 18(3), pages 91-115, Summer.
    6. Besley, Timothy, 1995. "Property Rights and Investment Incentives: Theory and Evidence from Ghana," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 103(5), pages 903-937, October.
    7. Joshua J. Lewer & Hendrik Van den Berg, 2007. "Estimating the Institutional and Network Effects of Religious Cultures on International Trade," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(2), pages 255-277, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Francois Facchini, 2010. "Religion, law and development: Islam and Christianity—Why is it in Occident and not in the Orient that man invented the institutions of freedom?," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 29(1), pages 103-129, February.
    2. Rougier, Eric, 2016. "“Fire in Cairo”: Authoritarian–Redistributive Social Contracts, Structural Change, and the Arab Spring," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 148-171.
    3. Eslamloueyan, Karim & Jafari, Mahboubeh, 2019. "Do better institutions offset the adverse effect of a financial crisis on investment? Evidence from East Asia," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 154-172.
    4. Jung, Juan, 2020. "Institutions and Telecommunications Investment," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    5. Yasir Khan & Attiya Yasmin Javid, 2015. "The Impact of Formal and Informal Institutions on Economic Performance: A Cross-Country Analysis," PIDE-Working Papers 2015:130, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics.
    6. François Facchini & Suban Subandono, 2017. "Institutions, entrepreneurship, and regional growth in Indonesia (1994-2010)," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-01745421, HAL.
    7. Goedhuys, Micheline & Sleuwaegen, Leo, 2013. "The Impact of International Standards Certification on the Performance of Firms in Less Developed Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 87-101.
    8. François Facchini, 2011. "Paysages et théorie (s) du marché," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-00637001, HAL.
    9. Lim, Jamus Jerome, 2014. "Institutional and structural determinants of investment worldwide," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 160-177.
    10. Marceau, Nicolas & Mongrain, Steeve, 2011. "Competition in law enforcement and capital allocation," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 136-147, January.
    11. Alston Lee J. & Mueller Bernardo, 2018. "Priests, Conflicts and Property Rights: the Impacts on Tenancy and Land Use in Brazil," Man and the Economy, De Gruyter, vol. 5(1), pages 1-26, June.
    12. Das Gupta, Monica & Bongaarts, John & Cleland, John, 2011. "Population, poverty, and sustainable development : a review of the evidence," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5719, The World Bank.
    13. Thennakoon, Jayanthi & Findlay, Christopher & Huang, Jikun & Wang, Jinxia, 2020. "Management adaptation to flood in Guangdong Province in China: Do property rights Matter?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    14. Wang, Hui & Riedinger, Jeffrey & Jin, Songqing, 2015. "Land documents, tenure security and land rental development: Panel evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 220-235.
    15. Chris D. Arnot & Martin K. Luckert & Peter C. Boxall, 2011. "What Is Tenure Security? Conceptual Implications for Empirical Analysis," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 87(2), pages 297-311.
    16. Jane Kabubo-Mariara, 2015. "Does Institutional Isolation Matter for Soil Conservation Decisions? Evidence From Kenya," SAGE Open, , vol. 5(1), pages 21582440155, February.
    17. John Giles & Ren Mu, 2018. "Village Political Economy, Land Tenure Insecurity, and the Rural to Urban Migration Decision: Evidence from China," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 100(2), pages 521-544.
    18. Aragón, Fernando M., 2015. "Do better property rights improve local income?: Evidence from First Nations' treaties," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 43-56.
    19. Iyigun, Murat, 2006. "Ottoman Conquests and European Ecclesiastical Pluralism," IZA Discussion Papers 1973, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Purnamita Dasgupta, 2007. "Common Property Resources as Development Drivers: A Study of Fruit Cooperative in Himachal Pradesh: India," Working Papers id:917, eSocialSciences.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00270475. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.