The Scale of Entrepreneurship in Middle Eastern History: Inhibitive Roles of Islamic Institutions

Timur Kuran

No 10-14, Working Papers from Duke University, Department of Economics

Abstract: The historical record belies the claim that Islam impeded entrepreneurship by inculcating conformism and fatalism. However, the diametrically opposed view that Islamic institutions are necessarily supportive of entrepreneurship flies in the face of the historical transformations associated with economic modernization. Islamic institutions that served innovators well in the medieval global economy became dysfunctional as the world made the transition from personal to impersonal exchange. The key problem is that Islamic law failed to stimulate the development of organizational forms conducive to pooling and managing resources on a large scale.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Middle East; Islam; development; business history (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N25 N85 O43 P48 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 56
Date: 2010
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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