Hasan Gürak - Böcker

The issue of riba, that is, interest/the "excess" or "surplus" on loans is crucial for both Islamic and non-Islamic countries. Western economic systems use interest to distribute financial resources efficiently for investment and/or consumption, while Islamic economies pursue a completely different strategy for financing loans, which adheres to Islamic laws and prohibits the activities of conventional banking systems with regard to interest. This book argues that there is scope for new definitions and analysis based on alternative concepts which respect Islamic values and principles, yet pave the way for modification and debate.The book comprises of two parts. Theoretical issues are dealt with in the first section. The first two chapters examine conventional Islamic views on the prohibition of riba, while Chapters 3 and 4 contain unprecedented and alternative theoretical analysis based on concepts such as "earned" (halal-permitted-legal) vs. "unearned" (haram-impermissible-illegal) income and SUKUK, that is, Islamic interest-free bonds. The second part of the book tackles another unconventional aspect of Islamic finance, that is, the concept of NAS. The book considers whether the NAS-influenced anti-inflationary interest policy was a success or failure. Empirical data is evaluated in terms of bank incomes, inflation rate, interest rate, and the distribution of income.This book will be a useful guide for students, scholars, and researchers of Islamic banking and finance.

The issue of riba, that is, interest/the "excess" or "surplus" on loans is crucial for both Islamic and non-Islamic countries. Western economic systems use interest to distribute financial resources efficiently for investment and/or consumption, while Islamic economies pursue a completely different strategy for financing loans, which adheres to Islamic laws and prohibits the activities of conventional banking systems with regard to interest. This book argues that there is scope for new definitions and analysis based on alternative concepts which respect Islamic values and principles, yet pave the way for modification and debate.The book comprises of two parts. Theoretical issues are dealt with in the first section. The first two chapters examine conventional Islamic views on the prohibition of riba, while Chapters 3 and 4 contain unprecedented and alternative theoretical analysis based on concepts such as "earned" (halal-permitted-legal) vs. "unearned" (haram-impermissible-illegal) income and SUKUK, that is, Islamic interest-free bonds. The second part of the book tackles another unconventional aspect of Islamic finance, that is, the concept of NAS. The book considers whether the NAS-influenced anti-inflationary interest policy was a success or failure. Empirical data is evaluated in terms of bank incomes, inflation rate, interest rate, and the distribution of income.This book will be a useful guide for students, scholars, and researchers of Islamic banking and finance.

This book examines the role of creative mental labor in determining long-term economic growth, production costs, and product pricing. By redefining theories of value-price and growth in relation to creative mental labor, it acknowledges the role of human talent and skill in the creation of new technologies, productions, and productions methods, and highlights the impact this has on supply and demand dynamics. Traditional and neoclassical notions of human capital are challenged to present a new theory of growth that is more aligned with real life economics.This book reevaluates ideas of economic growth by contextualising technological advancement and sustainable long-term economic growth within ideas of creative mental labor and skilled mental labor. It will be of interest to students and researchers working on labour economics.

This book examines the role of creative mental labor in determining long-term economic growth, production costs, and product pricing. By redefining theories of value-price and growth in relation to creative mental labor, it acknowledges the role of human talent and skill in the creation of new technologies, productions, and productions methods, and highlights the impact this has on supply and demand dynamics. Traditional and neoclassical notions of human capital are challenged to present a new theory of growth that is more aligned with real life economics.This book reevaluates ideas of economic growth by contextualising technological advancement and sustainable long-term economic growth within ideas of creative mental labor and skilled mental labor. It will be of interest to students and researchers working on labour economics.

This book examines the migration of highly skilled labour from developing countries to developed ones and assesses the economics costs associated with this. By highlighting the impact of migration on developing countries, it outlines the development challenges created by the loss of highly skilled workers, especially the loss of specialised knowledge. With a particular focus on the movement of labour from Türkiye to the rest of the world, the inability of Türkiye to grow its own IT and engineering industries is discussed, alongside attempts to retain highly skilled labour.This book offers a new perspective on global migration and the hidden economic costs associated with it. It will be relevant to students, researchers, and policymakers interested in labour and development economics.

Heterodox Economics 2 consists of articles which are complementary to the subjects presented in the book titled Heterodox Economics, published in 2012. The aim is to present alternative economic approaches based on the concept of Creative Mental Labor that are intended to make a contribution to the emergence of a new economics. The analysis throughout the book is based upon the principle that the original source of all the value added to products (considering nature as a given), is the mental and physical inputs of labor that continuously create new technologies while at the same time making use of the available technologies.

In an Islamic society, it is ethics that dominates and determines all behavior, including economic behavior. The Holy Koran emerges as the main source of all economic behavior and practices which are subject to the commands of Allah as stated in the Koran. Since Islam is a universal religion, the Islamic economic paradigm with its «scientific» Islamic economic theories has to be comprehensive as well as perfect in the sense of fairness, ethical values and fruitfulness. A universal Islamic economic system ought to have universally applicable economic laws acceptable by both, the Muslim and the non-Muslim world – meaning that when the word Islamic is taken out of the equation; it should appeal to all societies and countries equally, regardless of their religious persuasion. The question now is; do Islamic economics offer such «scientific» economic theories? Surprisingly, there were no such theories at all. In fact, there was not even a theory of interest, the most frequently referred to subject in Islamic economics. This appeared to be a serious omission. The Holy sources may be more than sufficient for Muslims, but what about non-Muslims? Isn’t it justified to expect Islamic «scientific» economic models and theories that are applicable to or able to guide non-Muslims?

Mainstream economic theories today are logical, consistent and even explanatory in many ways, when their relevance is tested in real economic situations, they often fail to correctly explain normal economic transactions. Thus they are only successful in explaining a fictional world and fictional economic relations that are largely based on unrealistic assumptions. Economic Growth is a study of new and alternative theories and models to replace the parables of these mainstream ideologies and hopes to appeal to open minded economists as a constructive contribution for the further development of new economic ideas. UPDATE JULY 2025Erratum: The author kindly asks the reader to ignore the incorrectly worded paragraph on page 185 cited below.　"Another interesting development is the decline in VA produced. The reason for this outcome is the reduction in the number of employees, which caused a decline in the total VA (LWC=π) produced."