I feel great pleasure in launching Islamic Economics Institute (IEI) Working Paper Series. The major objective of this series is to encourage those among us who have some good idea on a particular issue which has not yet reached a stage of fully crystallized thoughts to put it into writing. Almost every research starts from that stage. If the author is sure of the originality of his thoughts, some hints here and there may click and after some promising discussion of his Working Paper among peer researchers the idea will mature and can become a good piece of research. Peer review is an essential element in development of raw ideas into a refined research product. Presenting the idea in a Working Paper will ensure author’s rights over the idea which will encourage him to present it for peer review.

In addition, Working Paper Series of an institution ensures that scholars at other sister institutions keep abreast of what is happening at a particular institute and communicate among one another. Historically, debates through Working Papers among scholars working at different seats of higher learning led to many significant developments in economics.

In order to ensure that a Working Paper meets ‘minimum’ standards of quality and originality and has sufficient relevance for research in the area of Islamic economics and finance, an Editorial Committee for the Series has been constituted. I take this opportunity to encourage and invite the academic community at the King Abdul Aziz University and other sister institutions to participate in this series by submitting their ‘Work in Progress’ for publication in the series. In addition, I request them to help their colleagues by commenting on their papers with a spirit to improve the quality of the final product.

All Working Papers will be put on the website of the Institute and can be freely downloaded. A limited number will be produced in hard copy. The Editorial Committee will welcome any ideas to make this experiment more useful.


Abdallah Qurban Turkistani
Dean, Islamic Economics Institute