Gulf's socio-economic reform

The Economist | Economic reform in the Gulf: Time to sheikh it up http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21706531-how-get-locals-work-time-sheikh-it-up?frsc=dg%7Cd

War and Peace: Why is political stability pivotal for economic growth of OIC countries?

Since the end of World War II, Muslim countries have been plagued by sixteen major wars, many coups, political, religious and ethnic insurgency, and revolutions. While many developing countries in south-east Asia have emerged as developed economy in this time period, in spite of having sufficient natural resources, most of the Muslim countries are still fighting with higher inflation, unemployment, poverty, inequality, poor healthcare, illiteracy, and rampant corruption. These affect not only the political stability of a country but also hinder sustainable economic growth. This paper makes an initial attempt to study political stability and growth in OIC countries by using relatively advanced dynamic GMM and simultaneous quantile regression. It is found that political stability has significant positive effect on growth. The impact of political stability on economic growth is more important for lower-income countries than higher income countries. Most of the low to mid income oil dependent OIC countries suffer from chronic misery, higher inflation, and unemployment and it has significant negative effect on growth. Oil revenue plays a major role in economic growth of oil dependent developing countries both OIC and Non-OIC. The importance of political stability, economic diversification, and macroeconomic stability has been restated with policy recommendations for oil dependent developing countries in general and OIC countries in particular.

For details you can read the following working paper:

War and Peace: Why is political stability pivotal for economic growth of OIC countries?

How to write assignment, proposal and academic papers?

What are the important points to remember while writing assignment, research proposal, and academic papers?

Photo Courtesy: https://theeconomyofmeaning.com/2013/06/01/funny-cartoon-the-evolution-of-intellectual-freedom/

It is very important that you have an interesting topic which is current, important for industry and academia. Finding this issue can be the  most difficult part of writing assignment, proposal and acedmic paper. And it doesn't come overnight. You have to read, read and read a lot on your topic of interest. Reading quality papers can help you finding your topic of ineterest.

I would suggest you to focus on something which you have already done as a project work or assignment in your previous courses. Try to find connections with the latest developments in your field of interest. For example, if you are business graduate, you need to read regularly FT.com/NY Times/Economist/Bloomberg business etc., economic and finance news portal. 

Then try to find relevant literatures with the help of your library or online search engines like Google Scholar, RePEc, Research Gate, and Academia. If you have online subscription of ScienceDirect, Emerald, Taylor and Francis, JSTOR, NBER, and other publishers, you can search for related articles from the specific journals. Nowadays, many universities have comprehensive online search portal like EBSCO.

While you are searching literatures you really don't need to read the whole papers read just the abstract and if you find it interesting and relevant go to introduction then look at conclusion. Initially, try to collect as many relevant articles as you can. Sort them according to importance, you can also sort them how frequently they have been cited in other relevant research works. 

Then, start making summary table and write your literature review, as it shows how familiar you are with the existing literature. At the same time, try to think which variables are important and frequently used in the literature. Is it available online for free or you have to pay for data? Then think about econometric methodology you can apply to address the research questions and propose a tentative model but it is not that important at the writing proposal stage. Many researchers argue that you better collect data and run your econometric models to see whether you find significant results in your key variables.

Then what might the potential/tentative outcome of your research and how policy makers and industry can apply them in solving the real life problems. Don't forget to mention your research limitations at every stage from Introduction to Conclusion. This indicates that you are aware about your shortcomings but still proceed to investigate the issue because of its importance.

In fact, many Prof's don't look at the methodology part seriously in a research proposal as you would learn more about it later and agree with your supervisors. 

This is how I approach writing assignment, proposal, and acedmic papers. I know it is not an essay task to create your own scholarly works even it is harder for non-native English speakers to write papers in English. Moreover, research is painstaking process as you need a lot of thinking, reading and writing. According to one my favourite Professors and  mentor Mansur Masih, you need many sleepless night to come up with something really interesting. 

Wish this brief note will give some idea and help in writing your assignment, proposal, and academic papers InshaAllah.

My recent working papers on Islamic economics finance and Shari'ah

1. Uddin, Md Akther & Masih, Mansur, 2016. "War and peace: why is political stability pivotal for economic growth of OIC countries?," MPRA Paper 71678, University Library of Munich, Germany.
2. Bm, Hakim & Uddin, Md Akther, 2016. "Does Islamic bank financing lead to economic growth: An empirical analysis for Malaysia," MPRA Paper 69075, University Library of Munich, Germany.
3. Uddin, Md Akther, 2015. "Risk Management Practices in Islamic Bank: A Case Study of Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited," MPRA Paper 68781, University Library of Munich, Germany.
4. Uddin, Md Akther, 2015. "Principles and application of Preemption in Islamic finance: A critical analysis," MPRA Paper 67713, University Library of Munich, Germany.
5. Uddin, Md Akther & Baddou, Mehdi & Gulzar Mohd, Rosana, 2015. "Implications of Chinese Yuan on China’s competitiveness," MPRA Paper 70144, University Library of Munich, Germany.
6. Uddin, Md Akther & Masih, Mansur, 2015. "Finance, growth and human development: An Islamic economic development perspective," MPRA Paper65818, University Library of Munich, Germany.
7. Ullah, Nazim & Uddin, Md Akther, 2015. "A Social Business Model for Poverty Alleviation through Collecting & Merchandising of Dry Fish: A Case Study from Bangladesh," MPRA Paper 67824, University Library of Munich, Germany.
8. Uddin, Md Akther, 2015. "Governance from Islamic economic perspective: A Shari’ah governance framework," MPRA Paper 67695, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 17 Oct 2015.
9. Uddin, Md Akther, 2015. "Risk Management Practices in Islamic Bank: A Case Study of Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited," MPRA Paper 68781, University Library of Munich, Germany.
10. Uddin, Md Akther, 2015. "Principles of Islamic Finance: Prohibition of Riba, Gharar and Maysir," MPRA Paper 67711, University Library of Munich, Germany.
11. Uddin, Md Akther & Halim, Asyraf, 2015. "Islamic monetary policy: Is there an alternative of interest rate?," MPRA Paper 67697, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 07 Jun 2015.
12. Uddin, Md Akther & Sultan, Yousuf & Hosen, Mosharrof & Ullah, Nazim, 2015. "A critical analysis of Islamic bond: A case study on Sunway Treasury Sukuk," MPRA Paper 68785, University Library of Munich, Germany.
13. Uddin, Md Akther, 2014. "Can GDP growth rate be used as a benchmark instrument for Islamic monetary policy?," MPRA Paper 67696, University Library of Munich, Germany.