This paper studies optimal real estate organizational forms as a means of enhancing real estate values in the ongoing subprime crisis. We model the organizational response to stakeholder conflicts and regulatory changes to show how they evolve to an optimal form and undertake an optimal capital...

This paper models commodity futures in a rational expectations equilibrium specifically (i) incorporating the conflict of interests between Hedgers (Producers-Consumers) and Speculators and (ii) superimposing constraints to immunize the real sector of the economy from shocks of excessive futures...

This paper investigates the impact of financial development on property valuation in a rational expectations framework by modeling the agency theoretic perspective of risk averse investors (property owners) and financiers (banks/ capital markets). In contrast to previous research, we consider a...

Permanent disequilibrium in mainstream credit markets have pushed the unbanked and underbanked households to frequent high cost payday loans for their liquidity needs. Associated with the latter are welfare-reducing issues of predation and debt-entrapment. In response to this market failure, we...

The ongoing political turmoil in the Muslim world necessitates an investigation of the factors leading to centuries of underdevelopment. This essay studies the various perspectives (for and against) attributing Islam as a factor holding back the progress of the Muslim economies. We critically...

This paper was refined during my sabbatical study at James Madison University (JMU). I appreciate the hospitality of JMU particularly that of Ehsan Ahmed. I have benefited from the critical comments of the participants of the seminars at James Madison University; University of Birmingham;...

This study examines the economics of the optimal footprint area, atrium area, and height of an office building. We extend the work of Doiron, Shilling and Sirmans (1992) by incorporating realistic revenue and cost functions and reverting to the sufficient conditions of optimaility.

This paper models Continuous Workout Mortgages (CWMs) in an economic environment with refinancings and prepayments by employing a market-observable variable such as the house price index of the pertaining locality. Our main results include: (a) explicit modelling of repayment and interest-only...

This paper scrutinizes the ethicality of Islamic banks’ (IBs’) business model by employing the ‘objectives of Islamic law’ (Maqāsid al-Sharī’ah). This necessitates developing an ethical framework to construe two primary injunctions of Islamic finance, namely ribā and gharar. The...