Ruzita Mohd Amin

Formation of desired values: the role of parents

This study investigates the values of teenagers and their parents, and the influence parents have on the values of their children. Values are categorized into terminal and instrumental values. Different from previous works on values, the measurement of both these values is based on al‐Ghazali’s works in line with Islamic ethics. In addition, this study also determines the “oughtness” of both categories of values. The results reveal that overall, both teenagers and parents had good instrumental and terminal values. However, there were differences in the terminal values of teenagers and parents across ethnic groups. The analysis also shows that teenagers shared similar terminal and instrumental values as their parents, implying that parents had a significant influence on the development of their children’s values. Thus parents play an important role in transmitting good values to their children in resisting negative influences.

Trade and Human Development in OIC Countries: A Panel Data Analysis

This study examines the relationship between trade and the OIC countries’ social developments as measured by the Human Development Index (HDI) using the generalized method of moments (GMM) procedure in a panel data distributed lag model for the years 1980 to 2005, with a five-year increments as well as annual data from 2000 to 2009. It addresses two questions: (i) whether trade has a positive relationship with human development as reflected by longevity, educational attainment and income in the HDI measurement, and (ii) whether trade still has a positive relationship with human development, when the income component of the HDI is excluded. Comparisons are made across OIC countries based on three World Bank Classifications by Income, namely, high income, middle income and low income countries. Trade is found to have a significant positive relationship with HDI for all income categories, but insignificant relationship with nonincome HDI. The finding indicates that trade is associated with human development only through income channels, and it is not associated with other components, such as longevity, literacy level and educational attainment. More of appropriate and effective public policies need to be formulated and implemented so as to achieve the desired outcomes of multidimensional human development in the true sense of the word.

A Survey on the Objective of the Firm and Models of Producer Behavior in the Islamic Framework@@@دراسة استطلاعية لهدف المنشأة ونماذج سلوك المنتج من منظور إسلامي

This paper presents a review of related works that have been written over the years on the objective of the firm from the Islamic perspective. For the purpose of analysis, a general framework on proper economic conduct and objective of economic order as discussed by al-Ghazali and Maududi, respectively is provided. Several studies that provide mathematical models to explain the producer behavior are further examined in a separate section. Our analysis finds that, in general, the arguments provided in justifying the objective of the firm as found in the various studies have the Islamic framework in mind. The theoretical models that have been developed can be used as a basis to formulate a more comprehensive model on Islamic producer behavior that provides more rigor and robustness to the analysis.