The IDB Prize in Islamic Economics, Finance and Islamic Banking General Trends and Prospects for Development

Abstract

This study aims at shedding light on the general trends of IDB Prize in Islamic economics, finance and Islamic banking, and  investigating the means to develop these trends in the light of internal and external challenges facing Islamic economics, compared with  on going prizes in the same field, and to determine the nature of the relationship between them, namely whether it is complementary or competitive.

The study reached a number of findings including: (1) The relationship between these prizes is complementary not competitive. (2) The reason behind Saudi Arabia  topping the list of award-winning countries lies in its inclusion of all categories of potential candidates including economists, jurisprudents, businessmen, institutions, and managers, while other countries cover, at best, two categories only.  (3) The average age of the IDB Prize laureate is 64 years, which is less than the average age of Nobel Prize laureates in economics which is estimated at 67 years. (4) The youngest laureate of IDB Prize is the same age as the youngest laureate of Nobel Prize in economics, which is 51 years. (5) 67% of the IDB Prize laureates have graduated from Western universities. The study recommends to establish an index for measuring the prize share of each country based on its real scientific wealth, and prepare a qualitative study to shed light on the structure of the intellectual trends of the prize laureates and the social impact of winning the prize beyond citing scientific research.