I= RELIGIOUS ORIENTATION AS A FACTOR IN TIME ALLOCATION: EVIDENCE FROM CROSS SECTION PAKISTANI DATA
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Title of Thesis
RELIGIOUS ORIENTATION AS A FACTOR IN TIME ALLOCATION: EVIDENCE FROM CROSS SECTION PAKISTANI DATA
Author(s)
Syed Nisar Hussain Hamdani
Institute/University/Department Details
Department of Economics/ Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad
Session
2000
Subject
Economics
Number of Pages
240
Keywords (Extracted from title, table of contents and abstract of thesis)
religious orientation, time allocation, life cycle allocation, economic choices, islamic time horizon, religiosity indices, conventional economics, consumer theory, econometeric framework

Abstract
This thesis attempts to extend the life cycle allocation models by including religion as a factor influencing an individual's economic choices. The study uses Islamic time horizon that extends the individual's worldly life span to include the concerns about life after death. The study generates a few testable propositions, some of which are also tested with data. An econometric model is also developed for the determination of households' resource allocation in an Islamic society. This model is subsequently transformed to make it empirically estimable.

Islamic beliefs on reward and punishment in life here and life after death are found to have considerable economic consequences and lead to a systematically different allocation of individuals' financial and time resources than that commonly understood under conventional microeconomic theory. In particular, the allocation of time and monetary resources for others in the form of voluntary work and donation emerges as an important component of economic decision-making in the Islamic context.

The study uses primary data on 302 households collected through a survey for estimating the empirical model. The data on religiosity levels of respondents has been generated on the basis of religiosity indices developed in the study.

In the empirical analysis it is found that religious activities, volunteering and charity are similar to other economic variables and respond to the factors like prices and income, household size, etc. Another important finding of this study is that more religious persons, on average, give relatively less time to market activities, and allocate proportionately more time to other activities ordained by Allah (leisure, voluntary work, religious duties), as compared to less religious persons. Such a behavior emerges from the belief that necessities of life for which an individual works in the market are promised by Allah to everyone, whereas comforts and luxuries require special human effort. Since Islam instills contentment, a more religious person would make only moderate efforts to earn livelihoods and at the same time live a balanced life blended with moderate consumption, altruistic concerns and religious obligations. This result provides a point of departure from conventional economics. Thus due to the integrated nature of life in Islamic framework, individuals are tempted to allocate time to all the activities concerning self, home, society and religion in a more balanced way.
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4155.08 KB
S. No. Chapter Title of the Chapters Page Size (KB)
1 0 Contents
139.62 KB
2 1 Introduction 1
160.94 KB
  1.1 Background
  1.2 Need And Importance Of The Study
  1.3 Study Objectives
  1.4 Organization Of The Study
3 2 Review Of Literature 10
688.37 KB
  2.1 Introduction
  2.2 Basic Issues
  2.3 Theory Of Resource Allocation And Religion And Economics Of Time Allocation Empirical Work On Religiosity And Economic Behavior
  2.4 Consumers' Religiosity And Islamic Economics Concluding Remarks
4 3 Religion And Resource Allocation A Theoretical Framework 52
1144.65 KB
  3.1 Introduction
  3.2 The Islamic Perspective Of Consumer Behavior Generalizing Consumer Theory In Religious Perspective
  3.3 Appendix 3.1
  3.4 Appendix 3.2
5 4 Econometeric Framework 104
292.61 KB
  4.1 Introduction
  4.2 A Model Of Lifetime Allocation
  4.3 Appendix 4.1
6 5 The Empirical Model 128
751.29 KB
  5.1 Introduction
  5.2 The Of Variables
  5.3 The Data
  5.4 Descriptive Analysis
7 6 The Econometric Results And Discussion 167
231.99 KB
  6.1 Estimation Procedure
  6.2 The Results
8 7 Concluding Remarks 182
889.85 KB
  7.1 Conclusions
  7.2 Directions For Future Research
  7.3 General Appendices
  7.4 Appendix 1: The Questionnaire 189
  7.5 Appendix 2: Islamic Terms & Concepts 207
9 8 References 217
126.52 KB