Asad Zaman — Defining Islamic Economics

Regarding Western economics, in which he is rigorously trained, Asad Zaman is probably closest to Institutionalism and Post Keynesianism, even though he is an econometrician and statistician.  He has recently been writing on Islamic economics, as well as on economic pedagogy.

Asad Zaman (born 1953) is a Pakistani Professor, Economist and social scientist. He is currently Vice Chancellor of the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, Islamabad.[1] Previously he was Director General of International Institute of Islamic Economics, International Islamic University, Islamabad. He earned his PhD in Economics from Stanford University in 1978, MS Statistics from Stanford University in 1976 and BS in Mathematics from MIT in 1974. He is also a member of Monetary Policy Committee of State Bank of Pakistan and Editor of International Econometric Review.[2] He has been appointed as member of Economic Advisory Council formulated by Imran Khan, the Prime Minister of Pakistan.

Zaman finished high school in Karachi, Pakistan in 1971, and moved to MIT, Boston for higher Education. He finished his BS in Math in 1974. He finished his Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University in another three years from 1974 to 1977, picking up a Masters in Statistics along the way. He was unique in taking first year graduate sequences at Economics, Mathematics, and Statistics simultaneously. This was because he planned a doctorate in Econometrics, which required knowledge of all three fields.[citation needed]
Zaman did a post-Doctoral year at the Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE), at the Universite Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium from 1977 to 78. — Wikipedia.

The US Catholic bishops advocate an economics integrated with social democracy and "natural law" as the basis of human rights, human behavior, and human interaction.

 We urge Catholics to use the following ethical framework for economic life as principles for reflection, criteria for judgment and directions for action. These principles are drawn directly from Catholic teaching on economic life.

1. The economy exists for the person, not the person for the economy.

2. All economic life should be shaped by moral principles. Economic choices and institutions must be judged by how they protect or undermine the life and dignity of the human person, support the family and serve the common good.

3. A fundamental moral measure of any economy is how the poor and vulnerable are faring.

4. All people have a right to life and to secure the basic necessities of life (e.g., food, clothing, shelter, education, health care, safe environment, economic security.)

5. All people have the right to economic initiative, to productive work, to just wages and benefits, to decent working conditions as well as to organize and join unions or other associations.

6. All people, to the extent they are able, have a corresponding duty to work, a responsibility to provide the needs of their families and an obligation to contribute to the broader society.

7. In economic life, free markets have both clear advantages and limits; government has essential responsibilities and limitations; voluntary groups have irreplaceable roles, but cannot substitute for the proper working of the market and the just policies of the state.

8. Society has a moral obligation, including governmental action where necessary, to assure opportunity, meet basic human needs, and pursue justice in economic life.

9. Workers, owners, managers, stockholders and consumers are moral agents in economic life. By our choices, initiative, creativity and investment, we enhance or diminish economic opportunity, community life and social justice.

10. The global economy has moral dimensions and human consequences. Decisions on investment, trade, aid and development should protect human life and promote human rights, especially for those most in need wherever they might live on this globe.