About Me

I received my B.A., M.A., and PhD, all in Economics, from Washington University in St. Louis.  Prior to Washington University, I spent my initial years of college education at KPP/ITM from 1985-1988 and then my junior year at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).  I moved to Washington University in St. Louis in 1989 and completed my B.A. in economics in 1990, after which I continued to the post-graduate program leading to PhD at the same institution.  After completing my PhD in 1996, I joined the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) and served the institution for 12 years.  After the IIUM, I served Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) from 2009 to 2011.  Since 2011, I have been with INCEIF University (formerly known as International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance or INCEIF) as a professor in Financial Economics and Econometrics and since 2018 has been tasked as the Deputy President (Academic) and Dean of the Postgraduate and Professional Studies.

My areas of interest include Money/Macroeconomics, Development Economics (with focus on Institutions and Institutional Quality), Islamic Banking and Applied Econometrics.  My publications have appeared in various internationally refereed journals, which include Journal of Forecasting, Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Applied Economics, Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Emerging Markets Review, Economic Systems, Economic Modelling and many others.