Epilogue to the article about economic development of Islamic countries (3)

The economics of wealth generation

The article points that, the level of income in an economy is related to the volume of goods and services produced.

The amount of this production in the long term is determined by three main factors:

-      the availability and exploitation of natural resources;

-      the quantity of productive capacity available in the form of buildings, infrastructure, machinery plant and equipment;

-      the availability, ability, education, training and resourcefulness of the workforce.

In the short term there may be additional factors such as recessions, shortages, price imbalances, natural disasters or wars that may also affect the level of production and income.

Essential to income producing capacity then are three "factors of production":

-      natural resources;

-      physical resources;

-      human resources.

The natural resource endowment of a county is a matter of circumstance.