Islamic banking and economic growth: the Indonesian experience

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the short-run and the long-run relationships between Islamic banking development and economic growth in the case of Indonesia. Design/methodology/approach – Using quarterly data (2003:1-2010:2), this paper utilizes the bound testing approach of cointegration and error correction models, developed within an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) framework. Findings – The results demonstrate a significant relationship in short-run and long-run periods between Islamic financial development and economic growth. The relationship, however, is neither Schumpeter's supply-leading nor Robinson's demand-following. It appears to be bi-directional relationship. Originality/value – This paper uses empirical evidence to show the role of Islamic banks' financing towards economic performance of a country. To the best of the authors' knowledge, the study on the role of Islamic banking development towards economic growth is limited, particularly in the context of Indonesia.