The international financial crisis is likely to produce very different impacts on the various African countries, depending on their degree of openness to commercial and financial flows. The volume of foreign flows is a matter of concern given that exports, loans, public grants and remittances...

For many centuries, forms of Islamic charity such as zakat (i.e. "obligatory" alms) and waqf (i.e. endowment or philanthropic foundation) have proven to be essential tools for economic and human development. Both of these schemes aim to reduce income inequality and to encourage productive...

After debt cancellations, in particular MDRI (Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative) debt ratios in Low Income Country dropped to historic lows. They are now getting into debt again, because of Bretton Woods Institutions (BWI) new loans, of emerging countries’ (namely China) loans, and sometimes...

In 50 years, Africa has seen little progress in development. Our work analyzes a factor able to explain this singular path: the structure of financial systems. After deepening the concept of financial development and providing a better understanding of the relationship between the real and...