Do Islamic banks perform efficiently? Although the phenomenon of Islamic banking and finance has developed significantly in recent years, only very few studies have tackled this central question. This paper provides new evidence on the performance of 18 Islamic banks over the period 1997-2000....

This paper explores the consequences of rising returns to human capital investment on the personal savings rate. Over the past two decades, the return to college education has increased relative to high school education leading economists to argue the presence of 'skill biased technological...

The paper investigates the existence and extent of economies of scale in depository and settlement systems. Evidence from 16 settlement institutions across different regions for the years 1993–2000 indicates the existence of significant economies of scale. The degree of such economies,...

Economic phenomena are interrelated. From a growth perspective, time analysis concerning the choices of present and future consumption and the choices between the allocation of scientific resources should be combined with a space analysis regarding the dissemination of economic activity through...

Resources used in scientific activities are, as any other, scarce. Hence, the economic system has, in every time moment, to choose how to allocate technological inputs. A technology choices model is developed, where scarce scientific resources are alternatively allocated to basic science...

We experimentally test for the effect of an additional alternative on the measured risk preferences of farmers in rural Peru. In our experiment, subjects revealed their risk preferences with a series of choices between two gambles. We added a third gamble, which was always dominated by one of...

We study the technological pre-conditions for a cost-minimizing choice of technique in the presence of government emission targets on by- products of production. Whether a by-product is a desirable commodity or an undesirable pollutant is determined endogeneously as part of the price-quantity...

Research activities have uncertain outcomes. The question asked in this paper is whether or not this uncertainty can be a central piece on the explanation of long run consumption growth paths. More specifically, we inquire how the existence of different research projects, with different degrees...

This paper estimates the effect of Wal-Mart expansion on retail employment at the county level. Using an instrumental-variables approach to correct for both measurement error in entry dates and endogeneity of the timing of entry, I find that Wal-Mart entry increases retail employment by 100 jobs...

This paper builds a production function of skilled and unskilled labour for the economy that does not grow. The paper uses the constant elasticity of substitution production function (CES) of skilled and unskilled labour on the micro level as an important building stone. The paper obtains a...