Islamic banks are prohibited from charging or paying interest, and thus can operate only on the basis of profit-sharing arrangements. This paper provides a brief survey of the theory and practice of Islamic banking. It covers developments in Islamic banking since the mid-1970s, how such banks...

This paper attempts to set out the principal issues that need to be resolved in formulating a proposal for quotas and voice reform in the IMF that could command broad support. Following John Rawls, we argue that "justice is the first virtue of social institutions," and we use his theory of...

This paper studies the implications of foreign currency deposits (FCDs) for international liquidity shortages in Pakistan. The analysis focuses on how the large volume of FCDs and the specific institutional characteristics of those deposits have made the Pakistan economy highly vulnerable to...

This study was prepared by Zubair Iqbal of the Middle Eastern Department and Abbas Mirakhor of the Research Department. To collect information and views for the study, the authors held discussions with the authorities and representatives of commercial banks in the Islamic Republic of Iran and in...

With cross-section data from 53 emerging and mature markets, we provide evidence that equity premium puzzle is a global phenomenon. In addition to risk aversion, equity premium may reflect ambiguity aversion. We explore the sources of equity premium using some pertinent fundamental independent...

The developing economies of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) have been the recipients of a considerable volume of capital inflows in the 1990s. Given the increased integration of capital markets, it is not surprising that monetary control became more difficult for many developing...

One of the more important yet puzzling aspects of the recent global stagflation has been the rather surprising resiliency of growth rates of real income in non-oil developing countries during the 1973-80 period in the face of the marked slowdown of corresponding growth rates in the industrial...

Movements in global capital during the late 1990s and the greater emphasis on price stability led many countries to abandon fixed exchange rate regimes and to design institutions and monetary policies to achieve credibility in the goal of lowering inflation. Such recent developments have brought...

There is little empirical research on whether Balassa-Samuelson effects can explain the long-run behavior of real exchange rates in developing countries. This paper presents new evidence on this issue based on a panel data sample of 16 developing countries. The paper finds that the...

This paper reviews the theoretical and empirical aspects of the relationship between macroeconomic policies and the long-run rate of growth of GNP. The macroeconomic policies examined include fiscal policies, monetary and interest rate policies, external policies, and policies to reform the...