Calvin's view on the legitimacy of interest has had a great impact on the economic development of Western society. Although Calvin took a fundamentally positive attitude to interest, he also proposed several restrictions on the charging of interest. In this article, we investigate the relevance...

This paper explores the effect of country-level religiosity on corruption in bank lending at the firm level. Using data from the World Business Environment Survey, we find strong and robust evidence that firms in more religious countries perceive a higher level of corruption in bank lending than...

This paper empirically investigates the difference between Islamic and conventional banks in terms of business dynamics, cost structure, credit quality, and stability. It also examines the difference in the response of two types of banks during peak and trough phases of the business cycle. The...

This paper contributes to the Islamic studies literature, by exploring why many Islamic scholars believe that Islam bans conventional lending and mandates Islamic finance, and how the scriptural injunction against ribā is redefined when we consider the features of modern economic systems. The...

Since its inception, Islamic banking in Pakistan has shown remarkable growth and development. Most recent statistics unveil that industry has captured around 13% of the total banking market in Pakistan. This outstanding augmentation of the industry highlights the crucial role of Islamic banks...

This study proposes a renewal of the contemporary Islamic banking Murabaha financing model as it aggravates financial fragility with waning economic efficiency. We adapt the working capital framework of successful US companies like Amazon and Walmart and model an innovative Murabaha facility as...

Using unit-level data on the entire population of registered manufacturing SMEs in 2007 for India, we explore the impact of religiosity on their access to finance. The findings indicate that certain categories of religion, such as Hindus and Sikhs, are less likely to have access to institutional...

Inefficiencies in mainstream credit markets have pushed selected households to frequent high cost payday loans for their liquidity needs. Ironically, despite the prohibitive cost there is still persistent demand for the product. This paper rides on the public policy objective of expanding...

This paper explores the significance of Islamic banking in Malaysia for stability in the country's economy as a whole. Neither conventional theory nor Islamic economics puts forward a systematic explanation of financial intermediation; consequently, neither is capable of identifying...

I summarize the key points of the scholastic theory of usury following The Scholastic Analysis of Usury by John T. Noonan. Usury is the sin of taking interest on a loan without a just title. According to Scholastic moral theology, interest on loans may be justified by the extrinsic titles to...