After introducing some fundamental concepts of relevance to Islamic finance, this article describes investment funds used to make investments in the United States, lease (ijara) investment structures used for real estate investments in different jurisdictions (including the early development of...

This study examines conditional financial development from information sharing in 53 African countries for the period 2004-2011, using contemporary and non-contemporary quantile regressions (QR) which enable the assessment of the effect of information sharing throughout the conditional...

Asia's bank-centered financial systems require the reduced supply-demand gap in lending as a core policy pillar to improve small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) access to finance. Meanwhile, the diversification of financing modalities beyond conventional bank lending is another key policy...

In more than 130 years, the cooperative banks and rural banks, have become a best practice, widespread in all the Italian regions so as to become, through Federcasse, a federal system included among the 130 European banks, referents ECB. A model that today has about 400 local banks and that,...

This study investigates the role of information sharing offices (public credit registries and private credit bureaus) in reducing market power for financial access in the African banking industry. The empirical evidence is based on a panel of 162 banks from 42 countries for the period 2001-2011....

This study assesses how information diffusion dampens the adverse effect of market power on the price and quantity of loans provided by a panel of 162 banks from 39 African countries for the period 2001-2011. The empirical evidence is based on three endogenity-robust estimation techniques,...

The working group, in valuing the scientific publications made in previous years on the quantification and measurement of the indicators of 'attraction' of a territory, tried to find a sustainable development model, verifing the effect that the recent introduction APEA (Industrial Areas...

We examine policy thresholds of information sharing for financial development in 53 African countries for the period 2004-2011. Public credit registries (PCR) and private credit bureaus (PCB) are used as proxies for reducing information asymmetry whereas financial development includes all...

During the last decade, derivatives markets became an asset class of their own and influenced the financial landscape strongly. While the financial sector contributes positively to overall growth in many studies up the mid nineties, a positive contribution of the financial sector to economic...

A lack of financial literacy can hamper the ability of individuals to make well-informed financial decisions. For people who exhibit problems with financial decision making, financial advice has the potential to serve as a substitute for financial knowledge and capability. However, data from the...