All dogs have fleas, therefore all dogs have legs with which to scratch. Similarly, any government committed to a generally open trade policy will be pestered for ‘import relief’ by one industry or another – usually on grounds that its situation is ‘exceptional.’ It follows that...

Internet resources, extended media coverage and international organizations' reports recently witness the increasing interest of western banks in new models of finance, particularly Islamic finance and microfinance. This new trend is not only channeled through the frame of corporate social...

We use a classic Merton credit risk framework to argue that Islamic Banking Institutions (IBIs) face less incentive to take on risks than Conventional Banking Institutions (CBI). IBIs have less incentive for risk shifting both in and outside of distress situations. We test and confirm this...

In Against the gods: the remarkable story of risk (1996), Peter L. Bernstein illustrates how the mastery of risk has driven modern Western society into converting 'the future from an enemy into an opportunity'. Far from being an antagonist, as the unpredictable whim of gods or mysterious fate,...

The global Islamic finance industry is estimated to be worth approximately US $1.4 trillion, and has grown much faster than conventional finance over the past four decades. Although 80% of this industry is concentrated in the Middle East, North Africa, East Asia, and the Pacific, it is active in...

We investigate whether and how political systems affect the financial soundness of conventional and Islamic banks. Using factors extracted from principal component analysis, we find that Islamic banks underperform their conventional counterparts in more democratic political systems but...

A new type of debt securities called ṣukūk certificates have grown to US$ 840 billion in 11 financial markets as of 2011. These Islamic debt instruments share some features similar to conventional bonds, so market operators treat both as bonds. Whether it is appropriate to treat ṣukūk...

This paper provides cross-country evidence on financial stability in seven markets with a dual system of Takaful companies and conventional insurers over the period 2009-2016. It tests if differences in soundness between Takaful firms and conventional insurers exist as well as if ownership...

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether religious prohibitions have a significant impact on the propensity to invest in foreign securities. We do this by exploring the effect of the Islamic prohibition of interest, which as we hypothesize, should impact the level of investment in...

Conventional finance has long been plagued by crises that cause economic dislocations and impede sustained economic growth, with banks and non-bank financial institutions requiring periodic bailouts. Numerous developing countries have been unable to mobilise domestic and foreign financial...