Women’s empowerment has been identified as a prerequisite for poverty reduction. In addition to driving overall economic growth, women’s empowerment has been found to have beneficial effects on fertility rates, child health and education outcomes, as well as community development. This...

The dissertation consists of two parts. The first part investigates whether and how to protect cultural goods. In particular, Chapter II analyses how the notion of social identity affects the respective demand for protection of cultural goods independent of its tangible or intangible nature....

The concept of risk-sharing in financial and social contracts is one of the unique features of Islamic finance. Many theoretical studies generally claim superiority of an Islamic financial system based on pure equity and participatory modes of financing, while empirical studies provide mixed...