For a long time, microfinance was considered an appropriate tool to accomplish social and financial goals simultaneously. Over time microfinance has become more commercialized, transforming into a financially efficient industry, allowing more customers to have access to more sophisticated...

The objective of this paper is to ascertain whether Islamic banks do in fact manage profit distributions and if so, what factors are associated with the extent of profit distribution management. The results suggest that most Islamic banks manage profit distributions, with the extent of profit...

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...

What made finance develop in the West but not in China? We argue that long before modern finance, China chose to rely on the kinship-based Confucian clan, whereas the West chose the corporate entity combined with impersonal instruments, to deal with the challenges of interpersonal risk sharing...

In the development of industrial revolution 4.0, sharia financial institutions keep improving their product innovation through the use of financial technology (fintech). Through development and innovation, society is expected to keep up to date with the current financial services. This research...

We study the role of morality in debt repayment, using an experiment with the credit card customers of a large Islamic bank in Indonesia. In our main treatment, clients receive a text message stating that “non-repayment of debts by someone who is able to repay is an injustice." This moral...

There is growing recent interest about the effect that local culture, social values and norms, derived from religion have on corporate risk taking. The growing literature on this topic has provided evidence of the effect of religious adherence in reducing risk taking. However, the effect of...

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...

We document that a firm's culture — specifically, its religiosity — affects its cost of debt. Firms in higher-religiosity counties have higher credit ratings and lower debt costs. The impact of religiosity is stronger for firms with greater information asymmetry and during recessions....

The discipline of Islamic economics emerged making a claim of providing a viable alternative to the then prevailing social orders; namely capitalism and socialism. However, both ideological as well as empirical development of this discipline has made it clear that it seeks its foundation in...