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on Arab World |
| By: | Ahmed Mohamed Badreldin (Faculty of Management Technology, The German University in Cairo) |
| Abstract: | One consequence of the current financial crisis is that many countries began to reevaluate their financial systems and recognize its flaws and drawbacks. They also began the search for alternative systems for their economies; one of the proposed systems is the current Islamic financial model. This model is still in its infancy and many modifications and additions are required. It also lacks the necessary financial performance measurement tools similar to those used by conventional banks for managers and investors alike. This paper evaluates this lack of performance measures. It then adapts a currently applied ROE Analysis Tool used in conventional banks, to the currently established model of Islamic Banks and tests its applicability and evaluates its usefulness. The findings suggest that such an adapted model would be quite successful for use in Islamic banks and would offer much better analysis and basis of comparison within the Islamic financial system. It also suggests that much of the previously measured performance of Islamic Banks is unsound and should be revised for accuracy and reliability because of the flawed methods used for measurement in the first place. |
| Keywords: | Performance measurement, ratio analysis, ROE, Islamic banks |
| JEL: | G21 G29 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:guc:wpaper:16&r=ara |
| By: | Silvia Rashad Gad Tadros (Faculty of Management Technology, The German University in Cairo) |
| Abstract: | The free market economy most countries pursue nowadays is never entirely free from government intervention. Policy makers devote special attention to the regulation of financial markets and with the current financial crisis, the quality of the banking regulations need to be reconsidered. This paper aims to provide a tool to measure the quality of banking regulation and supervision. This is usually a difficult task because it is a qualitative analysis and is arbitrary. However, a regulation index has been modelled that is similar to the concept of a cost-benefit analysis. The input index resembles the cost signifying the efforts made by governments and supervisors to measure the intensity of the regulation. The output index resembles the benefit which shows the outcome of the governments’ efforts. Finally, applying this index on Egypt filled a research gap in this area. |
| Keywords: | Banking regulation, Quality index, Egypt |
| JEL: | G28 G21 L51 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:guc:wpaper:17&r=ara |
| By: | Rami Abdelkafi; Hatem Derbel; Ali Chkir |
| Abstract: | This paper is dedicated to study the impact of economic freedom on economic growth. We use the methodology of panel data for the case of six Mediterranean developing countries. Our results show that the index of economic freedom in the process of development is not necessarily efficient in these developing countries. Therefore these countries need economic policies to precede the process of economic liberalization. |
| Keywords: | État, Pays en développement, Liberté économique et Croissance |
| JEL: | C13 C21 H10 H11 H50 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:drm:wpaper:2009-35&r=ara |
| By: | Jamel Boukhatem |
| Abstract: | Based on the methodology adopted by Eichengreen and Luengnaruemitchai (2004), Luengnaruemitchai and Ong (2005), Borensztein and al. (2006), and Eichengreen and al. (2006), this study analyse the development of local bond markets. We show that the development of bond markets is a phenomenon with multiple dimensions. The contribution of our study is threefold. First, we do not limit our analysis to Asian and Latin-American emerging countries, we consider although countries from the Middle East and Africa according to data availability. Then we introduce other factors to better understand the development of bond markets. Finally, we present a dynamic version of the determinants of bond market development. |
| Keywords: | Bond markets, economic factors, institutional factors, economic policy, dynamic panel data, GMM system |
| JEL: | E44 E62 F34 G15 G28 I20 J24 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:drm:wpaper:2009-32&r=ara |
| By: | Hagemejer, Jan; Cieslik, Andrzej |
| Abstract: | The EU-sponsored Barcelona conference in 1995 set the ambitious goal of creating the Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade Area (EUROMED) that would include the European Union and the MENA countries by 2010. The intermediate steps towards building the EUROMED have involved bilateral “vertical” trade liberalization between the EU and the particular MENA countries as well as “horizontal” trade liberalization among themselves. In this paper we evaluate empirically the effects of the new EU Association Agreements with the MENA countries using the augmented gravity equations derived from a variety of neoclassical and new trade theory models and panel data for the period 1980-2004. We find that while these agreements increased significantly imports of the MENA countries from the EU they had no positive impact on their exports to the EU which can be attributed to the asymmetry in trade liberalization between the EU and the MENA countries. |
| Keywords: | bilateral trade; gravity equation; preferential trade liberalization |
| JEL: | F11 F12 |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:17721&r=ara |