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on Islamic Finance |
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Issue of 2019‒04‒15
four papers chosen by |
| By: | Nashihah, Faidatun |
| Abstract: | This article describes the market as a meeting place between demand and supply for the type of goods or services. In a capitalist economic system, buyers and sellers bargain with each other to determine prices that give freedom to the market and the government must not intervene which can disrupt the market balance. While the socialist economic system has a view by eliminating the role of markets and the government plays an active role in resolving and regulating all economic problems. In Islamic economics, the market is left freely or the government distorts the existence of a market mechanism. Using a comparative approach to the existing economic system in the world, this article concludes that the Islamic economic system combines market freedom and the role of government that emphasizes the principle of maslahah (goodness), which is a condition of market justice that emphasizes the fulfillment of people's needs in achieving welfare (falah). |
| Keywords: | market mechanism, capitalism, socialism, Islamic economics, falah |
| JEL: | E02 I31 P10 P20 P51 |
| Date: | 2019–03–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:93190&r=all |
| By: | Eline D'Haene; Sam Desiere; Marijke D'Haese; Wim Verbeke; Koen Schoors (-) |
| Abstract: | The impact of religious behaviour on food systems in developing economies has been understated in scholarly studies. With its different Christian, Islamic, and traditional faiths, Ethiopia emerges as a natural experiment to investigate the impact of religious practices on demand. The inclusion of livestock products in Ethiopian diets is extremely low, even by African standards; a phenomenon often explained by supply and marketing problems combined with low income levels. We deviate from this dominant narrative and single out the impact of religion. We show how fasting practices of Orthodox Christians, the largest religious group, affect milk intake decisions and channels through which consumed milk is sourced. Employing countrywide data collected by the Living Standards Measurement Studies, we find, as expected, that the Orthodox fasting adversely affect milk consumption and decreases the share of milk sourced from own production in Orthodox families, an effect we quantify in this paper. Moreover, we observe spillover effects of Orthodox fasting on other religious groups in dominant Orthodox localities. Our findings improve the understanding of the broader societal implication of religiously inspired consumption rituals and underscore the challenges resulting from religion-induced demand cycles to design policies that aim at developing the livestock sector. |
| Date: | 2019–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rug:rugwps:19/969&r=all |
| By: | Mathieu Couttenier (University of Lyon, ENS de Lyon, Gate UMR 5824, F-69342 Lyon, France and CEPR); Sophie Hatte (University of Lyon, ENS de Lyon, Gate UMR 5824, F-69342 Lyon, France); Mathias Thoenig (Department of Economics, University of Lausanne and CEPR); Stephanos Vlachos (Department of Economics, University of Vienna) |
| Abstract: | We study how news coverage of immigrant criminality impacted municipality-level votes in the November 2009 “minaret ban” referendum in Switzerland. The campaign, successfully led by the populist Swiss People’s Party, played aggressively on fears of Muslim immigration and linked Islam with terrorism and violence. We combine an exhaustive violent crime detection dataset with detailed information on crime coverage from 12 newspapers. The data allow us to quantify the extent of pre-vote media bias in the coverage of migrant criminality. We then estimate a theory-based voting equation in the cross-section of municipalities. Exploiting random variations in crime occurrences, we find a first-order, positive effect of news coverage on political support for the minaret ban. Counterfactual simulations show that, under a law forbidding newspapers to disclose a perpetrator’s nationality, the vote in favor of the ban would have decreased by 5 percentage points (from 57.6% to 52.6%). |
| Keywords: | Media, Violent crime, Immigration, Vote, Populism |
| JEL: | D72 L82 Z12 K42 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gat:wpaper:1914&r=all |
| By: | Parvaneh Shahnoori (Department of Economics, Eastern Mediterranean University, Mersin 10, Turkey and Payame Noor University, Bandar Abbas, Iran); Glenn P. Jenkins (Department of Economics, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada and Eastern Mediterranean University, North Cyprus) |
| Abstract: | This study estimates the willingness to pay of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) for a business online banking services. The estimation utilizes a contingent valuation method employing data from 400 SMEs in the United Arab Emirates free zones. An interval regression model is used to identify company characteristics affecting WTP. The results indicate an average WTP for online banking of $518.50 per month. Firms engaging in international trade value these services at least 10% more than those with only domestic operations. Other variables that significantly affect WTP include number of employees and the transportation cost of using traditional branch banking. |
| Keywords: | contingent valuation method, interval regression model, willingness to pay, business online banking. |
| JEL: | C13 F10 G21 |
| Date: | 2018–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qed:dpaper:4511&r=all |