Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to assess the contribution of Islamic finance to economic growth in countries that were early adopters of Islamic banking: Malaysia, Indonesia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Design/methodology/approach -Through panel cointegration analysis, variance decompositions (VDCs) and impulse response functions, this study investigates the Islamic finance and growth nexus. Findings -Islamic banking is found to contribute to economic growth both in the long run and the short run for both GCC countries and the selected East Asia (EA) countries. In the short run however, Islamic banking contributes more to economic growth in Malaysia and Indonesia compared to the GCC countries. Practical implications -The results lend support to the view that Islamic intermediation not only leads to economic benefits but also; increases managers' entrepreneurial skills through the involvement of the lender in the decision making and the partnership like relationship between the fund provider and the entrepreneur and also; reduces agency costs which produces positive impact on both the economy and the development of the society. This serves as a motivation for other countries to continuously promote Islamic finance. Originality/value -To assess the importance of Islamic finance to economic growth, this study compares two main regional Islamic financial hubs, the GCC and EA countries. Another novel aspect of this study is in the methodology; it employs panel cointegration analysis, VDCs and impulse response functions on the set of annual data for period of 2000-2009.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess the benefits to investors of international diversification among only Islamic funds. Compared to conventional investors who are not restricted in their choice of funds, Islamic investors are restricted to investing in shari’a-compliant funds, thus giving up some diversification benefits. The possibility of international diversification among only Islamic funds may thus help Islamic investors to invest in accordance to their religious beliefs and still benefit from diversification. Design/methodology/approach – The paper assesses the benefits of diversification by analyzing the extent of co-integration among four regional Islamic funds and by estimating the short-term and long-term structural dynamics of and among these funds. The paper uses an Autoregressive-Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach to testing the long-run relationships among these funds and use variance decomposition and impulse response functions to examine the structural dynamics of the relationship between these funds. These methods can also be used for predictive purposes and represent, in authors opinion, a useful approach that complements the traditional methodology of static covariance matrix to find the efficient frontier at a given moment in time. Findings – The results indicate that international diversification can help reduce risk if Asia Pacific Islamic funds and MENA region Islamic funds are invested contemporaneously and/or Asia Pacific Islamic funds and North America Islamic funds, and/or Europe funds and MENA funds. The paper also finds that investors would benefit from investing in North American funds and MENA funds both in the long run and in the short run. Conversely, the paper finds that Europe funds and North American funds are co-integrated in the long-run precluding the opportunity for substantial diversification benefits from these particular portfolio mixes. Research limitations/implications – The long-run analysis helps passive fund managers and investors in composing their portfolio by providing evidence that some portfolio mixes of different regional Islamic funds lead to better risk return performance than one regional Islamic fund portfolios. The short-run analysis however helps the active fund managers and investors as it suggests that diversifying in the short run and reviewing their portfolio on a regular basis would be beneficial as well. Originality/value – This analysis justifies the promotion of Islamic finance as the negative correlation between several Islamic funds across the regions studied suggests better opportunities of investments via international diversification making Islamic funds more desirable.

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Purpose This paper aims to contribute to the banking and housing market literature by proposing an alternative measure of rate of return for Islamic banks that is based on the rental rate of the property. This alternative Islamic mortgage pricing mechanism could be adopted by Islamic banks as a replacement for mortgage rates if it is found to be independent from any form of interest rates as required by Islamic law. Design/methodology/approach By investigating the short run and long run dynamics between rental price index (RPI) and the proposed Islamic Rental Rate (RR-I) and, three selected macroeconomic indicators in the UK via autoregressive distributed lag model, the authors examine the link between RPI, RR-I and the real economy. Findings The findings provide evidence that while RPI in the UK is significantly related to three leading macroeconomic variables, namely, gross domestic product (GDP), real effective exchange rate and interest rates measures, while RR-I is only impacted by changes in GDP. More importantly, the authors show that there is no short or long run dynamics between the rental rate and any form of interest rates. Research limitations/implications This paper did not attempt to investigate the impact of the physical attributes of the rental property to formalize the model describing the relationship between RPI and RR-I. Also, other macroeconomic factors like household income growth, risk, house value growth rate and taxation could be included in future models. Practical implications As Rental Rate is not linked to the macroeconomic determinants, it is therefore more stable, resilient and sustainable and, at the same time, making the financing less risky for both parties, as they are less susceptible to economic vulnerabilities. Social implications Some calculations incorporating the proposed RR-I can also be extended to the pricing of products based on other contracts such as Tawarruq, Bai Bithaman Ajil or even Murabahah for a fairer and just pricing to both the banks and customers. Originality/value The results suggest that Islamic banks should consider incorporating the proposed rental rate (RR-I) when pricing their home financing products, as this will lead to less dependence on interest rates for benchmarking. In addition, using the proposed rental rate (RR-I) reduces the exposure to the subjective evaluation by property valuators and speculative macroeconomic elements.

In principle, Islamic banking prohibits interest and advocates profit and loss sharing in its operations