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Purpose -The purpose of this study is to identify the main drivers which can explain the relative success of BRIC countries (i.e. Brazil, Russia, India and China), collectively and individually, in attracting foreign direct investment (FDIs). Unlike previous studies that have identified gross domestic product (GDP) as a major determinant, we find that for the sampling period 1980-2008, social variables (namely, high population growth and educated labor) and political variables account for 40 and 7 per cent of the variance in net inward FDI, respectively, and no importance for economic variables. Interestingly, for a sub-period (1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008), we observe the salience of financial (namely, sizable GDP economy, favorable net trade balance and controlled currency risk and sovereign debt risk) determinants of inward FDI (R 2 is 44 per cent). On the other hand, when testing individual countries, it seems that FDI determinants are not universal as each country enjoys different characteristics and sources of strengths that attract FDIs. The implication is to focus more on those incentives that the host country is weak in to be able to optimize the amount of FDI flowing in from foreign investors. Design/methodology/approach -Three blocks of variables were examined: economic/financial, social and political variables. The economic/financial variable set expands on a prototype developed by Dunning (1981), which distinguishes three types of influences on inward FDI. First, it suggests some domestic market characteristics to influence FDI. They include the market size and the direction of trade flows. Another set of economic/financial factors includes measure of the host country's overall financial performance such as the inflation rate and the effectiveness of the service sector. Social factors of the host country are considered an important determinant of FDI. Our social model included: the degree of human capital development, the extent of urbanization, the quality of life and the adequacy of the health-care system. Political factors were also considered. Using the STATA statistical package, we run a regression analysis on our transformed data twice: once over the full sampling period , and a second time using a partial data set covering the past 10 years (1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008), after controlling for multicollinearity and other econometric problems. Findings -Regressing net FDI inflows on all financial, social and political variables during the full data series , and after controlling for severe econometric problems, the nested block regression concludes that the social variables account for 40 per cent of the change in net inward FDI, followed by political variables (7 per cent). The nested regression for the past 10-year data series (1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008), however, shows the economic/financial variables block and social variables blocks contribute the most to FDI variations (R 2 is 44 and 7 per cent, r...

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The purpose of this research paper is to examine social Islamic mutual funds' financial performance. Since Islamic mutual funds have only been around for the past two decades, most of the research on this topic is fairly new. In this study we apply the single factor model of Schwert and Seguin (1990) to a sample of Islamic mutual funds. The Islamic mutual funds market is one of the fastest growing sectors within the Islamic financial system. Several studies have investigated the characteristics of individual Islamic mutual funds (see Elfakhani, et al (2006), Elfakhani ,et al (2005. We are not aware of any studies that have applied the Schwert and Seguin methodology to Islamic mutual funds. Such an application is important because it allows for studying the impact of market volatility on the time variation of monthly betas and the corresponding returns. Using the S&P 500 and the FTSE Global Islamic indices on sector structured Islamic mutual funds, our results suggest that the volatility of the market and that of the Islamic mutual funds portfolio behave differently with inter and intra market proxies. There is also evidence that the volatility persistence of each Islamic mutual fund portfolio and its systematic risk are significantly related. Hence, the systematic risks of different portfolios tend to move in a different direction during periods of increased market volatility. As a result, we gain an insight into the return dynamics and the process by which Islamic mutual funds prices are determined.