1. Scholarly Works

This research attempts to explore the impact of banking competition on financial stability employing more precise measure of market power. It was found that Islamic banks are less stable and are enjoying lower market power. The analysis shows that higher market competition makes the banking sector vulnerable to defaults, supporting the "competition-fragility view". This research finds no difference in the relationship for Islamic banks indicates that Islamic banks might be involved in traditional banking activities as conventional banks. The results are consistent and robust to different estimation approaches and subsamples. This research carries regulatory and policy implications.

Malaysian firms have been reported to be involved in Asset-Backed Securities since 1986 when Cagamas Bhd was the pioneer in the field. This research aims to examine the factors influencing spread in Malaysia's securitization market. In order to provide a test of stability and a choice of model, the multicollinearity test was conducted by providing information on the degree of correlation between the explanatory variables used in the multivariate regression analysis. Ordinary Least Square method was used for baseline, and panel data analysis was applied during the study period (2004-2012) for a more robust check of the analysis. The data were obtained from 90 non-financial firms or institutions and the number of observations carried out was 387. The results show that four determinants influence or contribute to the primary market spread and are statistically significant in developing securitisation in Malaysia. It can be concluded that loan to value, maturity, debt and crisis significantly contribute to the determinant primary market spread. From five hypotheses, two hypotheses support that the determinants have a relationship with primary market spread. The result will act as a model and benchmark for other ASEAN countries to use as Malaysia was resilient during the subprime mortgage crisis in 2008. Policy makers can use this study to execute the timing and quantum of issuance securitisation. The other findings of this study have considerable policy relevance. It could be stated that the higher the risk reflects the higher the spread of the firm, especially when there is lower credit rating during crisis periods and higher debt. Therefore, the role of a firm is to reduce the risk in order to reduce the spread, and simultaneously reduce the cost of financing by finding alternative sources of funding. The continued success of the Malaysian securitisation firms depends on their efficiency in using their resources and the competitiveness of the firms.

This study examines the impact of foreign aid on the institutional quality (IQ) of the OIC countries. Using the data of OIC countries for the three-year average period from 1991 to 2016, the system GMM finds that aid in general deteriorates the IQ for the aid recipient countries. However, quantile regression suggests that the negative impact of foreign aid on institutional quality (IQ) is relatively greater in the countries where the existing quality of institution is poor. The findings of the study suggest that improving the existing capacity is essential for reaping the optimum benefit of foreign aid on institutional development.

The present paper analyzes the role of stock market, more specifically real stock prices and stock market uncertainty/volatility, on private consumption behavior for an emerging market, Malaysia, using quarterly data from 1991 to 2009. Employing the autoregressive distributed lag approach to cointegration test, the paper establishes a long-run equilibrium that ties private consumption to its determinants - real income, real stock prices, real lending rate, and stock market volatility. In the long run, the presence of the stock market wealth effect is documented. At the same time, the stock market volatility is also noted to depress private consumption particularly when the volatility is at the degree as observed during the Asian crisis. The authors further note the short-run influences of real stock price changes on consumption growth and the adjustment of private consumption to the long-run level when it is modeled in an error-correction setting. Our simple simulation indicates that the drop in the private consumption due to the decline in stock market wealth post-crisis is substantial, amounting to 2.7% of average post-crisis gross domestic product.

This study provides new evidence on the relationship between external audit price and corporate governance of the largest (based on market capitalization) 100 listed firms on both the main and second board of the Bursa Malaysia (BMB) (previously known as the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange). The findings show that for main board companies, external audit price is positively and significantly associated with corporate size, complexity and internal governance variable (i.e. director’s remuneration). For the second board firms, complexity, corporate size and internal governance variables (i.e. proportion of non-executive directors to total directors) were important determinants of external audit pricing. External audit price had a significant negative relationship with individual shareholders ownership for both main and second board companies, and companies’ age for companies listed on the second board.

The objective of this study are to examine the impact of colonization on former colonies on their economic growth performances. The relationship between economic growth and selected independents variables are discussed covering 72 former colonies for the period of 1995 to 2015. The objective is to investigate the determinants of growth in former colonies colonized by four former conquerors namely Spain, France, The United Kingdom and The Soviet Union (Russian Federation). To achieve this objectives, we employed Generalized Method of Moment (GMM) estimator popularized by Arellano and Bond (1991) and Blundell and Bond (1998) and the independent variables of the estimation to achieve the targeted objectives, are the control variables of growth gross fixed capital formation (GFCF), as a proxy for capital and total population (TPOP) as a proxy for labor. This study also uses other independent variables such as length of colonial period (COLOH) which is the focus variable, domestic credit to private sector (DCPS), trade openness (TOP), foreign direct investment (FDI) and a couple of institutional qualities representing variables such political rights (PR) and civil liberties (CL). The results are quite consistent and robust - colonization is positive and highly significant implying that colonization indeed has a positive impact on the colonized countries, though the masters are perceived as parasites. They also prepare the right infrastructures that could enable the colonized countries to grow economically. As for the other variables including the control variables population, domestic credit to private, trade openness, and gross fixed capital formation are also positive and significantly related.

This paper investigates the impact of non-intermediation activities of banks on economic growth and volatility of OIC. For the purpose, we utilize LSDVC estimation approach using the sample of Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) member countries for the period of 2001-2013. We find non-intermediation income to be insignificant for both economic growth and volatility of OIC member countries in general though it reduces volatility of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) economies. Intermediation activities are found to be insignificantly related with the growth of OIC member countries, but on the other hand, they are found to reduce volatility in OIC member countries. Our results are robust across different specifications and estimators.

Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are one of the most successful financial innovations of the last decades. The main focus of this study is to examine the risk adjusted performance, tracking error and trading characteristics of emerging and developed markets ETF. 43 passively managed equity ETFs have been chosen to cover both markets. The results indicate that the emerging markets are less efficient in terms of index replication and possess higher tracking error compared to the developed market ETF. Conversely, emerging markets provide better risk adjusted performance. Last but not least, it is also found that assets size has positive impacts towards ETFs performance and in contrast, the expense ratio has a negative impact on ETFs performance. To determine the policy matters, investment types and strategy for the two different types of capital market products, this study is quite relevant to the individual investor, institutional investors, policy makers and the regulators.

The present paper examines the mitigating effect of social capital on the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) for CO2 emissions using a panel data of 69 developed and developing countries. Adopting generalised method of moments (GMM) estimators, the paper finds evidence substantiating the presence of EKC. Moreover, the evidence suggests that the pollution costs of economic development tend to be lower in countries with higher social capital reservoir. Surprisingly, there is also evidence to indicate that the income threshold point beyond which CO2 emissions decline is higher in countries with higher social capital. These results are robust to addition of alternative controlled variables in the EKC specification. Thus, in addition to policy focus on investments in environmentally friendly technology and on the use of renewable energy, investments in social capital can also mitigate the pollution effects of economic progress.