4. Theses

Understanding the determinants of portfolio investment inflows is imperative in a region highly susceptible to large amount of capital inflows like ASEAN. And to formulate the right policy, intervention and upgrade, ASEAN needs to have a good grasp on these determinants before it can manage volatile capital flows and the accompanying disruptive potential. Although a number of studies focusing on the drivers of gross capital inflows into EMEs has been established, one on ASEAN's has been largerly left out. The need for studying gross inflows is simple, as its movement has direct implication on financial stability and the vulnerability of the overall financial system ...

GDP, often the proxy to measure progress in policy implementations, does not fully reflect the wellbeing of a nation, although it may be one of the contributing factors. Applying an estimation model based on panel data of 22 sample countries, we illustrate that wellbeing in general can be improved with intrinsic growth, influenced by economic stability, demand composition and sectoral composition. Additionally, key economic and quality of life factors - such as, broader income distribution, lower housing prices, lower infant mortality, effective health expenditure, higher education attainment and broadband access - are significant to households ...

Women consist of almost half of the world’s population but are disadvantaged in all human development fields. They face barriers in access to valued resources which include education, health, employment, access and ownership of land, banking and finance. Despite recent advances in important aspects of the lives of girls and women, pervasive challenges remain, most often as a result of widespread constraints which often violate women's basic human rights. These differences matter as they directly affect economic outcomes. We therefore make the economic empowerment of women the focus of this study. Research on women’s economic empowerment can be approached in several ways. We look at two very basic and essential aspects; financial inclusion and economic growth. First, we gain insights into the gender gap in the economic empowerment of women through the financial inclusion lens. Second, this study explores women’s economic empowerment and its relationship with economic growth. We address the first issue in two ways. First, at the micro-level by focusing on a data set of 6,000 individuals from the country of Pakistan. The country represents not only a Muslim majority country but also ranks amongst the lowest in women empowerment indicators. Second, we look at the status of financial inclusion of women on a global level by focusing on data of 140 countries and segregate the data from the World Bank and United Nations on women for 42 OIC member countries and 108 developing countries in order to compare. For the second issue we look at the relationship between economic growth and women’s economic empowerment with the data for OIC countries and developing countries from the same sources with additional indicators on Political Risk from ICRG.

Throughout the world, the income gap between the rich and the poor has continued to widen. It has been reported that income inequality is spiraling out of control and this is a dangerous trend that pose significant threat to the global sustainability. Several factors have contributed to this widening income gap, among which is financialization of the economy (much faster growth of the financial sector than in the real sector of the economy through rapid growth of debt and large increases in financial sector profits). The aim of the study is to examine the prevalence of income inequality in Organization for Islamic Countries, (OIC) countries and examine how it differs from Organization for Economic Corporations and Development (OECD) countries. In this study, Generalize Method of Moments (GMM) was used in the data analysis. The study employs two sets of financialization data. The first financialization indicators are: Bank profit (BPROF), market capitalization of listed firms (MCAP), stock value traded (STD) and financialization aggregate (FIN_AGG). While the second indicators are: Rate of growth of finance relative to real GDP (RFING), rate of growth of debt relative to Gross domestic product (GDP) (RDEBT). Private sector credit (PCR) and financialization aggregate (FIN_AGG). For a robust test, the study employs securities under banks asset (SEC). Using overall sample (data from both countries OIC and OECD), the result of the study confirms financialization is one of the major causes of income inequality in the studied countries. Also, the findings revealed that income inequality is higher in OIC than in OECD countries. Using the first financialization dataset, the study reveals a more detrimental effect of financialization on inequality in the overall sample than in OIC countries.

Income inequality, or the widening income gap between the rich and the poor, is the most discussed universal and controversial issue. It is an issue of great concern as history has shown that it can create costly, bloody, social and political instability as evidenced by French and Russian Revolutions and Arab Spring events. Many causes have been cited for the widening income gap between the rich and the poor including economic development, technological change, trade openness, financial development, and changes in labor market institutions, redistributive policies and education attainment. This thesis focuses ...

Businesses and politics are two important blocks for the economic growth of any country. This dissertation focuses on the determinants of the performance of the listed firms in the case of Malaysia with the analysis and impact of political connections and Shari'ah compliance on the performance of the listed firms for the year 2000-2014. The research also focuses on the performance of firms having political affiliations and who also attain the status of Shari'ah compliance as per the rule book of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Malaysia. The results of our study shows, certain firm-specific ...

Greater inequalities and social exclusion are reckoned to be the results of economic growth which led the World Bank to set the new goal, to end extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity. Interestingly, the approach of the contemporary solution is largely in consonance with the objectives of the Shari'ah. Realizing the importance of this agenda, a bold attempt is made in this study to quantify and visualize 'prosperity sharing' in 28 developed countries and 14 developing countries by reshaping the sustainable development concept from an Islamic perspective. The four pillars of prosperity namely Faradh (social responsibility), Shura (social participation), Al Adl Wal Ihsan (social equilibrium) and Ummah (social cohesion) are examined to capture the essence or the core of prosperity sharing. The analysis begins with an extensive literature survey as the basis for designing and developing the construct of the dimensions and indicators, followed by the adequacy test of the indicators by applying the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) prior to the estimation analysis. We then apply the panel data regression analysis, to identify which determinants have significant impacts on the shared prosperity indicator(s). Finally, we construct a multidimensional index labelled as the Islamicity Prosperity Index (iPI).

Poverty and income inequality are the two of the most pertinent global challenges facing the world economy today. Despite many attempts aimed at combating poverty and income inequality, the problem still persists. It takes more than monetary value to eradicate poverty and reduce income inequality, for the outcome would depend very much on the capabilities of the poorer segments of society. The world needs inclusive growth to ensure that the benefits of economic growth are equitably distributed across society. This research empirically investigates into the impact of financial development on poverty reduction and income inequality. However, the inconclusiveness of this relationship in the previous studies has given us a clue that this relationship may well be mediated by other contextual variables such as Islamic Human Development. Our study focuses on 30 OIC Countries from 2004 to 2016. For the first research question, we assess the impact of finance development on poverty and income inequality. The results suggest that financial development that consists of banking development and financial inclusion does not inevitably benefit the poor in the OIC countries. It shows that neither the banking development factor nor the financial inclusion factor play any significant role in poverty eradication. However, the results show negatively and significantly on income inequality. The study further finds evidence, for our second research question, that our holistic Islamic Human Development approach could help fight poverty and income inequality.