Islamic economics and Islamic finance in the world economy

This paper places the articles in this special issue in the contexts of Islamic economics and finance research. It highlights the foundations of Islamic economics, which are in practice manifested in Islamic finance. Then, the paper brings up three key issues in Islamic finance today – the Islamicity of Islamic banking, real contributions of Islamic finance, and Islamic finance in the present monetary framework. While there are some promising theoretical and empirical findings pointing to positive contributions of Islamic finance, there is still a need for Islamic finance to distinguish itself from the conventional finance and to further demonstrate its real effect.     

Factor rewards and the international migration of unskilled labor: a model with capital mobility

"Conventional economic wisdom holds that the migration of unskilled labor from less developed countries to neighboring developed countries should be expected to narrow the wage gap between those countries, and thereby reduce the incentive for further migration. [The authors suggest that] if capital is mobile internationally this reasoning may be inappropriate. Instead, emigration of unskilled labor out of the less developed country provides an incentive for capital to leave the country, too. As a consequence, wage rates move in the same direction in each country, and the gap between wage rates across countries even may increase."     

Money,saving and growth in an international economy with perfect capital mobility

The effects of differential national saving rates on current accounts, foreign indebtedness and the welfare of the countries involved are examined within the framework of a two-country, three-asset and one-good model of growth with international capital mobility. It is argued that the persistent current account imbalance and its implied national indebtedness are a natural consequence of differential national saving rates in the world of integrated capital markets, that any direct interference hampering an orderly flow of capital makes both countries worse off, that changes in the exchange rate mainly reflect the differential growth rates of two currencies and have little effect on the current account, and that persistent current account deficits do not necessarily imply an ever-increasing debt burden. While an increase in the saving rate of the high-saving country benefits the low-saving country, an increase in the saving rate of the low-saving country harms the high-saving country both in the short run and the long run.     

Enter the dragon: Hong Kong's growing role in world finance

Hong Kong currently plays a crucial role in world finance, yet will it maintain its economic power under Chinese rule? Important in Hong Kong's current and future role are its stock market, the maintenance of a stable exchange rate, the maintenance of a stable exchange rate, the development of its capital and debt markets, the Basic Law that guarantees that the financial sector will remain intact after 1997 and a smooth financial synthesis between Hong Kong and China. Li describes the integral role of the Hong Kong government in these tasks and discusses his optimism for the future.     

International capital mobility and commercial policy in an economic region

If two small countries are linked by capital movements then, at low tariff levels, any increase in capital flows induced by the commercial policy of either country will harm that country and benefit the other country, while at low levels of international investment a tariff increase always harms the country levying the tariff. Nevertheless, an increase in one country's tariff could benefit both countries by alleviating regional distortions in factor allocation. If the countries liberalize factor movements within a customs union, then conflicts must arise in choosing the level of the common external tariff.     

关于构建和谐社会的公共财政研究

公共财政是一种构建和谐社会的政策手段,反之,要构建和谐社会对公共财政的建设也提出了新的要求.因此,促进公共财政制度建设对于构建和谐社会有着重要的现实意义.     

论民主、财政民主与我国财政民主化改革取向

当前我国经济体制处于转轨期,由于财政民主成分的缺失,严重影响着公共财政制度的建立.因此,本文从研究民主的内涵与外延着手,通过剖析民主与透明、科学决策、集中、制衡的四项关系,提出民主财政是政府的各项财政决策反映民意,受民众监督的一种制度.本文认为民主财政意味着人们通过民主机制控制公共财政.由于民主财政既是公共的又受民主机制的控制,因此,它对政府治理具有深刻和全面的影响.财政民主化则是一个动态的过程,是从一种民主化程度较低的财政制度向民主化程度较高的财政制度不断转化的过程.因此,推进财政民主化改革应着重增强财政透明度、建立财政制衡机制、推进政府预算的科学决策和中央与地方之间适度的财政分权.     

Reducing working hours in the context of growing real capital mobility

Can the reduction of working hours be a suitable policy instrument to reduce unemployment? The following article presents a model of the effects of such a reduction—without offsetting adjustments to wage rates—on unemployment in the context of growing real capital mobility between countries and discusses the consequences for economic policy.     

Islamic finance and market segmentation: Implications for the cost of capital

This paper considers the impact of full Islamic shari’ya compliance on developing stock exchanges in their effective provision of development capital. Evidence from a unique study focussing on the Sudan telecommunications company and its listings on the Khartoum as well as Arabian Gulf stock exchanges reveals that costs of capital are considerably higher in the former than latter markets. While there are firm governance benefits arising from Islamic finance monitoring costs are substantial and the banking system is better placed to administer financing arrangements. Larger firms are better placed to circumvent this segmentation through cross-listing on regional exchanges.     

中国财政体制的目标定位与改革思路

在向市场经济体制转型过程中,明确财政体制改革的方向与目标是极为重要和紧迫的.用公共财政理论构筑与市场经济模式相适应的现代财政体制,是一个方向性选择.今后一段时期,财政体制的改革与创新要从界定政府事权范围、科学划分政府间税种、规范政府间转移支付制度、完善支出管理制度等方面入手.     

广西支持低碳经济发展的公共财政政策分析

广西促进低碳经济发展的公共财政政策措施主要表现为节能减排和发展新能源的财政预算政策、节能减排和新能源的税收优惠政策、政府绿色采购等,取得了一定成效但也存在政策措施协同欠缺、手段运用不充分、绿色采购无法落实等不足。因此,笔者认为需从提高政策措施协同性、丰富政策手段、加强政府绿色采购等方面进行完善。     

Cost of capital and public loan guarantees to small firms

In this paper, we study the determinants of the spread charged by banks under a UK policy intervention scheme, aimed at supporting access to the credit market for small firms through guarantee backed loans. We exploit a unique dataset containing data on 29,266 guarantee backed loans under the UK SFLG scheme over the period 2000 to 2005. Results suggest that lower spreads are offered for loans of larger amounts and higher durations, for service firms, for larger firms, and for those located in the most advanced regions. Higher spreads are applied to high-tech manufacturing firms and to loans issued for working capital purposes. We also find that the presence of other extant debt is associated with a relatively higher spread and that this effect is especially significant for the subset of firms that have reached a maximum debt capacity based on collateralized assets. Further, we also find that the higher the incidence of the publicly guaranteed debt over the total amount of outstanding loans, the lower, on average, the spread. However, an increase in the guaranteed coverage leads to a contraction in the spread only for loans aimed at covering working capital needs rather than investments.     

The performance implications of strategic capital for public leisure providers

Strategic capital has emerged as a key source of competitive heterogeneity in the private sector. Despite this, little is known about the performance implications of strategic capital in public organisations. Adopting a resource-advantage perspective, we examine the performance implications of strategic capital for public leisure providers. Analysing data generated from public leisure providers, we find that effective strategy implementation enables leisure providers to exploit comparative advantages, which is itself a source of sustained advantage. Furthermore, high performers are endowed with significantly greater levels of strategic capital – which include ‘strategy commitment’, ‘implementation support’, ‘implementation effectiveness’, and ‘learning’ – in contrast with low performers. Important differences between internal and external approaches to provision are also identified and discussed, along with the implications of this study for researchers and public policy.     

The role of the private and public sector in human capital formation

While there are strong equity and efficiency reasons for subsidizing education in developing countries, the prevailing dominance of governments in the financing and provision of educational services can be questioned. There is some evidence supporting the conclusion that a partial cost recovery through user fees may reduce the rationing of services which is still a pressing problem in many low-income countries, and that private providers tend to be more cost-efficient than their public counterparts.     

Is the USA depriving the rest of the world of capital?

High American interest rates and confident expectations about the future dollar exchange rate have exerted an unprecedented attraction on foreign capital in the past two years. Gross capital inflows into the USA came to as much as $ 89 billion and $ 83 billion in 1982 and 1983 respectively. It is widely held that this is depleting the supply of capital to the rest of the world. Is this view justified?     

The political and legal determinants of venture capital investments around the world

This paper investigates the political and legal determinants of cross-country differences in venture capital (VC) investments. Our results show strong and positive effects of a favorable sociopolitical and entrepreneurial environment on the inception and development of VC investment activity. Controlling for effects due to the legal system prevailing in each country, we find strong evidence that this factor plays an important role in explaining cross-sectional variance. This result conveys important normative implications: entrepreneurship and innovation benefit significantly from an active VC industry, which also allows the ignition of virtuous cycles. Activating this cycle, though, relies on some socioeconomic prerequisites that government and institutions should primarily address.     

The future of public efforts to boost entrepreneurship and venture capital

The promotion of new high-potential business ventures and venture capital is of critical importance to economic growth. Well-considered policies can profoundly influence such opportunities, but many public initiatives are misguided. This article reviews the evidence behind these claims, as well as the criteria that can delineate appropriate and inappropriate policies towards the promotion of venture capital and high-potential entrepreneurship.     

Cost-based pricing: Behavioral aspects of price decisions for capital goods

Some empirical research is reported upon the question, whether the type of cost calculation has a significant influence on suppliers' price decisions in capital goods markets. Experimental findings indicate that highly aggregated cost information (full cost accounting) effects ceteris paribus higher offering prices than disaggregated cost information (complete transparency of cost structure). A complex causal model of price decisions in this field is developed which is capable of giving further insights into the empirical effects of psychological variables in the price decision process.