Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T01:24:00.941Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The rational Islamic actor? Evidence from Islamic banking

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2015

Seda Demiralp
Affiliation:
Department of International Relations, Işık University, 34980 Şile, İstanbul, sdemiralp@isikun.edu.tr.
Selva Demiralp
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, Koç University, Rumeli Feneri Yolu, 34450 İstanbul, sdemiralp@ku.edu.tr.

Abstract

Islamic banks create an interest in their own right as a rising branch in financial intermediation, particularly in the post-crisis era. In addition, they also deserve the attention of students of Islamism due to their possible connection with Islamic movements. Through a comparison of Islamic and conventional banking, we analyze the motivations and behavior of Islamic economic actors who determine the cash flow to Islamic banks. Our findings suggest that, in contrast to popular views that portray these actors as ideologues or financiers of radical Islam, they have pragmatic motivations and may adapt to liberal systems in order to seize economic incentives.

Type
Articles
Copyright
© New Perspectives on Turkey and Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Authors’ Note: We would like to thank the conference participants at the Turkish Economic Association’s annual conference in 2010, Seth Carpenter, and Okan Yılankaya for valuable feedback. We also thank Pınar Özlü for her help regarding clarifications with the data. Emre Özer, Aleaddin Tok, and Okan Gülbak all provided excellent research assistance. This study was funded by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, project number 110K446 (Türkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Araştırma Kurumu, TÜBİTAK).

References

Aggarwal, Rajesh K. and Yousef, Tarik. “Islamic Banks and Investment Financing.” Journal of Money, Credit and Banking 32, no. 1 (2000): 93120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Al-Harran, Saad.Introduction: Cases in Islamic Finance.” Arab Law Quarterly 14, no. 3 (1999): 193202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ali, Muhamad.Islam and Economic Development in Indonesia.” East-West Center Working Papers no. 12 (2000): 124.Google Scholar
Anwar, Muhammad.Islamicity of Banking and Modes of Islamic Banking.” Arab Law Quarterly 18, no. 1 (2003): 6280.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Badawi, Osman B.The Experience of the Sudanese Islamic Bank in Partnership (Musharakah) Financing as a Tool for Rural Development among Small Farmers in Sudan.” Arab Law Quarterly 14, no. 3 (1999): 221230.Google Scholar
Başkan, Filiz.The Political Economy of Islamic Finance in Turkey: The Role of Fethullah Gülen and Asya Finans.” In The Politics of Islamic Finance, edited by Clement Henry and Rodney Wilson, 216239. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Beck, Thorsten, Demirgüç-Kunt, Aslı, and Merrouche, Ouarda. “Islamic vs. Conventional Banking: Business Model, Efficiency, and Stability.” Journal of Banking and Finance 37, no. 2 (2013): 433447.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bellin, Eva.The Robustness of Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Exceptionalism in Comparative Perspective.” Comparative Politics 36, no. 2 (2004): 139157.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bernanke, Ben S., and S. Blinder, Alan. “The Federal Funds Rate and the Channels of Monetary Transmission.” American Economic Review 82, no. 4 (1992): 901921.Google Scholar
Boocock, Grahame J., and R. Presley, John. “Equity Capital for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Malaysia: Venture Capital or Islamic Finance.” Managerial Finance 19, no. 7 (1993): 8295.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carpenter, Seth, and Demiralp, Selva. “Liquidity Effect at a Monthly Frequency.” Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking 40, no. 1 (2008): 124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Demir, Ömer, Acar, Mustafa, and Toprak, Metin. “Anatolian Tigers or Islamic Capital: Prospects and Challenges.” Middle Eastern Studies 40, no. 6 (2004): 166168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Demiralp, Seda.The Rise of Islamic Capital and the Decline of Islamic Radicalism in Turkey.” Comparative Politics 41, no. 3 (2009): 315335.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Demiralp, Selva.Parasal Aktarim Mekanizmasinda Para’nin Yeri: Türkiye için bir Analiz.” İktisat, İşletme ve Finans 264, no. 23 (2008): 520.Google Scholar
Farooq, M. Omar.Self Interest, Homo Islamicus and Some Behavioral Assumptions in Islamic Economics and Finance.” International Journal of Excellence in Islamic Banking and Finance 1, no. 1 (2011): 5279.Google Scholar
Henry, Clement and Wilson, Rodney, eds. The Politics of Islamic Finance. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Hudson, Michael C.The middle East.” PS: Political Science and Politics 34, no. 4 (2001): 801804.Google Scholar
Imam, Patrick and Kpodar, Kangni. “Islamic Banking: How has it Diffused.” IMF Working Paper WP/10/195, International Monetary Fund, 2010: 1–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Islamic Financial Services Board. Islamic Financial Services Industry Stability Report, 2013. http://www.ifsb.org/docs/IFSB%20-%20IFSI%20Stability%20Report%202013%20%28Final%29.pdf.Google Scholar
Jamal, Abbashar.Funding Fundamentalism: Sudan.” Review of African Political Economy 52 (1991): 103109.Google Scholar
Kassim, Salina H., and Majid., M. Shabri Abd.Sensitivity of the Islamic and Conventional Banks to Monetary Policy Changes: The Case of Malaysia.” Journal of Monetary Economics and Finance 2, no. 3/4 (2009): 239253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lackoff, Sanford.The Reality of Muslim Exceptionalism.” Journal of Democracy 15, no. 4 (2004): 133139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leeper, Eric M., and E. Roush, Jennifer. “Putting ‘M’ Back in Monetary Policy.” Journal of Money, Credit and Banking 35, no. 6 (2003): 12171256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayer, A. Elizabeth.Islamic Banking and Credit Policies in the Sadat Era: The Social Origins of Islamic Banking in Egypt.” Arab Law Quarterly 1, no. 1 (1985): 3235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pfeifer, Karen.Islamic Business and Business as Usual: A Study of Firms in Egypt.” Development in Practice 11, no. 1 (2001): 2033.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Przeworski, Adam.Some Problems in the Study of the Transition to Democracy.” In Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Comparative Perspectives, edited by Guillermo O’Donnell, Philippe Schmitter, and Laurence Whitehead, 4763. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986.Google Scholar
——. Democracy and the Market: Political and Economic Reforms in Eastern Europe and Latin America. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991.Google Scholar
Roy, A. Delwin.Islamic Banking.” Middle Eastern Studies 27, no. 3 (1991): 427456.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salame, Ghassan.Introduction: Where are the Democrats?” In Democracy without Democrats? The Renewal of Politics in the Muslim World, edited by Ghassan Salame, 122. London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2001.Google Scholar
Sukmana, Raditya and Kassim., Salina H.Roles of the Islamic Banks in the Monetary Transmission Process in Malaysia.” International Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Finance and Management 3, no. 1 (2010): 719.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Şencan, Hüner. İş Hayatında İslam İnsanı: Homo Islamicus. İstanbul: MÜSİAD, 1994.Google Scholar
Smith, Kristin.The Kuwait Finance House and the Islamization of Public Life in Kuwait.” In The Politics of Islamic Finance, edited by Clement M. Henry and Rodney Wilson, 168190. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Stiansen, Endtre.Interest Politics: Islamic Finance in the Sudan 1977–2001.” In The Politics of Islamic Finance, edited by Clement M. Henry and Rodney Wilson, 55167. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Timberg, Thomas A.Islamic Banking in Indonesia. Jakarta: Partnership for Economic Growth, 2000.Google Scholar
Tripp, Charles.Islam and the Moral Economy: The Challenge of Capitalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tripp, Dankwart A.Transitions to Democracy: Towards a Dynamic Model.” Comparative Politics 2, no. 3 (1970): 337363.Google Scholar
Utvik, Bjørn Olav.Religious Revivalism in Nineteenth-Century Norway and Twentieth-Century Egypt: A Critique of Fundamentalism Studies.” Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 17, no. 2 (2006): 143157.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warde, Ibrahim.Islamic Finance in the Global Economy. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2010.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waterbury, John.Democracy without Democrats: Potential for Political Liberalization in the Middle East.” In Democracy without Democrats? The Renewal of Politics in the Muslim World, edited by Ghassan Salame, 2347. London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2001.Google Scholar
Weill, Laurent.Do Islamic Banks Have Higher Market Power?Comparative Economic Studies 53, no. 2 (2011): 291306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, Rodney. “Islamic Finance in Europe,” RSCAS Policy Papers 2007/02. San Domenica de Fiesole: European University Institute for Musmine, 2007. http://cadmus.eui.eu/bitstream/handle/1814/7739/?sequence=1.Google Scholar
Zubaida, Sami.The Politics of the Islamic Investment Companies in Egypt.” British Society for Middle Eastern Studies 17, no. 2 (1990): 152161.CrossRefGoogle Scholar