Home Legal Origin, Institutional Quality, and Islamic Finance Development: Does Shari’a Matter?
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Legal Origin, Institutional Quality, and Islamic Finance Development: Does Shari’a Matter?

  • Rihab Grassa ORCID logo EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: August 26, 2020

Abstract

Previous studies on financial development have shown that differences in the legal origin explain differences in financial development. Using historical comparisons and cross-country regressions for 40 countries observed for the period from 2005 to 2018, our research assesses how different legal origins have affected the development of Islamic finance worldwide. More particularly, our research assesses empirically why and how the adoption of Shari’a, wholly or partially (combined with common or civil law), could explain the level of development of Islamic finance in different jurisdictions. Our primary results show that countries adopting a Shari’a legal system have a very well-developed Islamic financial system. Moreover, countries adopting a mixed legal system based on common law and Shari’a law have sufficient flexibility within their legal systems to make changes to their laws in response to the changing socioeconomic conditions, and this has helped the development of the Islamic financial industry. However, countries adopting a mixed legal system based on both civil law and Shari’a law appear less flexible in making changes to their old laws and this thwarted the development of the Islamic financial industry in these countries. Furthermore, we have found that the concentration of a Muslim population (the percentage of Muslim population) along with the level of income have both had a positive effect on the development of Islamic banking assets and on the development of Islamic banking as a whole.


Corresponding author: Rihab Grassa, Department of Accounting and Finance, Higher Colleges of Technology, Abu Dhabi, 32092, United Arab Emirates, E-mail:

References

Ang, J.B., Culture, Legal Origins, and Financial Development, Economic Inquiry, no. 57 (2019), 1016–1037.10.1111/ecin.12755Search in Google Scholar

Armour, J., S. Deakin, P. Sarkar, M. Siems and A. Singh, Shareholder protection and stock market development: a test of the legal origins hypothesis, 6 Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, no. 2 (2009), 343–380.10.1111/j.1740-1461.2009.01146.xSearch in Google Scholar

Asongu, S.A., Law, Finance, Economic Growth and Welfare: Why Does Legal Origin Matter?, 7 Institutions and Economies, no. 2 (2011).10.2139/ssrn.2493125Search in Google Scholar

Assane, D. and B. Malamud, Financial development and growth in sub-Saharan Africa: do legal origin and CFA membership matter?, Applied Economics (2010), 21–41.10.1080/00036840801964591Search in Google Scholar

Beck, T., A. Demirguc-Kunt, and R. Levine, Law, endowments, and finance, 70 Journal of Financial Economics, no. 2 (2004).10.3386/w9089Search in Google Scholar

Beck, T. and R. Levine, Legal institutions and financial development, World Bank Policy Research (2003), Working Paper No. 3136.10.3386/w10126Search in Google Scholar

Chinn, M. D. and H. Ito, What Matters for Financial Development? Capital Controls, Institutions, and Interactions, 81 Journal of Development Economics, no. 1 (2006), 163–192.10.3386/w11370Search in Google Scholar

Demetriades, P.O. and S. H. Law, Finance, institutions and economic development, 11 International Journal of Finance and Economics, no. 3 (2006), 245–260.10.1002/ijfe.296Search in Google Scholar

De Soto, H., The mystery of capital: why capitalism triumphs in the west and fails everywhere else (Basic Books, New York, 2000).Search in Google Scholar

Foster, N., Islamic finance law as an emergent legal system, 21 Arab Law Quarterly (2007), 170–188.10.1163/026805507X214433Search in Google Scholar

Gazdar, K. and R. Grassa, What determines Islamic Financial Development? Empirical Evidence from GCC countries, Gulf Research Meeting (July 2016).10.2307/j.ctt1df4hmj.14Search in Google Scholar

Girma, S. and A. Shortland, The political economy of financial development, 60 Oxford Economic Paper, no. 4 (2008).10.1093/oep/gpm040Search in Google Scholar

Graff, M., Law and Finance: Common-Law and Civil-Law Countries Compared – An Empirical Critique, Economica, no. 75 (2008), 60–83.10.1111/j.1468-0335.2007.00596.xSearch in Google Scholar

Grassa, R. and K. Gazdar, Law and Islamic finance: How legal origins affect Islamic finance development? Borsa Istanbul Review, no. 3 (2014), 158–166.10.1016/j.bir.2014.05.001Search in Google Scholar

Habib, A., Islamic Law, Adaptability and Financial development, Islamic Economic Studies, no. 2 (2006).Search in Google Scholar

Huang, Y., Political institutions and financial development: an empirical study, 38 World Development, no. 12 (2010).10.1016/j.worlddev.2010.04.001Search in Google Scholar

Kaufmann, D., A. Kraay, and M. Mastruzzi, Governance matters: aggregate and individual governance indicators 1996–2008, World Bank Policy Research Department working paper 4978 (2009).10.1596/1813-9450-4978Search in Google Scholar

La Porta, R., F. Lopez-de-Silanes, A. Shleifer, and R. W. Vishny, Legal determinants of external finance, 52 Journal of Finance, no. 3 (1997).10.3386/w5879Search in Google Scholar

La Porta, R., F. Lopez-de-Silanes, A. Shleifer, and R.W. Vishny, Law and Finance, 106 Journal of Political Economy, no. 6 (1998).10.1086/250042Search in Google Scholar

Law, S. H. and W.N.W. Azman-Saini, Institutional Quality, Governance, and Financial Development, 13 Economics of Governance (2012), 217–236.10.1007/s10101-012-0112-zSearch in Google Scholar

Mersadi, N.T., Islamic Finance and the Modern World: The Legal Principles Governing Islamic Finance in International Trade, 31 The Company Lawyer, no. 8 (2010), 249–254.Search in Google Scholar

Mishkin, F.S., Globalization and financial development. 89 Journal of Development Economics, no. 2 (2009), 164–169.10.1016/j.jdeveco.2007.11.004Search in Google Scholar

North, D. and B. R. Weingast, Constitutions and Commitment: The Evolution of Institutions Governing Public Choice in Seventeenth-Century England, Journal of Economic History, no. 49 (1989).10.2307/j.ctv1ddcz33.7Search in Google Scholar

Oto-Peralías, D. and D. Romero-Ávila, The Distribution of Legal Traditions around the World: A Contribution to the Legal-Origins Theory, 57 The Journal of Law and Economics, no. 3 (2014), 561–628.10.1086/676556Search in Google Scholar

Siems, M.M., Legal Origins: Reconciling Law & Finance and Comparative Law, Working Paper no. 321’, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge (2006).10.2139/ssrn.920690Search in Google Scholar

Simplice, A., Law, Finance, Economic Growth and Welfare: Why Does Legal Origin Matter?, 7 Institutions and Economies, no. 2 (2011), 30–55.Search in Google Scholar

Song, I. and C. Oosthuizen, Islamic Banking Regulation and Supervision: Survey Results and Challenges, IMF Working Paper 14/220, International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC (2014).10.5089/9781498380928.001Search in Google Scholar

Stulz, R. and R. Williamson, Culture, Openness, and Finance, Journal of Financial Economics (2003).10.3386/w8222Search in Google Scholar

Thani, N.N., M. Ridza and M. Hizaini, Law and Practice of Islamic Banking and Finance (London: Sweet & Maxwell Asia, 2003) Petaling Jaya.Search in Google Scholar

Zingales, L., Commentary on ‘More on finance and growth: more finance, more growth?’, 85 Fed ReserveBank St, no. 4 (2003), 47–52.10.20955/r.85.31-46Search in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2020-08-26
Published in Print: 2020-09-25

© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Downloaded on 28.9.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/ldr-2020-0053/html
Scroll to top button