مقاله انگلیسی رایگان در مورد مباحث اقتصاد اسلامی و تحقیقات مالی – الزویر 2021

Abstract

Keywords

JEL classification

1. Introduction

2. Topic modeling approach

3. Topics in Islamic economics

4. Topics in Islamic finance

5. Topics in Islamic governance and morality

6. Discussion and conclusions

CRediT roles

References

Abstract

We provide a comprehensive structuring of research on Islamic economics and finance into the core topics of the area, for the period 1979 to 2018. This is carried out through a probabilistic topic modeling approach that allows statistical learning of the connection between research articles as well as their shared topics. This approach, which blends machine learning and natural language processing, helps provide a comprehensive structure to the literature. Our topic modeling analysis is conducted on approximately 1500 articles, and suggests the Islamic economics and finance literature can be well-described by 11 topics. These topics cover economic, finance, and morality issues. Our research can be applied to provide a clear structure for ongoing research agendas in Islamic economics and finance as well as a framework for understanding research development in this area. We also note the differences between Islamic and conventional approaches to economics and finance research in order to highlight the inherent new contributions of this maturing area of research.

1. Introduction

Research in Islamic economics and finance has advanced considerably since the middle of the last decade. This reflects the practical growth of the area, with now about $1.7 trillion assets under management (EY, 2016). In terms of research our study identifies about 1500 research articles1 in this domain published since 1979, with most being published in the last decade. This rapid growth in research presents challenges in terms of understanding the direction in which the research is expanding as well as for identifying coherent topics within the area. Our study therefore structures the corpus of articles in order to provide a clear understanding of the development of research in Islamic economics and finance. This serves to act as both a review of the Islamic economics and finance literature in addition to providing insights into the research questions of important sub-fields of the area.

By Islamic economics and finance, we refer to economic and finance practices that are informed by Islamic or Shari’ah laws and principles. This notably involves not charging interest (riba) but rather favoring the sharing of profits and losses (mudarabah and musharaka), as well as forbidding investing in particular types of businesses. There is also an emphasis on real investment rather than speculation by gambling (maisir), and generally excessive risk and uncertainty (gharar) is deemed incompatible with Islamic principles. An additional feature of Islamic economics and finance is that the major implementation of these principles is in developing countries as most Muslim-majority countries, where Islamic finance tends to be most practiced, are developing economies. This means there are associated issues related to this economic factor – for example, the research should ideally help with economic development and assisting populations to rise out of poverty.

A number of Islamic finance products are well known, such as sukuk (Islamic financial certificates developed as an alternative to conventional bonds) and Islamic mutual funds. However, the aims of Islamic economics and finance scholars, practitioners, and policy makers, go well beyond developing a set of compatible financial products. We see this particularly in Islamic economics, which ultimately could be argued to be aiming to re-imagine the entire economic field in line with Islamic principles. This has created significant spread in the literature, with associated difficulties in understanding the directions of the various sub-topics. It is towards this structural issue that we address this study.