This paper examines the export-led growth (ELG) hypothesis for five South Asian countries through cointegration and multivariate Granger causality tests. Strong support for a long-run relationship among exports, imports, and real output for all the countries except Sri Lanka were found. Feedback effects between exports and GDP for Bangladesh and Nepal and unidirectional causality from exports to output in the case of Pakistan were found. No causality between these variables was found for Sri Lanka and India, although for India GDP and exports did induce imports. A feedback effect between imports and GDP was also documented for Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal, as well as unidirectional causality from imports to output growth for Sri Lanka. These and other findings are discussed from the standpoint of the export-led growth hypothesis.

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Purpose – This study aims to know the present structure and move of the Islamic banks of Pakistan as well as current issues and challenges for Islamic microfinance. However, this is based on perceptions of the Islamic bankers, regulators and micro-entrepreneurs and petty traders, as they are the key players in the credit market. Design/methodology/approach – The study gathered relevant information through conducting field survey. Two questionnaires were designed for the survey. One questionnaire was administered to survey 270 micro-entrepreneurs and petty traders in three major cities of Pakistan. Another survey deals with the perceptions of Islamic bankers. In total, 100 people from middle and top management were surveyed from five full-fledged Islamic banks of Pakistan. The SPSS software, version 16, was used for questionnaire reliability and descriptive analysis to analyse the data. Findings – In general, the study found the strong opinions of the respondents speak in favour of Islamic microfinance under a system of profit and loss sharing. Conversely, the majority of the clients also feel that Islamic banks do not encourage lower-income micro-entrepreneurs. In addition, the study found that Islamic microfinance is constrained by lack of knowledge, experience and professionalism of the supporting staff; however, Islamic bankers have shown great consensus that Islamic banks should offer Islamic microfinance products and instruments to respond to the needs of the poor for poverty alleviation. Research limitations/implications – The first limitation of the study is the meagre interest of micro-entrepreneurs and petty traders to participate in the survey. The second limitation of this work concerns the extremely busy schedule of top management and administrative impediment to approach and fix an appointment. Despite these limitations, the findings of this study provide insights to Islamic banks in diversifying their products by offering Islamic microfinance to the low-income entrepreneurs but with proper guidelines and policies. Practical implications – There is a need to educate the community towards the merits of Islamic banking system by developing a good information system using good visuals and professionally presented seminars, banners and arranging regular sessions with the business community. The growth and development of Islamic banking in the country largely depend on its customers’ enhanced knowledge and awareness about its products and services. Social implications – It is the responsibility of the community as well as of government to change the mindset of the poor that banks are meant to serve the interest of everybody, regardless of social, economic and political status. Originality/value – Theoretically, this study contributes to the existing body of knowledge in the area of Islamic microfinance by examining the perceptions of Islamic bankers and micro-entrepreneurs. This can help Islamic banks of Pakistan to design and formulate new administrative as well as operational procedures to serve the interest of the poor with commitment towards Islamic values.

Purpose This paper aims to study the main trends of scientific research in Islamic finance’s social aspects to clarify place, role and functions, especially in the context of increasing social problems. To achieve this goal, this paper focuses on the social component of Islamic finance, analyzes publications on social Islamic finance in the Web of Science database, covering the period from 1979 to 2020, specify the geographical localization of research networks, determines the most cited authors and their scientific position. Design/methodology/approach The authors have applied several literature review techniques, a bibliometric citation and co-citation analysis, a co-authorship analysis and a review of the most cited papers. The analyzes’ results allow us to offer five future questions in Islamic social finance, zakat and waqf, which have not been investigated before and could influence Islamic social finance and Islamic finance research. Findings The authors also derive and summarize five leading future research questions. Research limitations/implications This is a limitation of using only the Web of Science Core Collection database as the premier resource and the most trusted citation index for the world’s scientific and scholarly research. Further study might expand the types of analyzed units, include more keywords and include other databases, such as Scopus. Originality/value This paper can be considered as an inspirational one to future researchers and policymakers in Islamic social finance.

This paper is the extended and updated version of Shirazi (2006), which covers 38 OIC-member countries. The paper estimates the resource required and potential zakat collection for poverty elimination. The paper employed the poverty gap index based on US $ 1.25 a day and US$ 2.0 a day estimated by the World Bank (2009). Zakat potential has been estimated by employing Kahf (1989) method of estimation with some modifications. The paper finds that half of the sample countries not only meet their resource shortfall by potential zakat collection but also generate surplus funds which are sufficient for the resource deficit countries. The paper suggests pooling of zakat funds from the zakat surplus countries and providing for the resource deficit countries to eliminate the poverty. Keywords: Poverty Alleviation, Resource Shortfall, Zakat Collection. OICMember Countries