No abstract

Conceptually, the Islamic and conventional banking rates are supposedly determined based on different premises, and empirical evidence appears to suggest that they are closely related. However, the findings are not unanimous. This paper offers Malaysian evidence of the extent of relatedness between Islamic and conventional lending rates in a dual-banking system. Our data consists of two pairs of Islamic and conventional lending rates: the base lending rates and the average lending rates. To test the relation, we use the standard methodologies of the Johansen cointegration, Granger causality, variance decomposition, and impulse response function. Our results indicate that there is no long-run relation between the Islamic and conventional lending rates for base lending rates; however, the average lending rates do indicate a cointegration between them. In the short-run the averages are independent. In general it may be concluded that Islamic borrowing may be considered a viable alternative to conventional bank borrowing. 66S-P. Lee et al.

The student-centered learning (SCL) approach is an approach to education that focuses on learners and their needs, rather than relying upon the input of the teacher's. The present paper examines how the SCL approach is integrated as a learner-centered paradigm into finance courses offered at a business school in a research university in Malaysia. Specifically, this paper identifies how a learner-centered environment is integrated into teaching methods, learning activities and evaluation tools. Since the adoption of the SCL approach is partly to cater for the needs of the research university, the analysis of the courses is supported with responses from the respective lecturers. This study finds that the lecturers of the five courses examined have used active/interactive learning and group project approaches as standard teaching methods under the SCL approach which includes projects, class discussion and presentation. Alongside these standard methods, some of the courses use additional methods under the SCL approach, including real life experiential learning and case studies. For example, students of the Investment and Portfolio Analysis course are exposed to the real world investment decision making by investing funds in selected stocks listed on Bursa Malaysia. In terms of course evaluations, the courses place greater weight on continuous assessment based on group projects and presentations, while reduce the emphasis on examinations. Overall, implementing the SCL approach requires a careful design of the learning process, which includes the classroom setting; flexibility of the curriculum; teaching methods; evaluation policies; and course content. In general, the study demonstrates that SCL has great potential to function as an effective learning tool in an environment where the labor market demands generically skilled job candidates and in which universities are demanding further resources to be devoted to efforts relating to research and publications

This study examines the linkages between foreign equity flows and stock market returns of Bursa Malaysia. Specifically this article intends to investigate whether past stock returns influence foreign equity flows or vice versa in a short-term time horizon. To explore the linkages between these two variables, this study employs bivariate vector autoregressive (VAR) model. In addition, to determine the causal relation between stock returns and foreign equity flows, this study utilizes VAR Granger causality test. The findings of this study provide evidence that foreign institutional investors are momentum traders, while foreign retail investors are contrarian traders with regard to the return of Malaysian equity market. Another main finding is that domestic equity returns have an effect on fund flows of foreign retail investors and vice versa; meanwhile, there is a positive causal relation between domestic equity returns and foreign institutional fund flows.