Islamic Banking and Economic Growth

Abstract

This chapter measures the effect of growth in Islamic Banking assets on economic performance in a sample of 32 developed and developing countries based on data for the period 2000-2017. The findings show that, although Islamic banks are considered small relative to the total size of the financial sector, these are positively correlated with economic growth even after controlling for financial structure, macroeconomic factors and other variables. The outcome is robust across different econometric specifications like pooling OLS, fixed effects, and panel data with over-identified GMM. The results are confirmed on two different indicators of Islamic banking and hold for different periods. Empirical findings confirm theoretical expectations that although Islamic banking still represents a relatively very small share of the financial system, it is growing and generating an economic boost to ensure a stable banking industry.