Call for Papers: Religions and Finance

A special issue of International Journal of Behavioural Accounting and Finance

This special issue seeks to explore issues of finance from the perspectives of religions around the world. The central question is: what are the economic, behavioural and cultural relationships between religion and finance? We welcome contributions relating to all religions.

For example, scholars and practitioners are becoming increasingly interested in Islamic finance, as viewed through the prism of Shari’ah. The rise of Islamic finance over the last three years was suggested as a solution to the most severe financial crisis since the Great Depression. As financial markets and institutions recover from that crisis, a variety of issues that stem from Islamic finance are being discussed among academicians, practitioners, and even jurists.

Even before the last financial crisis, Islamic finance has grown strikingly. Indeed, the largest Islamic bank in KSA, The Islamic Development Bank, which is based in Jeddah, estimates that the volume of the industry will be about US$2.8 trillion by the end of 2015, which is principally due to the Islamic population in the world. In fact, around 1.6 billion individuals (about 25% of the world population) are Muslims. Much of the growth of the Islamic finance and banking industry is due particularly to the fast growth of oil-rich Islamic countries in the MENA region.

Furthermore, there is increasing research on the effects of Christianity and Judaism on financial development. For instance, the Health and Wealth gospel (a.k.a Prosperity gospel) is a Christian belief claiming that donations will be rewarded by the Lord with health and an increase in wealth. Alongside with these topics, this issue takes account of supplementary, topical themes such as religious perspectives of the capitalistic system and its financial institutions.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

• Faith-based study of the connection between finance and religions
• Christianity and finance
• Islamic asset management
• Shari'ah compliant private equity and venture capital investment
• Islamic derivatives and Sukuk
• Islamic finance: behavioural aspects
• Collateral financing: the Islamic finance perspective
• Islamic microfinance and poverty alleviation
• Incentives and Islamic finance
• Zakat economics
• Ethical study of finance
• Religion, culture, reciprocal behaviour (trust, fairness) and finance
• Religion and stock market development

Important Date
Submission deadline: 30 November, 2012