An Islamic monetary theory of value and equation of exchange: evidence from Egypt (696–1517)

Purpose - The purpose of this research is to present an Islamic monetary theory of value by analyzing real prices and real money in terms of gold and silver in Egypt from 696-1517, a period of 821 years from the Umayyads to the Abbasids. Design/methodology/approach - It adopts a quantitative empirical investigation derived from a full population of secondary data to deductively evaluate the measure and store of value functions of money, to affirm an Islamic monetary theory of value, which is also inductively researched through a qualitative interpretation of documentary and content analysis of Islamic and numismatic literature. Findings - The Islamic monetary theory of value leads to an Islamic equation of exchange that reconfirms the outcome of this research, where a high value of money ensures low constant real prices over the long term. Research limitations/implications - The findings are based on an empirical investigation involving a single price of wheat series as a reasonable proxy for changes in wholesale commodity prices generally, which was successfully adopted by other studies. Practical implications - The significance for modern monetary policy is that monetary authorities should adopt an Islamic monetary theory of value to achieve genuine monetary and price stability. Social implications - Through an Islamic equation of exchange, price stability would ensure real economic growth that protects wealth for holders of money due to a stable purchasing power, and combined with Islamic equity finance is more efficient in allocating investible resources to increase GDP and employment. Originality/value - The Islamic monetary theory of value ensures that there is no transfer or confiscation of wealth through inflation, which would impart gains to the issuer due to the excessive supply of money in relation to demand

A Conceptual Model of Construct Ability in Construction Projects

The concept of constructability enhances benefits to the owner; by provide the construction input at the earliest stage, i.e. during the conceptual planning stage. The present research aims to identify the common design- related problems and the factors that delay the design and construction processes (stage of detailed design and commencing of construction activities, etc.). A questionnaire survey was conducted; followed by interviews with construction personnel including contractors, project managers, designers, expert engineers, etc. The 'process complexity' was found to be the major factor that delayed the design and construction processes in the absence of construction input during the design phase. On the other hand, the main barrier to implement constructability was identified as the lack of construction experience of design organizations and the differences in contractual arrangement (the construction knowledge (Constructors) were not involved during project team meetings). This research also revealed that the integration of experienced construction personnel into the earliest stages of the prcject as full- fledged members of the project team and comprehensive tracking (analysis, retrieving and storing of the efficient, workable methods and procedures that can be implemented to the current and future project) will greatly improve the chances of achieving a better quality project. Making this perceive specific knowledge available to designers at the right time. It is also important to obtain information as an integrated environment. The Information Management Model has been proposed to address the problems surrounding the construction environment, such as contractual arrangement and team relationships. It is facilitates the recording of the intent behind construction project decisions. Thereby, provide a complete project history, to integrate construction participant's knowledge and experience into the planning and designs phases. This knowledge should be collected before and after the construction of a project, to make it available for the planning and design of future projects. Design/Build approaches, is being suggested by the study to apply during the preconstruction and through whole project. Moreover, specialized- formal constructability programming, and comprehensive tracking have been argued as an essential approaches during the planning and design phase

Determination of Water Demand Management in GCC Using GIS

Arab GCC((Gulf Corporation Councel) is facing potential water shortages. The alarming increase in the scarcity of water in various parts of the world. Water is a main issue in many countries especially in those GCC, it has focused a global attention on the need for a stronger and more appropriate water resource management and availability solutions. imperative for nations to come up with more focused and direct measures that would address and stem this resource scarcity. Water sustainability needs a balance between demand and availability. The main objective of this paper is the application of these concepts to Arabs countries. Water demand management is about achieving a reduction in the use of water resources, normally through increased efficiency of water application. The management of water resources was not explicitly included in the past from thirty-five years in all most of those countries normative system partly because water was believed to be a free good in mind, and was not accepted to have a price to pay to use it. The main goal of this paper is showing, how Geographical Information Systems (GIS ) using ESRI (Environmental System Research Institute)  or ArcGIS 10.2 product , can be used to support infrastructure planners and analyst on water demand of a local area in GCC (Gulf Corporation Councel ) they are (Saudi Arabia ,Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman  and UAE). Keywords: GIS, Water in land, Water area, XML Schema ESRI, ArcGIS ,GCC , DIVA-GI

Experimental Study of Micro-Explosion Phenomena of Emulsified Fuel

Water in diesel emulsion contributes to a better alternative fuel to reduce pollutant due to the secondary atomization of the diesel fuel droplets during combustion which is known as micro-explosion. It is significant to know the variables that affect the stability of the emulsified fuel and also the parameters that influence the development of micro-explosion. This study is to experimentally determine the onset of micro-explosion on various water in diesel blends and to establish the parameters influencing the development of micro-explosion. Several emulsified fuel been prepared with different percentage of water and different dosage of surfactant used. These variables are used to collect data about the stability of each emulsified fuel produced and also to observe the progression and behavior of micro-explosion for every emulsified fuel. Each of the water in diesel blends have different stability where the level of stability is observed from the amount of sedimentation produced at the bottle of each emulsions. After a period of time, emulsion with surfactant‟s Hydrophilic-Lipophilic Balance (HLB) value closer to 5 shows more stability compared to emulsion with higher surfactant‟s HLB value. Furthermore, emulsion with higher dosage amount of surfactant and higher percentage of water has a thicker sedimentation formed at the bottom of each bottles. The experiments result shows that each emulsion has different progression and behavior of micro-explosion where the time taken for micro-explosion to occur and the temperature at which micro-explosion occur differ for every emulsion. Emulsion with a higher dosage of surfactant has a shorter time taken for micro-explosion to occur and a higher micro-explosion temperature compared to emulsion with a lower dosage of surfactant. Apart from that, more water in an emulsion would increase the time taken for micro-explosion to occur. The phase changes throughout the experiment are observed to study the progression and also the colour changes from the beginning of the experiment until micro-explosion occurs. Several emulsions show no micro-explosion while most of the emulsions have micro-explosion phenomena

Book Excerpt: Islamic fund and wealth management: a way forward

This book specifically provides updated information on fund and wealth management with regards to current policies and best practices. Empirical findings, case studies discussions, seminal as well as recent related literature are gathered in this book to cater to everyone inside or outside the fund and wealth management industry

Are the new crypto-currencies qualified to be included in the stock of high quality liquid assets? a case study of bitcoin currency

As crypto-currencies hold dual nature of a medium of exchange (currency) and an investment asset, some questions may arise about the potentiality of including crypto-currencies as liquid investment asset in financial institutions particularly in the banking sector to enhance their liquidity risk management and improve their portfolio diversification investment strategy. The objective of this study therefore is to examine the characteristics of Bitcoin currency based on the requirements of High-Quality Liquid Assets (HQLA) standards of Basel III and compare its volatility structure with other traditional asset classes that are already recommended by Basle III as HQLA. The study utilizes both descriptive and quantitative analysis using the GARCH family models to examine the volatility structures of these assets. The findings show that Bitcoin currency holds the same characteristics of HQLA, however; the risk of legality and recognition is still under consideration by legal authorities around the world and this risk will be eradicated in the future as crypto-currencies derive their legality from their real intrinsic value, multi-economic usefulness and not by law as in the case of fiat money currency. Furthermore, the symmetric volatility structure analysis shows the continuing persistence of volatility and predictability behavior in return series of Bitcoin currency and other- traditional asset classes in the U.S. market. However, Bitcoin’s stability has gradually improved over time. With regard to the asymmetric informative response, Bitcoin returns respond more to negative shock but it has no statistical significance, thus suggesting the lack of leveraging effect in Bitcoin market but this effect was found to be statistically persistent in other traditional asset class markets. In addition, Bitcoin returns show very low correlation with other traditional asset classes. All these imply that Bitcoin is a potential candidate as a hedge and asset diversifier, which is recommended to be included in the HQLA. This study provides some support to recent theoretical work on crypto asset return behaviour and liquidity risk management. The findings provide appropriate information about Bitcoin asset behaviour compared to other traditional asset classes which will enable them to make the right investment decision with regard to hedging, diversification and liquidity risk management. The findings of this study may assist in evaluating the suitability of including crypto assets into HQLA to improve the liquidity requirement standards and ensure that banks have an adequate amount of HQLA specifically during times of financial turmoil

Hubungan Antara Interaksi Siswa-Guru Dengan Kedisiplinan Belajar Pada Siswa

Disiplin belajar merupakan masalah yang patut diperhatikan, sebab adanya kedisiplinan belajar bukan hanya sekedar menunjukkan indikasi turunnya semangat dan kegairahan belajar tetapi dapat mempengaruhi pencapaian tujuan belajar. Namun pada masa sekarang semakin sering terjadi perilaku pelajar yang jauh dari nilai-nilai kedisiplinan. Membolos, atribut seragam tidak lengkap, cara berpakaian tidak rapi, tidak mengerjakan PR, tidak mau mengikuti kegiatan ekstrakurikuler, les dan upacara menunjukkan rendahnya kedisiplinan belajar siswa sehingga seringkali menyebabkan prestasi belajar menurun. Adapun tujuan penelitian ini yaitu mengetahui: 1) Hubungan antara interaksi siswa-guru dengan kedisiplinan belajar; 2) Tingkat interaksi siswa-guru dan kedisiplinan belajar; 3) Sumbangan efektif interaksi siswa-guru terhadap kedisiplinan belajar. Hipotesis yang diajukan: Ada hubungan positif antara interaksi siswa-guru dengan kedisiplinan belajar siswa. Subjek penelitian ini adalah siswa-siswi kelas VIII. MTSN Gondang Rejo Karanganyar berjumlah 69 siswa. Pengambilan sampel penelitian tersebut dilakukan dengan cara cluster random sampling Metode pengumpulan data menggunakan skala Interaksi siswa guru dan kedisiplinan belajar . Metode analisis data menggunakan teknik korelasi product moment. Berdasarkan hasil analisis diperoleh nilai koefisien korelasi rxy = 0,435; p= 0,000 (p < 0,01). Hasil ini menunjukkan ada hubungan positif yang sangat signifikan antara interaksi siswa-guru dengan kedisiplinan belajar siswa. Sumbangan efektif interaksi siswa-guru terhadap kedisiplinan belajar siswa sebesar 18,9%. Hasil kategori diketahui interaksi siswa-guru subjek tergolong sedang ditunjukkan rerata empirik (RE) = 93,23 dan rerata hipotetik (RH) = 85. Kedisiplinan belajar siswa tergolong sedang, ditunjukkan oleh rerata empiric (RE) = 83,45 dan rerata hipotetik (RH) = 82,5. Kesimpulan penelitian menunjukkan hubungan positif yang sangat signifikan antara interaksi siswa-guru dengan kedisiplinan belajar siswa, namun generalisasi dari hasil-hasil penelitian ini terbatas pada populasi dimana penelitian dilakukan

An investment appraisal of international maritime assets for Malaysian Islamic financial institutions - the case for equity finance

The purpose of this research is to investigate the overall investment performance of international maritime assets in order to facilitate Islamic equity finance and investment involving Malaysian Islamic finance institutions, retail and also institutional investors. Shipping is a strong growth industry with about 84% of global trade carried by the international shipping industry. The problem is that Malaysian Islamic financial institutions have essentially no exposure and thus understanding of international shipping. However, shipping is a highly capital intensive industry and currently 75% of ship lending has been conducted by European banks and financed on a conventional basis. This research involves an investment analysis of a full population of historical data over a period of 20 years to evaluate maritime performance by adopting IRR, net yield and standard deviation measures of risk and return. We also develop a correlation matrix for maritime assets and compare returns to other real and financial investments. Our findings reveal that whilst earnings are volatile in comparison to capital market financial products, unlevered, tax-free returns on maritime assets are very attractive. The significance is that Islamic equity finance, rather than debt at the time-value-of-money should enable the development of international shipping in Malaysia

Modeling the performance of bulk-carriers for Islamic equity investors

This paper investigates the performance of bulk-carriers as a primary shipping segment for Islamic equity investors. Shipping is a strong growth industry with 84% of global trade carried by the shipping industry, although 75% of ship lending is debt-based. Moreover, many Islamic investors have minimal exposure to ship-finance and investment. We adopt an investment analysis of a full population of historical data over 20 years, to evaluate performance involving a maritime return on investment, IRR, net yield and standard deviation measures of risk and return. Our findings reveal that whilst earnings are volatile in comparison to capital market expectations, unlevered, tax-free returns on bulk-carrier investments out-perform other assets. By communicating risk and reward more effectively, Islamic equity investors, will realize the benefit of equity finance on the basis of profit sharing, is more efficient at allocating investible resources than debt finance at interest, thereby increasing investment and economic growth