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Article
Publication date: 26 July 2019

Mohammad Omar Farooq, Fouad Meer and Basit Iqbal

An important Islamic imperative is prevention of concentration of wealth among a few so that wealth circulates widely to enhance shared prosperity. In contemporary economic…

Abstract

Purpose

An important Islamic imperative is prevention of concentration of wealth among a few so that wealth circulates widely to enhance shared prosperity. In contemporary economic discourse, inequality and concentration of wealth have emerged as among key causes of instability and crisis. Unfortunately, although Islamic finance has emerged as a Shari’ah-compliant industry, it does not seem to be connected with the Islamic concern about inequality and concentration of wealth. This paper aims to explore the issues of inequality and concentration of wealth in the context of Islamic finance.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper addresses a number of queries: Are Islamic banks, as the dominant component of the industry, helping to improve inequality and concentration of wealth and thus offer a better framework to deal with instability and crisis? Is the ownership structure of Islamic banks conducive to meeting the Islamic imperative regarding inequality and concentration of wealth? Using secondary data, this research illuminates the pertinent issues in light of the experience of Bahrain as one of the hubs of Islamic banking and finance.

Findings

The paper finds that the ownership pattern of Islamic banks in Bahrain lends credence to the entrenched, not-so-unexpected concentration of wealth.

Research limitations/implications

This study is based on data of one country. Further studies on other countries will help illuminate the relevant patterns and issues.

Practical implications

Inequality and concentration of wealth are among central economic issues in contemporary economic discourse. Because of the significant impact of such inequality and concentration, societies need to be more aware of these impacts and devise ways to address it.

Social implications

Inequality and concentration of wealth have fundamental social implications, as the issues of poverty, deprivation, exploitation, etc. are inseparable from concentration of wealth (accompanied by concentration of power), and widening wealth gap can cause or induce major socio-political upheaval.

Originality/value

Although inequality and concentration of wealth are robust fields of inquiry, this might be the first work addressing the issue of concentration of wealth in the context of Islamic finance in general and Islamic banking in particular.

Details

International Journal of Ethics and Systems, vol. 35 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2514-9369

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 September 2021

Feng Dong, Xiao Wang and Jiawen Chen

This study aims to investigate the impact of family ownership on cooperative research and development (R&D). Drawing on the ability and willingness paradox framework in family…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the impact of family ownership on cooperative research and development (R&D). Drawing on the ability and willingness paradox framework in family business research, the authors suggest that family ownership influences cooperative R&D via two opposing mechanisms: power concentration and wealth concentration. It also deepens the current understanding of the boundary conditions of informal institutions for the impact of family ownership on cooperative R&D by investigating the moderating role of political ties.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors analyze a panel of 610 Chinese manufacturing family firms and 2,127 firm-year observations from 2009 to 2017. Fixed effects regression analysis is used to test the hypotheses, with the two-stage Heckman model to address sample selection bias.

Findings

The research findings indicate that family ownership has an inverted U-shaped relationship with cooperative R&D and political ties moderate the relationship in such a way that the inverted U-shaped relationship will be steeper in firms with more political ties than in firms with fewer political ties.

Practical implications

Family ownership influences firms’ cooperative R&D through the positive effect of power concentration and the negative effect of wealth concentration. Family owners should, therefore, take advantage of concentrated power, for instance, by adapting quickly and committing sufficient resources to cooperative R&D opportunities, while controlling path-dependent relationship development caused by concentrated family wealth. The effect of political ties on the relationship between family ownership and cooperative R&D is found to be a double-edged sword.

Originality/value

This study extends the ability and willingness paradox framework and provides novel insights into cooperative R&D in family businesses by integrating power concentration and wealth concentration associated with family ownership. Moreover, this study provides a contingency perspective and introduces the moderating role of political ties in shaping cooperative R&D in family firms.

Details

Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 26 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1367-3270

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 February 1996

Eoin Reeves and Eoin O’Sullivan

The distribution of personal wealth in the Republic of Ireland has not been estimated since the 1970s. While the publication of those estimates did lead to governmental attempts…

753

Abstract

The distribution of personal wealth in the Republic of Ireland has not been estimated since the 1970s. While the publication of those estimates did lead to governmental attempts to redistribute wealth, the attempts were stifled by the opposition of powerful interest groups. Highlights the dearth of information on the distribution of wealth in Ireland since then and draws attention to the underlying social, political and economic reasons. Postulates that the reasons for this paucity of information are: the perceived irrelevance of the wealth distribution as an indicator of welfare; the problems normally associated with the available estimation techniques; consequent search costs; and inevitably strong opposition to the governmental attempts to redistribute should evidence of high inequality be produced. In the tradition of Tawney and Titmuss, argues that it is in the interest of a healthy society that the facts regarding such an issue be known.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 23 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 January 1983

R.G.B. Fyffe

This book is a policy proposal aimed at the democratic left. It is concerned with gradual but radical reform of the socio‐economic system. An integrated policy of industrial and…

10979

Abstract

This book is a policy proposal aimed at the democratic left. It is concerned with gradual but radical reform of the socio‐economic system. An integrated policy of industrial and economic democracy, which centres around the establishment of a new sector of employee‐controlled enterprises, is presented. The proposal would retain the mix‐ed economy, but transform it into a much better “mixture”, with increased employee‐power in all sectors. While there is much of enduring value in our liberal western way of life, gross inequalities of wealth and power persist in our society.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 3 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1985

Tomas Riha

Nobody concerned with political economy can neglect the history of economic doctrines. Structural changes in the economy and society influence economic thinking and, conversely…

2543

Abstract

Nobody concerned with political economy can neglect the history of economic doctrines. Structural changes in the economy and society influence economic thinking and, conversely, innovative thought structures and attitudes have almost always forced economic institutions and modes of behaviour to adjust. We learn from the history of economic doctrines how a particular theory emerged and whether, and in which environment, it could take root. We can see how a school evolves out of a common methodological perception and similar techniques of analysis, and how it has to establish itself. The interaction between unresolved problems on the one hand, and the search for better solutions or explanations on the other, leads to a change in paradigma and to the formation of new lines of reasoning. As long as the real world is subject to progress and change scientific search for explanation must out of necessity continue.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 12 no. 3/4/5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1997

AbulHasan M. Sadeq

Poverty is a global problem and the phenomenon is alarming in the third world including the Muslim Countries (MCs). This paper analyses Islam's view on poverty based on its…

2226

Abstract

Poverty is a global problem and the phenomenon is alarming in the third world including the Muslim Countries (MCs). This paper analyses Islam's view on poverty based on its ideological norms and values. Poverty has been defined from an Islamic perspective that leads to two poverty levels and hence two poverty lines which are quite different from the conventional of concepts of poverty. The basic Islamic sources suggest that Islam dislikes poverty and it provides a conducive framework for alleviation of poverty. Three broad categories of poverty alleviation measures have been analysed. First, the positive measures which include income growth, functional distribution of income, and equal opportunities to all. Second, the preventive measures which are control of ownership and prevention of malpractices in economics and business that lead to income concentration. Third, corrective measures which include compulsory transfer payments, recommended transfer payments, and state responsibility. The positive measures are expected to lead to high level income and its equitable distribution, the preventive measures are expected to limit concentration of wealth, while the corrective measures are meant for correcting imbalances in the distribution of income and wealth, and to upgrade economic conditions of the worse‐off population in the society. If these measures are applied, the problem of poverty could be solved quite substantially. The paper concludes with some recommendations with respect to poverty alleviation in the context of MCs.

Details

Humanomics, vol. 13 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0828-8666

Article
Publication date: 13 April 2015

Georgina Murray

– The purpose of this paper is to investigate who rules the world. The hypothesis is that it is the 0.1 per cent of owners and controllers of capital.

1270

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate who rules the world. The hypothesis is that it is the 0.1 per cent of owners and controllers of capital.

Design/methodology/approach

This study used secondary sources including the Bureau Van Dyk and The World Top Incomes database to look at distributions of income and wealth (stock ownership). This is supplemented with a secondary source analysis and with some interviews.

Findings

The top point one per centers, the wealthy, those on the top incomes and transnational capitalist class are all distinct but overlapping categories that describe the (white) men and (few) women who hold power through their ownership and/or control of capital and who are thereby directly or indirectly able to act hegemonically on an emerging global basis.

Research limitations/implications

Theorists of the global school of capitalism Alveredo et al., 2013 argue that there has been a qualitatively new twenty-first century transnational capitalism in the process of emerging (see Robinson, 2012a). This paper tests this assumption and relates it to the work by Hamm 2010.

Social implications

The flip side of this progressively widening concentration of income and wealth into fewer (0.1 per cent) hands brings new lows to the polarisation of class, exploitation and domination. All of these have intensified since the 1980s with the end of the Keynesian Compromise. This north/south accentuated division has implications for social justice.

Originality/value

This seeks to identify empirical evidence to support the theory of an emerging transnational capitalist class.

Details

Foresight, vol. 17 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-6689

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 April 2014

Ahmad Asad Ibrahim, Radwan Jamal Elatrash and Mohammad Omar Farooq

The purpose of the paper was to explore the issue of hoarding and dishoarding in a modern context, especially as it relates to circulation of wealth, an important economic…

1575

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of the paper was to explore the issue of hoarding and dishoarding in a modern context, especially as it relates to circulation of wealth, an important economic objective from the Islamic viewpoint.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper presents a survey of scholarly positions on the issue of hoarding and circulation of wealth from Islamic perspectives and analyzes how these positions affect the shaping of financial and economic dimensions of life in our contemporary time. The paper draws on the primary sources, the Qur'an and hadith, and examines the positions of the classical and contemporary scholars, especially in the context of the growing interest in finance, the financial system and economy from the Islamic perspective.

Findings

The paper identifies the fact that the notion of hoarding (kanz) needs significantly revised understanding, as money as a concept and tool has evolved substantively in modern times. It also examines variant positions regarding the concept of hoarding and finds more merit in favor of the position that paying zakat is not enough to be exempted from the Qur'anic implications about hoarding. It also identifies and examines securitization, such as sukuk, as an important tool for better circulation of wealth.

Originality/value

Hoarding and dishoarding are not widely explored topics in contemporary literature on Islamic economics and finance. This paper makes a valuable contribution in its attempt to highlight the problem of hoarding and the challenge toward greater circulation of wealth.

Details

International Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Finance and Management, vol. 7 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1753-8394

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 3 September 2019

Mariana Mortágua

This chapter explores the origins, development, and organization of the main Portuguese capitalist groups throughout the fascist dictatorship, the Carnation Revolution, and the…

Abstract

This chapter explores the origins, development, and organization of the main Portuguese capitalist groups throughout the fascist dictatorship, the Carnation Revolution, and the neoliberal European integration until the onset of the financial crisis of 2008. The Portuguese experience confirms that, far from the usual neoliberal view that presents the process of accumulation and concentration of capital as the result of fair market mechanisms, large capitalist groups emerge as a combination of three factors: privileged access to finance, State protection, and family inheritance. Furthermore, it is argued that, if capital is considered as embodiment of power relations and not as factor of production, the link between concentration/accumulation of capital and economic growth is appropriately lost. Concentration strategies can have a detrimental effect on the economy. In Portugal, the dominance of these large economic groups contributed to the development of a rentist economic structure that was contrary to the goals of productive and economic development.

Details

Class History and Class Practices in the Periphery of Capitalism
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78973-592-5

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 July 2014

Rémi Jardat

This critique of Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century summarizes and comments on the main tenets of the author’s principal theory. The author's aim is to point out the…

Abstract

Purpose

This critique of Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century summarizes and comments on the main tenets of the author’s principal theory. The author's aim is to point out the book’s contributions to a critical debate around social and economic issues, while giving special emphasis to its theoretical and epistemological relevance for management science.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on a careful reading of the book, in the original French and English translation versions, the author explores Piketty’s arguments and proposals and attempts to place his “scholarly discourse” in relation to Marx’s “worldview” as well as the philosophy of the Enlightenment.

Findings

The book’s potential impact over the long run is extremely high, ostensibly enough to make it as important as Marx’s work, but relying on a decidedly different method and philosophy. The author also considers the strong complementariness between this work and that of Pierre Rosanvallon in the field of political science. Some similarities with Fukuyama’s approach are also considered, but on a much lesser note.

Research limitations/implications

The question of unemployment, which is given little attention in Piketty’s work, is not addressed here.

Social implications

In contrast with Piketty’s book, this paper intends to find social application only within the microcosm of the scholarly community.

Originality/value

The author hopes to draw a link between the book’s contribution to economic thinking and its philosophical underpinnings, that is by presenting a reading that is both a positivist assessment and an attempt to decipher underlying assumptions.

Details

Society and Business Review, vol. 9 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-5680

Keywords

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