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This paper aims to propose a new Islamic trade finance framework for Islamic financial institution (FIs) to support exports in Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC) countries.

This paper introduces and proposes the recently developed Islamic finance methods of the supplier financing Wakala agreement, restricted Mudaraba and award-winning Export Credit Agency (ECA) export finance structures from the aspects of Shari’ah compliance, efficiency, simplicity for traders and risk management. This paper uses the approach of critical realism. The three-stratum approach is appropriate for Islamic product development, where the real, the actual and the empirical can be observed.

The author argues that the ECA export financing structures, or restricted Mudaraba if preferred, with an embedded supplier financing Wakala agreement can pave the way for Islamic FIs to support exporting companies. It is also concluded that development and support of the Takaful industry are vital for the success of Islamic export financing schemes because of its role in risk management.

Although very active in import financing with standard Murabaha contracts, Islamic FIs are still not able to meet the need for financing the expanding exports of OIC countries. Because of the difficulty in developing products that are both efficient and Shari’ah-compliant, export financing is the most controversial issue for the Islamic trade finance industry. Existing or proposed export finance products are heavily criticised by concerned Muslims, as they include bill discounting, akin to factoring in conventional finance. This paper introduces methods aimed at overcoming the inadequacy of existing structures.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the stringency of different types of public financing institutions' safeguard mechanisms in the financing of large dams in developing countries. It seeks to do so by examining: the institutional strategies and policies currently in place in a set of key public financing institutions; and project‐level case studies of dams financed by these institutions and the stringency with which existing policies are applied by the key financing institutions. It aims then to cite the key factors determining why the “safeguard‐performance” between these types of financing institutions differs and what the implications are for leaders working to effect improvements in these areas.

The study compares the safeguard mechanisms of two types of financing institutions by applying a set of benchmark criteria to both existing strategy and policy documents and to the actual application of those policies at the project level, through correspondence, interviews, and site visits.

The study argues that leaders may make a difference on improving the sustainability performance gap in the financing of large dams – with more difficulty in those cases where the current gap is mainly to be explained by “systemic” factors; and arguably with more ease in cases where the current gap is caused mostly by other factors.

The study leads to the above findings for the case of public financing institutions and large infrastructure projects (with a focus on dams). To make for greater generalisability of the findings, future research should complement this work by focusing on private financing institutions and on the financing of other types of projects.

Large infrastructure projects have massive social and environmental impacts, and public financial institutions have a large stake in determining the sustainability (or otherwise) of these projects. The paper seeks to help make large infrastructure investments more sustainable by providing guidance to leaders as to where and how sustainability aspects could best be integrated in financing decisions for these projects.

The value added lies in helping leaders define where sustainability efforts in large infrastructure finance are warranted – and where, conversely, they represent largely wasted efforts.

This paper aims to draw attention to an urgent need for reform of the regulatory framework of the broader export credit system to ensure a new and comprehensive “safe haven” for officially supported export credits. The purpose is to analyse the complex debate on disciplines of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), creating a point of reference for future analysis of and debates around the “carve-out clause” of the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (ASCM) and a “safe haven” in a broader sense.

This paper takes inspiration from legal, economic and political science literature on subsidies and officially supported export credits, as well as on legal documents related to the WTO and the OECD. It examines the WTO subsidy and the OECD export credits framework, focusing on main legal and economic governance aspects. Then, it gives a critical analysis how “safe” a “safe haven” in a broader sense might be, assessing frictions of and solutions for the fundamentally different set of disciplines, limitations, financial instruments not covered by OECD regulations, as well as new challenges related to climate finance.

After assessing the challenges regarding the “carve-out clause” of the WTO subsidy framework and two tracks aiming to create a new “safe haven”, requirements for comprehensive disciplines for officially supported export credits are pointed out. Furthermore, several misunderstandings and mistakes appearing in the debate are clarified.

Desktop research rather than empirical field work.

This paper creates awareness for governments and exporters how to deal with a complex system of interrelated disciplines. The question, how “safe” a “safe haven” in a broader sense can be, has not been resolved yet. Some authors focus on the WTO disciplines not taking into account the need for an effective matching procedure of the Arrangement on Officially Supported Export Credits (the Arrangement). Furthermore, the introduction of several new pre-export financing programmes and the growing significance of climate finance-related instruments for export credit agencies creates both opportunities and challenges. This paper can serve as a reference point for the academic debate and further research. This paper also offers newcomers to the topic a comprehensive overview.

Although the “carve-out clause” and the Arrangement have been much discussed, there is limited literature review structuring both existing and new aspects of the debate, assessing (dis)advantages of arguments and interpretations. This paper both adds to the corpus of literature about the ASCM, as well as the Arrangement, and takes this corpus as the object of its analysis.

Objective – The implications of social health insurance (SHI) for labor markets have featured prominently in recent debates over the merits of SHI and general revenue financing. It has been argued that by raising the nonwage component of labor costs, SHI reduces firms’ demand for labor, lowers employment levels and net wages, and encourages self-employment and informal working arrangements. At the national level, SHI has been claimed to reduce a country's competitiveness in international markets and to discourage foreign direct investment (FDI). The transition from general revenue finance to SHI that occurred during the 1990s in many of the central and eastern European and central Asian countries provides a unique opportunity to investigate empirically these claims.

Methodology/approach – We employ regression-based generalizations of difference-in-differences (DID) and instrumental variables (IV) on country-level panel data from 28 countries for the period 1990–2004.

Findings – We find that, controlling for gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, SHI increases (gross) wages by 20%, reduces employment (as a share of the population) by 10%, and increases self-employment by 17%. However, we find no significant effects of SHI on unemployment (registered or self-reported), agricultural employment, a widely used measure of the size of the informal economy, or FDI.

Implications for policy – We do not claim that our results imply that SHI adoption everywhere must necessarily reduce employment and increase self-employment. Nonetheless, our results ought to serve as a warning to those contemplating shifting the financing of health care from general revenues to a SHI system.

The purpose of this study is to identify the critical success factors to international ship finance centre (ISFC) and to understand the reasons behind ship financing decision by shipowners and their views on the potential of Shanghai to become an ISFC in the near future.

Survey questionnaire and follow-up interviews were conducted. The survey of this study was conducted by firstly sending online questionnaire with interview questions via email and then carrying out interview either on telephone or in-person with the interview questions to collect factual data and views from individual interviewees.

This study identified governmental support and stable policy, sound and favourable legal system, advanced maritime cluster and dynamic source of finance as critical success factors which can help Shanghai to evolve into an international maritime centre with dual function as an ISFC which is a synthesis with the maritime sector of an international finance centre.

This paper is known to be the first to link international maritime centre with ISFC.

The aims of this paper are: to explore the nature of political risk insurance (PRI) contracts as a form of regulation in the context of mining projects in developing countries; to examine how PRI providers factor corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies and practices of applicants in their initial decisions to provide PRI; to examine how CSR criteria are reflected in the terms of PRI contracts; to understand how failure to exercise good CSR practices by recipients of PRI affects insurance coverage; to shed light on how good CSR practices which minimize risk to companies and communities can be or are rewarded through PRI contracts; to identify opportunities for reform.

This article adopts a conceptual approach through analysis of the practical effects and public policy implications associated with use of PRI contracts as a regulatory mechanism to promote good CSR practices.

PRI contracts represent a form of proactive risk management used by investors. Because of the significant regulatory effect of the CSR provisions of PRI contracts provided by state‐based agencies, there is considerable potential for and value associated with greater transparency in the implementation of such contracts.

This article sheds light on the regulatory dimensions associated with the CSR provisions of PRI contracts. This represents a new contribution to the literature on CSR contracts, which until this point has focused largely on the CSR aspects of supply chain contracts.

The aim of this research is to shed light on the role the Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MoHE) plays in private Jordanian universities (PJUs). Private universities in developing countries struggle with their financial resources. There is an argument that a decision to adopt a new approach for the financing and management of Jordanian higher education (HE) has been taken because both funding and ownership belong to private sources. However, the MoHE plays a role in the Jordanian context.

This study explains the relations between the MoHE and PJUs and describes the PJUs’ managerial context. It is based on the prior research related to HE and budgeting. A total of 16 budget preparers at 11 universities and a further three in the MoHE were interviewed. The research also uses observation to obtain direct knowledge of the research phenomena. It uses archival documents, guidelines and reports to accomplish the study’s objective.

This research presents an overview for private HE across the world with particular concentration being paid to the role of the MoHE in PJUs by presenting the regulations and laws related to HE in Jordan. It proves that the MoHE uses a budgeting formula to significantly increase its control over the private HE sector. Simultaneously, no government subsidies or tax exemptions (such as those given to public universities) have been made available to private universities. The results indicate that the MoHE controls the private universities by using accreditation tools, such as their budgets.

Jordan has a unique situation in terms of the relationship between its MoHE and Jordanian universities.

Strategic management, system control management (balance score card).

Post graduate student, managers.

This case examines “Garuda Indonesia” the National Indonesia airline and its exceptional performance in recent years due to successful strategic decision making. This comprehensive case is structured in five parts highlighting: Garuda's recent success based on positive strategic management; Garuda's history and how it shaped its success against strong competition through effective leadership and the challenges it has overcome; an examination of the development within the Indonesian airline industry; a focused examination of strategic development with Garuda, including competition policy; operational planning and delivery; debt restructuring and product/service strategy; and an examination of the ongoing challenges, including governmental pressures and political maneuvering.

Students will identify opportunities and threats, including strategic issues derived from the external environment facing by Garuda Indonesia. Students will identify strengths and weaknesses from the internal environment faced by Garuda Indonesia. Students will develop strategic alternatives to inform business decisions. Students will give recommendations including priority planning for the next three to five years.

Teaching note.