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This study aims to analyse the role of zakat in poverty alleviation and income inequality reduction based on the gender of zakat recipients.

This study used the Centre of Islamic Economic and Business Studies (CIBEST) model as a poverty measure and the Gini coefficient and Atkinson index as income inequality measures to analyse 1,300 zakat recipients in five different areas of West Java, Indonesia.

Based on the CIBEST model, zakat distribution programmes have better salutary effects on male-headed households in terms of material (0.215) and absolute (0.037) poverty indices, whereas female-headed households have better performance on the falah (0.438) and spiritual (0.022) poverty indices, with greater changes in these indices in female-headed households. According to the Gini coefficient and Atkinson index, female-headed households have better income distribution one-year after zakat distribution programmes, whereas the male-headed households have better performance in regards to welfare loss.

The present study only used the poverty line standard published by the Central Board of Statistics from the Republic of Indonesia to identify respondents who live under the poverty line.

This paper can serve as a reference for zakat institutions in the implementation of zakat distribution programmes when the gender of zakat recipients is taken into consideration.

Not many studies have analysed the impact of gender in zakat distribution programmes despite gender being one of the most important determinants of poverty and income inequality. This study attempts to determine the economic impact of zakat from the perspective of gender.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the efficiency of selected conventional and Islamic unit trust companies in Malaysia during the period 2002 to 2005.

The paper adopts Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to investigate efficiency, as measured by the Malmquist index, which is decomposed into two components: efficiency change and technical change indexes.

The study indicates that technical efficiency is the main contributor to enhancing the efficiency of the Malaysian unit trust industry. In addition, the larger the size of the unit trust companies, the more inefficient the performance. In comparing the efficiency of unit trust companies, the study finds that some of the Islamic unit trust companies perform better than their conventional counterparts.

The study is limited to five Islamic unit trust companies. Thus, the findings of this study are indicative, but inconclusive for the unit trust industry as a whole.

The results have two important implications for both conventional and Islamic unit trust companies in Malaysia. First, the deterioration of total factor productivity (TFP) in the unit trust industry in Malaysia is due to the deficiency of innovation in technical components. Second, the size of the unit trust companies has an adverse effect on the TFP performance.

The contribution of this study is that it analyzes the efficiency of the two types of unit trust industry which are important and relevant for Malaysia. This significance arises from the dual financial system, in which the Islamic unit trust companies operate in parallel with their conventional counterparts. The comparison sheds some light on the performance of the Islamic unit trust companies, whose operations are based on profit‐sharing, in contrast to the conventional unit trust companies.

This study aims to investigate the productivity level of family takaful in Malaysia and Indonesia from 2014 to 2019. Productivity can support corporate sustainability, which is one of the company’s goals.

The measurement of the productivity level in this study involved applying the Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) method. The input variables used consisted of equity, total expenses and total investment. The output variables consisted of total profit and investment income. In addition, this research used the orientation of the output and intermediation.

Throughout the study period, the Indonesian family takaful had an average total factor productivity change (TFPCH) of about 0.945. In other words, it did not reach optimal productivity. It is more due to the low value of technological change (TECHCH). On the contrary, family takaful companies in Malaysia had called productivity, showing a TFPCH of about 1.041. Again, this is mainly due to an increase in TECHCH and efficiency change, but it is still low in pure technical efficiency change.

This study focuses on factors that exist in internal takaful companies. Neither micro- nor macroeconomic variables that can affect productivity levels have been measured. In addition, this study only analyzed two countries out of the 11 countries in the Southeast Asian region.

Family takaful companies can use the productivity index as one of the bases of evaluation in managing their resources to enhance optimal output. Furthermore, the management of family takaful companies in Indonesia needs to focus more on technological innovation and delivery of services to increase productivity. Meanwhile, family takaful companies in Malaysia can maintain their technology usage and efficiency to operate productively. The government in both countries is expected to actively accelerate the growth of family takaful companies by producing regulatory products that strengthen the industry. Specifically, the government in Indonesia needs to make regulations that support technology improvement.

There is still not much research that examines family takaful’s productivity level using the MPI. The MPI is an appropriate tool to evaluate the productivity of family takaful companies. Thus, family takaful companies can improve their quality by assessing the productivity index value.

Previous studies described the professional zakat had been limited. Generally, the past authors conducted a quantitative method with general results and did not focus on the behaviour of people who pay the professional zakat. As a result, the purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive understanding of how the general public can pay their zakat using Bloom’s theory.

This research uses primary data with in-depth interviews from five informants, including civil servants (PNS) and private employees. Spiral analysis was used to analyse the data, arrange it, read it frequently, take brief notes, find categories, interpret and summarise it.

The results show Bloom’s theory can accommodate muzakki’s behaviour by paying professional zakat. It can be seen from the following conclusions: firstly, in the cognitive domain, muzakki’s behaviour of paying the professional zakat was motivated by their memories (experiences), the ability to interpret, the ability to understand the principles of zakat, the ability to understand the relations and the ability to understand the role of zakat from its norms. Secondly, in the affective domain, muzakki’s behaviour in paying the professional zakat was motivated by their ability to receive, give positive value, call others and dare to take risks. Thirdly, in the psychomotor domain, guided practice, mechanised practice and adoption drive muzakki’s behaviour of paying zakat.

This study has limitations regarding the number of samples (informants). In addition, the results of the research are designed to be very subjective so that they cannot be generalised to phenomena that exist in other places and countries that also require zakat in the profession. In the future, the results of this study can be used as a variable development with quantitative methods so that it can involve more samples to get maximum and a broader result.

This research has a valuable managerial impact on the zakat management institutions, particularly in Langsa, Aceh, Indonesia and all zakat institutions worldwide. Therefore, the central government can evaluate the zakat gap through various socialisation activities by promoting the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains. Socialisation should improve people’s behaviour to pay zakat so that the amount of zakat collected will be higher and will reduce the gap between the potency of zakat and the zakat in reality which has been unequal so far.

This research will contribute to the significant development of zakat in terms of studying the behaviour of muzakki paying the professional zakat. Although the theory of planned behaviour was dominated by previous research, this research reveals other aspects of muzakki behaviour using Bloom’s model by elaborating on cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains.