This paper explores whether the impact of economic uncertainty on credit growth differs for Islamic vs. conventional banks. Using a sample of 416 banks (58 Islamic and 358 conventional) in 12 countries, the findings indicate that an increase in economic uncertainty significantly decreases the credit growth of conventional banks but does not have any significant impact on Islamic banks’ credit growth. Our results are robust to alternative specifications and addressing endogeneity concerns using GMM ...

This article examines whether differences in banking market structures across countries influence the local stock market resilience to the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a sample of 66 countries for the period January 2020 to July 2020, our findings demonstrate that countries with more concentrated banking systems, with a higher presence of foreign banks, and a higher share of Islamic banks are more resilient to the pandemic. Considering the banking regulatory differences between countries, we observe ...

This paper examines the effect of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on loan loss provisions (LLP). Using a sample of 6384 US banks and yearly data from 2009 to 2019 and addressing endogeneity (GMM and IV estimations), the findings reveal that in times of higher economic policy uncertainty, banks tend to increase their loan loss provisioning. Considering the four components of EPU, the findings document that the majority of the explanatory power on loan loss provisions originates from news-based ...

This article aims to evaluate the impact of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on the STOXX Europe 600 Travel & Leisure Price Index by utilizing a monthly data set for 20 years through 1997-2016. It is found that both the European and the global EPU have significant negative effects on the stock returns of travel and leisure companies. We demonstrate the significantly superior forecasting power of EPU measures on tourism and leisure stock returns relative to a rather weak forecasting power of various ...