The Bright Side of Foreign Competition: Import Penetration and Default Risk

Why have countries increasingly restricted immigration even when they have opened their markets to foreign competition through trade or allowed their firms to move jobs overseas? This book argues that the increased ability of firms to produce anywhere in the world combined with growing international competition due to lowered trade barriers has led to greater limits on immigration. The book explains that businesses relying on low-skill labor have been the major proponents of greater openness to immigrants. Immigration helps lower costs, making these businesses more competitive at home and abroad. However, increased international competition, due to lower trade barriers and greater economic development in the developing world, has led many businesses in wealthy countries to close or move overseas. Productivity increases have allowed those firms that have chosen to remain behind to do more with fewer workers. Together, these changes in the international economy have sapped the crucial business support necessary for more open immigration policies at home, empowered anti-immigrant groups, and spurred greater controls on migration. Debunking the commonly held belief that domestic social concerns are the deciding factor in determining immigration policy, this book demonstrates the important and influential role played by international trade and capital movements.

Download Full-text

General Takaful claims: An experience of Takaful operator in Malaysia

Journal of Emerging Economies and Islamic Research ◽

10.24191/jeeir.v5i4.8833 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 5 (4) ◽

pp. 18

Author(s):

Amirul Afif Muhamat ◽

Mohamad Nizam Jaafar ◽

Sharifah Faigah Syed Alwi

Keyword(s):

Life Insurance ◽

Islamic Finance ◽

Rigorous Analysis ◽

Finance Industry ◽

General Insurance ◽

Bright Side ◽

Main Components ◽

Islamic Insurance ◽

Gathering Data ◽

Observation Period

Takaful is interchangeably referred as Islamic insurance. In Malaysia, the takaful sector is part of the main components for Islamic finance industry. The business can be divided into two: general and family takaful. To ease understanding on this niche sector; general takaful is comparable to general insurance while family takaful is akin to life insurance with special reference needs to be given on the requirement of the business to adhere to the Islamic precepts. The main business in general takaful is motor takaful and this line of business is faced with high takaful claims. This study appraised the factors which affect the general takaful claims based on the experience of one takaful operator in Malaysia (the name of takaful operator is not disclosed due to confidentiality). The factors are: number of claims; fraud; and coverage for protection. The limitation of this study is that the observation period is only 10 years which limits rigorous analysis to be done. Nevertheless, previous studies in this area depict the same limitation – constraint in gathering data that has long observation period. On the bright side, the data in this study is still capable to produce meaningful results to be referred with regards to this issue – general takaful claims.

Download Full-text