Mustapha Ziky

The health sector in Morocco is marked by many achievements, but also by large deficits, especially in terms of healthcare expenditures borne by individuals. With the introduction of Islamic banks (called participative banks) in Morocco, the study aims to determine the extent to which Ijara Forward, as an Islamic financial contract, is adapted to the expectations of Moroccans to finance their health expenditures.
The study sample consisted of 200 individuals. The univariate and bivariate analyses are used to identify possible relationships between the study variables. In addition, this paper proposes a model that will predict the demand for Ijara Forward based on the logistic regression method.
The results reveal that the financial characteristics of the Ijara Forward contract are in line with the financial expectations of Moroccan individuals. Furthermore, the cost of health services is the main factor that makes healthcare inaccessible. This factor influences the demand of Ijara Forward. In addition, this paper reveals that religious beliefs stimulate Ijara Forward’s demand and encourages people to pay a higher price for Ijara Forward.

The aim of this paper is to study the behavior of the Taylor rule in the presence of Sukuks. The New Keynesian model of Gali (2008)/Chapter 3 is used, due to its simplicity and small size. Nevertheless, such a model is suitable for examining the implications of monetary policy in the presence of sovereign Sukuks. The growth rate is used as the rate of return on sovereign Sukuks, which is closest to the profit and loss sharing approach, and is compared to the Gali’s baseline model. The results show that the introduction of sovereign Sukuks mitigates inflation and output gap shocks, but also limits the scope of the Taylor rule. Thus, an increase in the interest rate is offset by a flight of capital from sovereign Sukuks to treasury bonds, while a decrease in the interest rate leads to a flight from treasury bonds to sovereign Sukuks. In the extreme, if the preference for Sukuks is largely dominant, the Taylor rule tends to be obsolete, and vice versa.

Theoretical explanations based on information asymmetry constitute the dominant paradigm of the near disappearance of PLSs (profit and loss sharing). This assumption implicitly implies a hypothesis on the power of contractual choice exclusively monopolized by Islamic banks. The theoretical positioning in this study to explain the arbitrage between PLSs and markups is based on a lack of demand. In this sense, this paper attempts to verify the demand trade-off of Moroccan companies between PLSs and markups. A logistic regression was used to establish several findings. The evidence suggests that past banking relationships with conventional banks and debt maturity both favor the commercialization of markups. On the other hand, financial quality of firms has no direct impact on the choice between PLSs and markups. This assertion implies that it is incorrect to assume that sole entrepreneurs undertaking high-risk projects choose to be funded by PLSs. Combining that with the fact that companies that agree to be funded by PLSs agree to share profits, private information and decision-making power, it can be said that PLSs can have a good chance of thriving in Morocco if Islamic banks provide a favorable climate for their marketing.

This study investigates the influence of implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on the economic growth of Morocco. The main purpose is to empirically verify whether the pursuit of sustainable development goals can go hand in hand with economic growth. Employing a robust least squares regression, this paper analyzed carefully chosen data that closely aligns with the essence of the SDG indicators. The findings reveal a positive correlation between financial inclusion and financial stability and the economic growth. Conversely, the poverty reduction exerts a positive effect on economic growth, while the quality of education does not sufficiently account for changes in GDP. Moreover, the estimates indicate a favorable outcome stemming from the enhancement of institutional quality, reflected in improved economic freedoms, as well as the reduction of administrative burdens, both of which positively contribute to economic growth. Furthermore, the results demonstrate a negative impact of renewable energy and a negligible influence of energy efficiency on Morocco’s economic growth. The negative impact of renewable energy can be attributed to a number of sources, including high initial costs, structural changes in the industry and the need to set up infrastructure for production. The positive effects of adopting renewable energies on economic growth can take time to be realized over the very long term.