Research Information System
Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, vol.12, no.1, 2025 (AHCI, SSCI, Scopus)
This study undertakes an examination of financial leverage, synonymous with firm risk or capital structure, within the context of Shariah-compliant firms. Analyzing firm-level data covering 500 nonfinancial firms across 9 MENA countries, this research employs a time-varying quasi-experimental approach to delve into the primary objective of assessing the comparative financial leverage or capital structure of Shariah-compliant firms concerning their non-Shariah counterparts. We employ time-varying quasi-experimental methods, namely time-varying difference-in-differences methodology, to explore the relative time-varying effect of Shariah-compliance on the firm leverage in the MENA Region. The results unequivocally highlight a distinct trend that the Shariah-compliant firms exhibit notably lower financial leverage compared to their non-Shariah counterparts, even if we consider the time-varying Shariah-compliance dimension. These findings, substantiated through robust modeling techniques, offer compelling insights into the financial dynamics and risk profiles of Shariah-compliant entities across the MENA region.