Ma`rifat Eqtesadi

The theoretical literature on the relationship between Islamic banking and the real sector of the economy shows that in Islamic banking, debt-based financing and speculative operations unrelated to production are severely limited. Also, on one side of all Islamic partnership contracts, there is an actual activity that leads to economic growth; Therefore, due to the more specific and closer connection of Islamic monetary and banking instruments (especially contracts and partnership bonds) than conventional monetary instruments with the real sector of the economy, the effects of Islamic banking operations on economic growth can be considered more robust than conventional financial effects. However, empirical studies in this field show contradictory results about the discussed relationship. To analyze and draw conclusions from these heterogeneous results, the present study uses meta-regression analysis. For this purpose, after filtering the studies based on the screening protocol, 9 studies including 31 regressions and 89 coefficients were selected to enter the analysis. The conclusion from the primary studies shows that, taking into account the spread, Islamic banking has a positive and minor effect on economic growth. In addition, the results of this study indicated that the indicators used to measure the performance of Islamic banking, the period, and the presence or absence of economic freedom and inflation variables in the regression models of the primary studies are effective in explaining the heterogeneity of the results of the primary studies.