Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

"Hand full of Takaaful"- Exploratory Research Informatics on the Islamic Insurance Market

Publication Date

Spring 4-21-2023

College

Sciences and Mathematics, College of

Department

Math and Computer Science, Department of

BURS Faculty Advisor

Dr. Christina Davis

Presentation Type

Poster Presentation

Abstract

Over the last century and a half, the Islamic world had been falling behind the west in economic development. Professor Timur Kuran of Duke University cites this discrepancy as not due to scientific/technological advancement, but rather in finance; specifically, the ability to raise capital (due to the religious prohibition on interest). Some more research uncovers that the Islamic World as a whole still has a greatly untapped insurance market. While the issue of raising capital for growth may be slow, perhaps the ability to protect against loss can provide a balancing countermeasure and foster substantial, stable economic growth. This research project aims to examine the current state of the Takaful (Shariah compliant insurance) market within the Islamic Economy, and identify key market(s) with which prospective investors may launch a new insurance-related product.

This is accomplished by analyzing and visualizing two separate data sources: the Islamic Financial Services Bank, and the World Bank database. This study begins by sampling, ranging throughout the year 2019-2020, key macroeconomic metrics by quarterly reports of 7 countries listed on the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) and storytelling their data in a visually meaningful way, which is done by a PowerQuery script for cleaning and preparing this data generated via the Microsoft PowerQuery Editor and both analyzed and visualized in PowerBI.

These insights are analyzed in tetherment to the data gathered from scouring the World Bank database. This is done by automating a Lambda function in Amazon Web Services (AWS) to make periodically timed pull requests to the World Bank API and gather data on key macroeconomic metrics of countries, which is then warehoused within an AWS Redshift database.

While further research will be needed by entrepreneurs in determining market demands for their specific ventures, this research aims to provide a broad, macroeconomic analysis of the business climate for insurance products in the Islamic economy.

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