The effects of health on economic development have been discussed in depth in the literature. Most of the findings have shown that the economic performance of a country can be enhanced by improving the health of the citizens. This paper investigates the causal link between health and economic development of high-income economies of selected OIC countries. Since these countries also have high expenditure on health in comparison with other OIC countries, the findings would give some indication of the importance of having high spending in health for the economic wellbeing of a country. The Toda-Yamamoto Granger non-causality model was used on data spanning from 1970 to 2015, and the results showed mixed causal relationships. Specifically, some countries like Bahrain and Kuwait have a health condition that boosts economic development, while Saudi Arabia experiences the opposite effect. However, health and economic development have bidirectional causality in the United Arab Emirates, while Brunei, Oman and Qatar do not show any causal direction between health and economic development. The findings give some evidence of the importance of health on economic prosperity without disregarding the fact that economic development is also important for good health.

The aim of this study is to investigate macroeconomic influences on sukuk issuance in Malaysia for the period 1996-2011 at the aggregate level. Based on vector autoregressive models (VARs), variance decomposition (VDC) and impulse response functions (IRE), the results indicate that sukuk Granger-cause GDP while GDP Granger-causes both PPI and CPI. Sukuk are also driven by their own dynamics in the short horizon. The results have important policy implications to the decision-makers. Since sukuk issuance Granger-causes GDP, policy makers should design new policies to modernize the functional aspects of Islamic capital market. A further implication for international institutional investors is that sukuk have the competitive advantage since it targets a segment of the global markets that has not been penetrated by other rivals. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Poor people generally have difficulty in accessing good healthcare services. This can consequently lead them to have a lower quality of life. This paper investigates whether zakat medical assistance helps improve the health of the asnaf (zakat recipients) and in turn upgrade their quality of life. The crosstab analysis of 60 respondents in Penang, Kelantan and Negeri Sembilan in 2014 shows that 93.4 percent of the asnaf reported that zakat medical assistance has increased their quality of life. Meanwhile, multiple regression analysis shows that among the predictors of health, income and education, health status is the significant predictor of quality of life of the zakat recipients. These findings would be useful for policy makers, especially the State Islamic Religious Councils, in order to focus on improving the level of quality of life of the asnaf and continue to increase the allocation of medical financial assistance from zakat to the eligible asnaf. At the micro level, the medical assistance rendered would help improve both health status and quality of life. As a result, zakat has great potential to be one of the economic tools to alleviate poverty among Muslims in Malaysia.

The level of Malaysian household debt remains high, currently among the highest in Asia, raising concerns about its sustainability. This article analyzes the prevalence of financial vulnerability, measured by consumers' inability to meet their household needs, to cope with unexpected expenses, and to survive in the event of a crisis. Analysis of a dataset of 902 respondents generally suggests that the risk of financial vulnerability in the event of economic or financial shocks is growing. In addition, in an ordered probit model, the significant determinants of financial vulnerability are income level, marital status, age, level of education, and financial behavior in money management. Those who are most financially vulnerable are younger people who have a lower education level and whose financial behavior leads to poor money management.

In improving the health status of the people, Malaysia continuously provides a more equitable distribution of facilities and efficient health services. Due to the increasing proportion of the aging population in the country, this paper examines the differences in the utilisation of the health services among the elderly in Malaysia and identifies the factors responsible for the observed changes between 1996 and 2006 by using the non-linear decomposition approach. The empirical analysis uses the second and third National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMSII and NHMSIII) data which were conducted in 1996 and 2006. Overall, the findings of this research suggest that other than being sick, the raw differentials in the utilisation of healthcare among the elderly are influenced by socioeconomic status such as education, income, and job status. From this study, it is hoped that by understanding the factors that contribute to the differentials in public and private hospital admissions, and individual's behaviour towards the use of healthcare services, the government can develop strategies for eliminating socially-caused inequity in health. Reducing financial barriers to care, especially among the private health providers, may benefit the lower socioeconomic group.

The upsurge and control of healthcare expenditure growth are becoming a thought-provoking issue for numerous governments globally in spite of the fact that health is one of the superseding fundamentals of physical condition. Nevertheless, with the growing rate of an ageing population and increasing prolonged health difficulties, the protection of the quality of life demands better health spending on the part of the government. Generally, there are huge variances on the dimensions of monetary obligation nations dedicate to health. In this regard, this paper aims to project a long-term expenditure growth in health care service as it is believed that the outcome of this paper will contribute and suggest a policy direction to the government and concern organizations on the effective management of healthcare system. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).