The Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) Lecturer, Dr. Mustofa, M.Sc. earned his doctorate in Islamic Economics and Halal Industry Gadjah Mada University (UGM) after a graduation ceremony on  January 31, 2023. Mustofa presented his dissertation entitled "The Influence of Religiosity and Education on the Economic Behavior of Muslim Communities in Indonesia" with Prof. Dr. Catur Sugiyanto, MA (Promoter) and Akhmad Akbar Susamto, SE., M.Phil., Ph.D. (Co-Promoter) last Tuesday (10/1). This dissertation was successfully defended before the board of examiners namely, Dr. Reni Rosari, M.B.A., Evita Hanie Pangaribowo, S.E., MIDEc., Ph.D., Prof. Dr. Samsubar Saleh, M.Soc.Sc., and Prof. Rizal Yaya, SE., M.Sc., Ph.D., CA., Akt..

His dissertation had six economic behaviors: redistribution preference, tax compliance, risk behavior, work behavior, smoking behavior, and arisan participation. All of them had inconsistent behavioral preferences or irrational behavior.

Mustofa said that the economic behavior of Muslim communities is not only based on rationalism but also emotion, individual background, tradition, and belief (religiosity) which often contradicts rationality.

The Lecturer of Economics Education FEB UNY concluded that the government must pay attention to religiosity in optimizing Indonesia’s economic development. Collaboration between the government and religious leaders is needed for policy effectiveness. (mstf/fdhl/tr-lia)

Islamic banking is growing and in demand. The increasing number of transactions based on Islamic finance causes the government to also increasingly need to create various related policies. With the abundance of sharia-based transactions, the asset portfolio of Islamic banking is also increasing. On that basis, Aula Ahmad Hafidh Saiful Fikri, S.E., M.Si, a lecturer in the Department of Economics Education, researched and earned a Doctorate in Islamic Economics at the State Islamic University of Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta.

In this study, Aula tried to investigate how Islamic banking also plays a role in the formation of asset price inflation in common stock assets. "This study aims to analyze the interrelationship shock between monetary policy, Islamic banking asset variables, asset prices, and Indonesia's macroeconomic performance using a simultaneous structural equation," he said.

In this study, Aula examined the effectiveness of monetary policy using monthly data from 2003 to 2020. The variables used were BI 7-days (reverse) repo rate, Sharia SBI, Money Assets, Financing, Interest Rate Equivalence, Stock Price Index Composite, Indonesian Sharia Stock Index, Average Bond Return, Residential Property Price Index, Gold Price, Inflation and Industrial Production Index analyzed in the Structural Vector Autoregression (SVAR) model with restrictions.

Aula concluded that many asset portfolios were still placed in stocks, which affected the variability and volatility. If Islamic bank asset management allocation to assets still contains a price bubble, it can be interpreted that sharia principles are still not perfectly practiced. (fdhl-ed:ekki)