Political transition and bank performance: How important was the Arab Spring?

Using data for 2000-2012, the article utilizes the natural experiment of the Arab Spring to examine its impact on the risk and returns of MENA banks. The analysis indicates that the Arab Spring lowered bank profitability by roughly 0.2% and raised bank risk by 0.4% points. As well, the evidence appears to suggest that there were no differential effect of the political conflict on the performance and stability of Islamic banks. Journal of Comparative Economics 44 (2) (2016) 372-382. Department of Economic and Policy Research, Reserve Bank of India, Central Office, Fort, Mumbai 400001, India. (C) 2015 Association for Comparative Economic Studies. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.