A research paper compares the business model, efficiency, asset quality, and stability of Islamic and conventional banks, using an array of indicators constructed from balance sheet and income statement data across a sample of 22 countries with both Islamic and conventional banks. The following table is among the results of this paper:

Note: Islamic bank dummy = 1 for Islamic bank and 0 for conventional bank.

Note: for efficiency, the higher the efficiency ratio means the bank is less efficient

Note: total assets is a proxy for bank size

1. What is the focus/main independent variable of this study that help the researchers to answer the research questions?

2. What are the control variables in this table?

3. Based on the different estimations in the table, how different is the business model of Islamic banks from conventional banks?

4. Based on the different estimations in the table, are the Islamic banks more efficient compared to its conventional peers?

5. Are big banks more efficient compared to small banks?

6. What can be the policy recommendation of this finding?

Comparing Islamic and conventional banks - controlling for bank characteristics. Business model Efficiency Fee Non- Loans Cost Overheads Loss income deposit deposit income reserves funding ratio ratio (2) (3) (5) (6) Islamic bank -3.090 -0.231 3.487" 6.520 0.0559 -1.235 dummy (2.715) (0.417) (1.648) (3.245) (0.110) (0.871) In(total 0.402 -0.0161 -0.627 -1.756 -0.175 -0.919 assets) (0.568) (0.0684) (0.427) (0.827) (0.0243) (0.211) Non-loan 0.0172 -0.00317 -1.030" 0.0498 -0.00775 0.0726 earnings assets (0.0396) (0.00694) (0.0326) (0.0546) (0.00204) (0.0175) Fixed assets 0.198 -0.0297 - 1.104 1.457 0.0666 0.0170 (0.214) (0.0167) (0.140) (0.913) (0.0242) (0.162) Constant 28.63" 5.643" 123.9 57.64" 3.903 18.31 (9.917) (2.091) (7.557) (13.10) (0.407) (3.670) Observations 3269 5940 5971 5500 5663 4984 R-squared 0.330 0.417 0.672 0.189 0.469 0.327 Robust standard errors in parentheses p