Performance Evaluation of Malaysian Islamic Unit Trust Funds: A Critical Review

Abstract

This paper conducts an intensive review and then critically evaluates and findings of previous studies on the topic of Islamic trust fund performance in Malaysia. It also examines the comprehensiveness of each previous study in terms of its approach, its methodology, its data and its interpretation of previous findings that other studies have used to measure unit trust fund performance. This paper aims to identify the strengths, weaknesses and shortcomings of previous studies. The findings of this paper show that most empirical works on Malaysia's unit trust funds have contributed to the present body of knowledge by offering detailed performance evidence of an emerging market that has strong government support. Specifically, the present paper attains a better understandings of the approaches and methodologies used to measure the performance of Islamic unit trusts in Malaysia.