Creating Jobs Through Pro-Market Rather than Pro-Business Policies

Creating a sufficient number of jobs to employ Lebanon’s labor force has been a key challenge for the country, even though Lebanon has adopted a pro-business policy environment. This policy brief argues that policies supporting particular businesses are not constructive. Instead, Lebanese policy makers need to embrace a broader pro-market approach, which includes institutional reforms to reduce business-government transaction costs and enhance competition.

The main contention of this policy brief is that the labor force situation has come about largely due to economic policies which are termed pro-business but are in fact not pro-market. A pro-market business environment would make it possible for all businesses to compete fairly for market shares, as well as encourage new talents to create firms and support existing small and medium firms that are well-managed to grow and succeed. However, the current pro-business environment is merely supporting some large firms, most often to the detriment of their smaller and less well-connected competitors.