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Ibrahim Chalhoub/AFP via Getty Images

Analysis & Opinions - Project Syndicate

How Foreign Powers Could Break Lebanon's Gridlock

| June 15, 2022

It is well known that factionalism and corruption have long stood in the way of the kinds of structural reforms that Lebanon needs. But an overlooked problem is the inaction of foreign powers that could easily compel domestic changes if they had the right incentives.

People walk outside a coronavirus vaccine center at the old Jiddah airport, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, May 18, 2021

AP Photo/Amr Nabil

Analysis & Opinions

Economic Shocks and Skill Acquisition: Evidence from a National Online Learning Platform at the Onset of COVID-19

We study how large shocks impact individuals’ skilling decisions using data from the largest online learning platform in Saudi Arabia. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic brought about a massive increase in online skilling, and demand shifted towards courses that offered skills, such as telework, likely to be immediately valuable during the pandemic. Consistent with a model where individuals trade off reskilling costs with their expectations of future labor market conditions and their duration of work, we find that shifts into telework courses were largest for older workers. In contrast, younger workers increased enrollments in courses related to new skills, such as general, occupation-specific, and computer-related skills. Using national administrative employment data, we provide suggestive evidence that these investments in skills in early 2020 helped users maintain employment over the course of the pandemic.

A shipping vessel moves into a port in Tokyo, Thursday, June 2, 2022

AP Photo/Hiro Komae

Analysis & Opinions

Internalization of Externalities in International Trade

| Sep. 25, 2021

Using disaggregated customs data about exporters from nine countries, I demonstrate that informational externalities are determinants of entry, survival, and growth of exporters at the product–destination market level. I show that exporters who optimize entry decisions and internalize informational externalities survive longer and grow faster. Then, I conceptualize why exporters enter certain international markets and why not all exporters from the same origin survive and grow in these markets. I incorporate the interaction between the performance and number of peers in a given market to identify a potential learning externality that exporters may be exposed to. Also, I highlight that, even without the formation of formal networks, the observation of the actions of peers in export markets can deliver implications for export flows: exporters may not need to start small in new markets if the actions of peers in those markets reveal enough information. By helping to explain how export relationships survive and grow, I complement the literature on the determinants of export diversification and signal to export promotion agencies the importance of internalization of informational externalities by exporters.

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Analysis & Opinions - Economic Research Forum

Access to finance for Egypt’s private sector during the pandemic

| May 11, 2021

In response to the global pandemic, public authorities in Egypt responded with a comprehensive package aimed at tackling the health emergency and supporting economic activity. This column examines how private sector firms perceived ease of access to finance before and after the emergence of Covid-19 in 2020.

    Book Chapter - VoxEU

    How did Egypt soften the impact of Covid-19?

    | Feb. 23, 2021

    The Covid-19 pandemic has drastically disrupted people’s lives, livelihoods, and economic conditions around the world. The global shock has resulted in a tourism standstill (Djankov 2020), significant capital flight (Djankov and Panizza 2020), and a slowdown in remittances (Nonvide 2020), resulting in an urgent balance-of-payments need. Egypt responded to the crisis with a comprehensive package aimed at tackling the health emergency and supporting economic activity. The Ministry of Finance acted swiftly to allocate resources to the health sector, provide targeted support to the most severely impacted sectors, and expand social safety net programmes to protect the most vulnerable. Similarly, the Central Bank of Egypt adopted a broad set of measures, including lowering the policy rate and postponing repayments of existing credit facilities. The next section highlights the experience of firms in Egypt following these policies.

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    Analysis & Opinions

    Late-movers outperform first-movers in export markets

    | Sep. 26, 2020

    The relationship between first-movers and late-movers in export markets has important policy implications. First-movers need to be productive enough to pay market entry costs; in turn, they generate information externalities for late-movers. This column uses a unique disaggregated export-level customs dataset to test whether first-movers outperform late-movers in export markets. Using a variety of specifications and controlling for demand and supply shocks, it shows that, surprisingly, late-movers outperform first-movers. Furthermore, this effect is mainly driven by a differential in export quantities, not prices. 

    Anti-government demonstrators burn tires to block a road in Beirut on Tuesday.

    (Bilal Hussein/AP)

    Analysis & Opinions - The Washington Post

    Why do foreign donors face a tough choice in dealing with Lebanon’s economic crisis?

    | July 29, 2020

    Lebanon is facing its gravest economic and political crisis since the end of civil war in 1990 — and the situation was already dire before the pandemic hit. In early March, the country defaulted on $1.2 billion in foreign debt, the resulting free-fall of the Lebanese lira adding to a deep financial crisis.

    Lebanese soldiers secure a bank, after the anti-government protesters try to destroy banks windows during a protest against the Lebanese central bank's governor Riad Salameh and against the deepening financial crisis, at Hamra trade street, in Beirut, Lebanon.

    (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

    Journal Article - Lebanese Center for Policy Studies

    Public Resource Allocation in Lebanon: How Uncompetitive is CDR’s Procurement Process?

    | July 23, 2020

    Lebanon is facing unprecedented intertwined crises: Its banking sector is largely insolvent, its currency has significantly depreciated, and its debt is unsustainable. Lurking behind this is the country’s ailing and neglected infrastructure, which is essential to kick-start economic growth. Poor quality of roads, limited access to water, and chronic power shortages have cemented Lebanon’s ranking among the worst in overall quality of infrastructure compared to countries with similar levels of economic development.