Middle East & North Africa

152 Items

(POMEPS Studies)

(POMEPS Studies)

Report Chapter - Project on Middle East Political Science

A landing strategy for Saudi Arabia

| January, 2019

With rising population and incomes, the “rentier” mode of development in Saudi Arabia has long been unsustainable. While the issue of fiscal stabilization will occupy policy-making in Saudi Arabia in the short and medium terms, the long-term challenge of finding new sources of growth to complement oil has only been made starker by the recent drop in oil prices. Analysis of the prospects for such reforms in KSA has long been divided between two opposite camps: those who believe that the inadequacies of the rentier model will necessarily usher a doomsday scenario sooner or later, regardless of economic policies; and those who believe the impending crisis can be met by moving from the current mono-sector economy to a modern and diversified knowledge based economy OECD-style.

A day after the elections, people walk past a billboard with the image of Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in Istanbul, Monday, June 25, 2018.

AP Photo/Emrah Gurel

Analysis & Opinions - Economic Research Forum

Local winners and losers in Erdoğan’s Turkey

| June 19, 2018

Throughout the 2000s, Turkey was portrayed as a model of social and economic success for other countries in the MENA region. Ahead of the country’s early presidential and parliamentary polls, this column reports research evidence on how the ruling Justice and Development Party has managed public resources and fostered local economic development since it took power in 2002. The government has played a substantial role in influencing local economic performance on a discretionary basis.

Crossroads cover

Cambridge University Press

Book - Cambridge University Press

Crossroads: Comparative Immigration Regimes in a World of Demographic Change

    Authors:
  • Anna K. Boucher
  • Justin Gest
| May 2018

In this ambitious study, Anna K. Boucher and Justin Gest present a unique analysis of immigration governance across thirty countries. Relying on a database of immigration demographics in the world's most important destinations, they present a novel taxonomy and an analysis of what drives different approaches to immigration policy over space and time. In an era defined by inequality, populism, and fears of international terrorism, they find that governments are converging toward a 'Market Model' that seeks immigrants for short-term labor with fewer outlets to citizenship - an approach that resembles the increasingly contingent nature of labor markets worldwide.

(ESCWA, 2018)

(ESCWA, 2018)

Report - United Nations

Social Development Report 2: Inequality, Autonomy and Change in the Arab Region

| May, 2018

This report, the second Social Development Report from ESCWA, documents an increase in inequality of access to good quality education and to good jobs in several countries of the region, which may further entrench income inequalities. 

(Middle East Development Journal)

(Middle East Development Journal)

Journal Article

Debunking myth: economic values in the Arab Worldthrough the prism of opinion polls

| Mar. 21, 2018

Using World Value Survey opinion poll data, we empirically characterize the economic values and norms held by individuals in the Arab world, in comparison to values held in the rest of the world. We find that, contrary to some common beliefs, there are many values that predispose citizens of Arab countries to be part of a market economy, including a high level of work ethics, comfort with competition and the work of markets, and a high level of economic motivation.

(Business and politics)

(Business and politics)

Journal Article - Cambridge University Press

Private banking and crony capitalism in Egypt

| Mar. 01, 2018

This paper looks at the relationship between banking and cronyism in Egypt. A key puzzle that it tries to resolve is why private banks may lend in preferential ways to politically connected firms. In doing so, it tries to identify the causal pathways that link bank lending decisions to the corporate characteristics of politically connected firms.

Donald Trump recognizes Jerusalem as capital of Israel

CNBC

Analysis & Opinions - CNBC

This is a Deeply Unwise Decision: Former NATO Ambassador on Jerusalem Recognition

| Dec. 06, 2017

Nick Burns, Harvard Kennedy School professor & former under secretary of State for political affairs, and Sarah Stern, Endowment for Middle East Truth president, discuss President Trump's decision to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital. Nicholas Burns, who served as U.S. ambassador to NATO and was the State Department's third-ranking official during George W. Bush's presidency, called the decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital "deeply unwise."