{"title":"On ideas and economic policy: a survey of MENA economists","authors":"R. Hendy, M. Mohieldin","doi":"10.1080/17938120.2020.1716619","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17938120.2020.1716619","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper examines how economic ideas have been shaped throughout history and the influence of these on the formulation of economic policy. We collect both quantitative and qualitative data from economists who are originally from the Middle East and North Africa region or working on the region. We find that economists and their ideas are more likely to be influenced by multiple schools of thought than adhere to one school. This multiplicity spills over into the type of solutions proposed to economic problems and thus policy implications. One of the main recommendations of this study is that there is a need for the development of economics and economists to recognize the impact of political and social issues that are not easy to grasp through modeling.","PeriodicalId":43862,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Development Journal","volume":"12 1","pages":"157 - 176"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/17938120.2020.1716619","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47335702","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sovereign wealth funds and cross-border investment bias: the case of Arab countries","authors":"Ibrahim A. Elbadawi, Raimundo Soto, Chahir Zaki","doi":"10.1080/17938120.2020.1716429","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17938120.2020.1716429","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Assets managed by sovereign wealth funds (SWF) have grown nine-fold since 2002, reaching USD 8 trillion in 2018. Around 80% of these investments correspond to cross-border investments. SWFs of Arab countries, mainly oil-rich GCC economies, hold a sizable fraction of these funds (40%). Asset allocation, nevertheless, presents a significant anomaly: despite the presence of highly endowed Arab-owned SWFs, cross-border investment in Arab economies is negligible in terms of transactions as well as of value. We study the allocation decisions of SWFs, both in terms of the probability of investing abroad (extensive margin) as well as the level of investment (intensive margin). In particular, we ask whether SWF investment decisions, at both margins, are largely determined by economic factors – e.g. profitability and risk – or are also influenced by strategic considerations, such as geopolitical interests. Our findings show that, while foreign investors have a positive bias for the Arab destination countries at the extensive margin level, there is a negative bias against them at the intensive one. At the sectoral level, results are highly heterogeneous as some sectors are sensitive to institutions (e.g. industry and consumer discretionary), while others are insensitive, such as energy.","PeriodicalId":43862,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Development Journal","volume":"12 1","pages":"1 - 23"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/17938120.2020.1716429","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44653475","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Causal relationship between current account and financial account: the case of Tunisia","authors":"Hager Farhoud, Lotfi Taleb","doi":"10.1080/17938120.2020.1719471","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17938120.2020.1719471","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The Tunisian economy during the last thirty years suffered from a chronic current account deficit. The present paper investigates the long and short-run dynamics between the surplus of the aggregated and disaggregated financial account and the persistent pattern of current account deficit in Tunisia over the period 1977–2009. Based on bounds testing cointegration approach using an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL), we found evidence supportive of long-run cointegration relationships between the current account and the financial account for both aggregated and disaggregated levels. The results also highlight that there is evidence of unidirectional causality from portfolio investment to the current account over the long-run. These findings suggest that the current account should be used by the Tunisian government as a control variable for capital flows and could be considered as valuable information for the liberalization of the financial account in Tunisia.","PeriodicalId":43862,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Development Journal","volume":"252 1","pages":"35 - 56"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/17938120.2020.1719471","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41278860","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Does foreign direct investment affect growth in MENA countries? A semi-parametric fixed-effects approach","authors":"R. Ben Jelili","doi":"10.1080/17938120.2020.1719700","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17938120.2020.1719700","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT It is often asserted with confidence that foreign direct investment (FDI) is beneficial for economic growth, especially in the host developing economy. Nevertheless, there is no empirical consensus on a positive effect of FDI on host-country growth, nor on the direction of causation. One of the reasons behind the lack of consensus is likely the presence of nonlinearities in the FDI and growth relationship. Most of the previous studies either used the linear empirical growth model or tried to bypass the nonlinearity issue by using ad hoc procedures. However, it is also true that growth theory provides little guidance about the exact nature of nonlinearity. Consequently, it is almost impossible to determine the exact form of nonlinear specification that would be appropriate for all data sets and data ranges. The paper investigates this challenging question in empirical growth literature that is the impact of FDI in promoting economic growth in developing economies without adopting any ad hoc procedure to capture the nonlinearity in the FDI–growth relationship. Based on a dualistic growth framework and a partial linear regression approach, it is possible to separate measures for sector externality and factor productivity effects between the two sectors (exports and non-exports sector). Sectoral externality is defined as a function of real FDI stocks per capita. Thereby, the adopted theoretical framework allows capturing both direct and indirect effects of FDI on economic growth across eight MENA countries during the period 1990–2016.","PeriodicalId":43862,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Development Journal","volume":"12 1","pages":"57 - 72"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/17938120.2020.1719700","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41934568","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Exporting and firm productivity: evidence for Egypt and Morocco","authors":"I. Martínez‐Zarzoso","doi":"10.1080/17938120.2020.1723297","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17938120.2020.1723297","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper investigates the link between exporting and importing activities and firm performance using a rich dataset on Egyptian and Moroccan firms. We test the export premium, self-selection and learning-by-exporting hypotheses using a number of firm characteristics. Our analysis also includes importing activities as a source of learning and considers their effects on productivity changes. A differences-in-differences matching estimator is used to address the endogeneity bias of target variables. The main results for Egyptian firms echo those reported for other countries using firm-level data, namely exporters are larger and more productive than non-exporters. In contrast, Moroccan exporters and non-exporters are strikingly similar. More specifically, no evidence is found of pre or post-entry differences in labour productivity for Moroccan firms.","PeriodicalId":43862,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Development Journal","volume":"12 1","pages":"100 - 84"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/17938120.2020.1723297","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47361089","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Trade liberalisation, governance, and the balance of payments: evidence from the Arab Maghreb Union","authors":"Abduraawf Hadili, Roman Raab, J. Wenzelburger","doi":"10.1080/17938120.2020.1731200","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17938120.2020.1731200","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper explores the impact of trade liberalisation on the economies of the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) as they attempt to reform their economies by liberalising trade with other nations in order to promote growth and increase welfare. We investigate the time period from 1995 to 2009 in terms of export growth, import growth, the balance of trade, and the balance of payments by using two different estimation techniques: ordinary least square, and panel-corrected standard-error models. Our empirical evidence shows that trade liberalisation did not enhance export growth in AMU countries during the given period. Trade liberalisation worsened the balance of trade and the balance of payments. Governance indicators turn out to be important factors in order to achieve the intended effects of trade liberalisation.","PeriodicalId":43862,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Development Journal","volume":"12 1","pages":"101 - 130"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/17938120.2020.1731200","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49172562","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Rising inequality and de-democratization","authors":"Hany Abdel‐Latif, Mahmoud A. El-Gamal","doi":"10.1080/17938120.2020.1720333","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17938120.2020.1720333","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The literature on economic determinants of democratization has identified most importantly the positive effect of economic development and the negative effect of income inequality. We confirm these results using more recent data and dynamic panel models. In this regard, the 2018 World Inequality Report has noted that inequality is highest in the Middle East, where it has stayed stable at that high level for the past several decades.","PeriodicalId":43862,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Development Journal","volume":"12 1","pages":"73 - 83"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/17938120.2020.1720333","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47140406","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Equivalence scales and the change in poverty levels across time: Turkish case","authors":"Burcay Erus","doi":"10.1080/17938120.2020.1717805","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17938120.2020.1717805","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Equivalence scales are used to adjust household income for household size and composition differences. The literature on poverty calculations have found sensitivity of poverty measurements to the choice of equivalence scales. In this study, we aim to estimate the sensitivity of the Turkish poverty rate and its change over time to the choice of equivalence scales. To that end, Household Budget Survey micro-level data are used and poverty rates are calculated for different equivalence scales. Results show that poverty rates differ sharply with the scale parameter. The change in poverty over time varies in absolute terms with most scale parameter values but only for high values of scale as a ratio of the initial period. Characteristics of poor households also change with scale alternatives.","PeriodicalId":43862,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Development Journal","volume":"12 1","pages":"24 - 34"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/17938120.2020.1717805","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44746662","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The future of jobs is facing one, maybe two, of the biggest price distortions ever","authors":"L. Pritchett","doi":"10.1080/17938120.2020.1714347","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17938120.2020.1714347","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Discussions of the future of jobs are concerned that technological change will displace labor and particularly jobs. In this work it is rarely remarked on the strangeness that some of the most globally scarce factors of high level technical expertise, capability to innovate, and entrepreneurial talent are devoted to economizing on – reducing the demand for – one of the most globally abundant factors: low to medium skill labor. I show that policy based barriers to the mobility of labor have created the largest single price distortion in history and that this price distortion induces biased technological change.","PeriodicalId":43862,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Development Journal","volume":"12 1","pages":"131 - 156"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/17938120.2020.1714347","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47478841","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Remittances and disaggregated country risk ratings in Tunisia: an ARDL approach","authors":"Dorsaf Sridi, Wafa Ghardallou","doi":"10.1080/17938120.2021.1897324","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17938120.2021.1897324","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Tunisia is currently facing political, economic and financial problems which have an impact on the flow of remittances. This study is the first attempt to give a thorough analysis of a two-way relationship between workers’ remittances and ICRG disaggregated country risk ratings (such as economic, financial and political risks) in Tunisia in short and long run, spanning the period 1984–2016. In an attempt to achieve this key objective, an ARDL approach combined with CUSUM and CUSUMSQ tests, and Wald test are adopted to investigate this linkage. The results show the presence of a long-run relationship. In addition, it could be deduced that in the long-run, economic risks have a negative impact on remittances, whereas in the short-run, they have a positive impact. The financial risk increases remittances because it includes variables related to remittances such as exchange rate stability. A higher level of remittances carries a higher level of financial risk in the short and long-runs. These results engage policy-makers to minimize this negative effect and channel remittances towards investment purposes. Results also indicate that, in response to an increase in remittances, the political risk decreases in the short run but increases in the long run.","PeriodicalId":43862,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Development Journal","volume":"13 1","pages":"191 - 211"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2019-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/17938120.2021.1897324","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48619635","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}