Economic Diversification in the Gulf Region, Volume I

Economic Diversification in the Gulf Region, Volume I
Author: Ashraf Mishrif
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2017-12-27
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9811057834

This volume focuses on the role of the private sector in diversifying the economics of Gulf countries in the post-petrodollar era, when fluctuating and declining oil prices are negatively impacting national expenditures. It explores current policies of countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council and their efforts to shift their economies away from heavy dependence on hydrocarbons. The structural changes will create favorable conditions for the private sector to flourish, shift production dependence from public to private sector, and allow for more efficient resource allocation. Such changes will also allow local banks to provide financial support to small and medium enterprises, boost entrepreneurship for job creation, and strengthen organizational structure and efficiency. This is the first volume in Economic Diversification in the Gulf Region.

Economic Diversification in the GCC

Economic Diversification in the GCC
Author: Mr.Tim Callen
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 32
Release: 2014-12-23
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1498303234

Abstract: The economies of the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are heavily reliant on oil. Greater economic diversification would reduce their exposure to volatility and uncertainty in the global oil market, help create jobs in the private sector, increase productivity and sustainable growth, and help create the non-oil economy that will be needed in the future when oil revenues start to dwindle. The GCC countries have followed many of the standard policies that are usually thought to promote more diversified economies, including reforms to improve the business climate, the development of domestic infrastructure, financial deepening, and improvements in education. Nevertheless, success to date has been limited. This paper argues that increased diversification will require realigning incentives for firms and workers in the economies—fixing these incentives is the “missing link” in the GCC countries’ diversification strategies. At present, producing non-tradables is less risky and more profitable for firms as they can benefit from the easy availability of low-wage foreign labor and the rapid growth in government spending, while the continued availability of high-paying and secure public sector jobs discourages nationals from pursuing entrepreneurship and private sector employment. Measures to begin to address these incentive issues could include limiting and reorienting government spending, strengthening private sector competition, providing guarantees and financial support for those firms engaged in export activity, and implementing labor market reforms to make nationals more competitive for private sector employment.

Economic Development in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries

Economic Development in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries
Author: Héla Miniaoui
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2020-10-26
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9811560587

This book delves into the economic development of the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Since the 1960s, the GCC states have harnessed their potential to exploit the wealth accrued from the oil boom to build their infrastructure and grow their economies. However, the high level of dependency on oil as the primary source feeding their output made their economies volatile and vulnerable to fluctuations in the global oil prices. Moreover, the plunge in oil prices and the threat of depletion of this natural resource pose serious challenges to the GCC countries. Consequently, the GCC governments have realized the importance of diversifying their economies following the need to move away from reliance on hydrocarbon. This book contributes to the theoretical literature by enriching the debate on the transition of the GCC countries from rentier states to diversified economies. It helps students and scholars understand this transformation with an expansive comprehension of the contemporary challenges facing the region, as well as outlining prospects for the future.

When Can Oil Economies Be Deemed Sustainable?

When Can Oil Economies Be Deemed Sustainable?
Author: Giacomo Luciani
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 365
Release: 2020-09-30
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9811557284

This open access book questions the stereotype depicting all Gulf (GCC) economies as not sustainable, and starts a critical discussion of what these economies and polities should do to guarantee themselves a relatively stable future. Volatile international oil markets and the acceleration of the energy transition has challenged the notion that oil revenues are sufficient to sustain oil economies in the near to medium term. But what is the meaning of economic sustainability? The book discusses the multiple dimensions of the concept: economic diversification, continuing value of resources, taxation and fiscal development, labor market sustainability, sustainable income distribution, environmental sustainability, political order (democracy or authoritarianism) and sustainability, regional integration. The overarching message in this book is that we should move on from the simplistic branding of the Gulf economies as unsustainable and tackle the details of which adaptations they might need to undertake.

Science and Technology Development in the Gulf States

Science and Technology Development in the Gulf States
Author: Afreen Siddiqi
Publisher:
Total Pages: 169
Release: 2016
Genre: Education, Higher
ISBN: 9783959940030

The Arab states of the Gulf, currently heavily reliant on oil and gas exports, have stated their intention to promote economic diversification and have embarked on reforming existing institutions for higher education, scientific research, and technology innovation. _x000B_ The region has witnessed huge population growth in recent decades, and in some cases (e.g. Saudi Arabia) almost half the population is under the age of twenty-five and in need of access to quality education and meaningful employment opportunities._x000B_ This book provides an in-depth discussion of what is needed to ac.

Oil and the political economy in the Middle East

Oil and the political economy in the Middle East
Author: Martin Beck
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Total Pages: 205
Release: 2021-08-17
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1526149087

The downhill slide in the global price of crude oil, which started mid-2014, had major repercussions across the Middle East for net oil exporters, as well as importers closely connected to the oil-producing countries from the Gulf. Following the Arab uprisings of 2010 and 2011, the oil price decline represented a second major shock for the region in the early twenty-first century – one that has continued to impose constraints, but also provided opportunities. Offering the first comprehensive analysis of the Middle Eastern political economy in response to the 2014 oil price decline, this book connects oil market dynamics with an understanding of socio-political changes. Inspired by rentierism, the contributors present original studies on Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The studies reveal a large diversity of country-specific policy adjustment strategies: from the migrant workers in the Arab Gulf, who lost out in the post-2014 period but were incapable of repelling burdensome adjustment policies, to Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon, who have never been able to fulfil the expectation that they could benefit from the 2014 oil price decline. With timely contributions on the COVID-19-induced oil price crash in 2020, this collection signifies that rentierism still prevails with regard to both empirical dynamics in the Middle East and academic discussions on its political economy.

Economic Diversification in the Gulf Region, Volume II

Economic Diversification in the Gulf Region, Volume II
Author: Ashraf Mishrif
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2018-01-09
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9811057869

This volume explores the challenges to diversification in Gulf countries, which can no longer rely on profits from hydrocarbons to fund national expenditures. It elaborates on the problem of weak institutions, lack of coordination between policy makers and executors, limited investment in research and development, and a workforce that is too poorly skilled to compete in the private sector. In addition to analyzing issues in areas such as education, labor, business, and trade, the contributors underscore the importance of using global best practices to overcome fundamental weaknesses in the Gulf Cooperative Council's economic structure that limit opportunities for economic diversification. This is the second volume in Economic Diversification in the Gulf Region.

The Impact of Oil Revenues on Arab Gulf Development

The Impact of Oil Revenues on Arab Gulf Development
Author: M.S. El Azhary
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2023-05-09
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000944565

As the price of oil fell in the eighties the pressures on the Arab Gulf States to speed up the diversification of their economies into non-oil sectors increased. This book, first published in 1984, examines this problem and many other issues connected with the impact of oil revenues on development in the Gulf States. It considers changing oil production policies and developments in other sectors of the economy including agriculture, industry and banking. It explores population problems, moves towards Gulf economic coordination and the impact of oil on society, culture and education. This book provides an assessment of just how much the region depends on oil for its economic prosperity and development and some indication of the enormous problems that would face the region should the demand for oil decease still further.

The Transformation of the Gulf

The Transformation of the Gulf
Author: David Held
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 388
Release: 2013-03-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 113669840X

This book examines the political, economic and social transformation of the six member-states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the ways in which these states are both shaping, and being reshaped by, the processes of globalisation. Adopting a multidisciplinary approach, the volume combines thematic chapters focusing on issues such as globalisation, nationalism and identity, political thinking, and economic diversification and redistributive policymaking with empirical chapters studying specific aspects of reform and change: the emergence of governing markets the rise of Sovereign Wealth Funds Islamic Finance the relationship between energy and sustainability trends in foreign aid donorship, strategic and foreign policy formulation. Contributions from experts in the field provide cutting-edge snapshots of a region in flux and collectively offer a roadmap of its repositioning in the global order, examining the interaction between global processes and internal dynamics of change and resistance that inject new dimensions into debates over the loci of local and global transformations and the manner in which each plays off the other. Situating the Gulf States firmly within their global twenty-first century context, this book will hold particular appeal to theorists of globalisation as well as to scholars of comparative politics, international political economy and area studies.

Shifting Geo-Economic Power of the Gulf

Shifting Geo-Economic Power of the Gulf
Author: Dr Bessma Momani
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2013-03-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1409489361

Bringing together for the first time distinguished Gulf experts to analyse the renewed geo-economic prominence of the Gulf states, this volume investigates some of the 'new power brokers' in the world economy: the oil-exporting states of the Gulf. The Gulf Cooperation Council's (GCC) members: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, collectively have the largest proven oil reserves in the world and are among the world's largest oil-exporting states. Gulf Arab states are actively pursuing a variety of foreign investment strategies. Some of these investments are being managed by sovereign wealth funds, government investment corporations, and government-controlled companies. This renewed geo-economic status has received a lot of media attention but there has been a dearth of academic study on what this shift in global economic power means for the international economic system. This volume aims to fill this gap with a rigorous scholarly analysis based on primary sources and raw economic data. It brings together the expertise of academics who have devoted their career to careful study of the region and of renowned scholars of international political economy.