The Economics of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)

The Economics of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
Author: Joseph Pelzman
Publisher: World Scientific Publishing Company
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2012-06-26
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9813108029

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is a large, complex, and diverse region, which faces a wide range of economic issues. The MENA group includes Algeria, Bahrain, Cyprus, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. This book uses analytical tools drawn from the trade, labor, finance, and development literature to critically analyze and compare these countries' economic policies. The approach taken in this book is to focus on the economic policies and institutional arrangements which have evolved in MENA and which may serve to explain the differences in each country's economic performance. The key objective of the book is to unravel the context-specific variety of growth-promoting policies within MENA rather than focus on specific countries. This book stresses that the poor performance of Arab MENA can be chiefly explained by their aversion to a Western paradigm of market economics. In the advanced industrial countries and in Israel, “globalization” is largely viewed in economic terms — the free movement of goods, services, labor and capital across borders. In the Arab MENA, however, “globalization” is viewed in largely ideological terms and has been regarded as a new version of imperialism. Consequently, the Arab MENA region remains one of the most un-globalized regions in the world. The book serves as both a textbook and a summary of the very large literature on MENA. It examines the following economic realities of the region and compares them across the MENA economies: Technology gap and comparative developmentThe value of education and human capital developmentWater and food securityThe economics and politics of oilPopulation growth, role of gender, and labor mobilityThe role of the state as economic actorThe economic value of democracyThe prospects for regional integration

A Critical Political Economy of the Middle East and North Africa

A Critical Political Economy of the Middle East and North Africa
Author: Joel Beinin
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 371
Release: 2020-12-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 1503614484

This book offers the first critical engagement with the political economy of the Middle East and North Africa. Challenging conventional wisdom on the origins and contemporary dynamics of capitalism in the region, these cutting-edge essays demonstrate how critical political economy can illuminate both historical and contemporary dynamics of the region and contribute to wider political economy debates from the vantage point of the Middle East. Leading scholars, representing several disciplines, contribute both thematic and country-specific analyses. Their writings critically examine major issues in political economy—notably, the mutual constitution of states, markets, and classes; the co-constitution of class, race, gender, and other forms of identity; varying modes of capital accumulation and the legal, political, and cultural forms of their regulation; relations among local, national, and global forms of capital, class, and culture; technopolitics; the role of war in the constitution of states and classes; and practices and cultures of domination and resistance. Visit politicaleconomyproject.org for additional media and learning resources.

Economics Of The Middle East And North Africa (Mena), The (Second Edition)

Economics Of The Middle East And North Africa (Mena), The (Second Edition)
Author: Joseph Pelzman
Publisher: World Scientific
Total Pages: 534
Release: 2018-11-29
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9813203994

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is a large, complex, and diverse region, which faces a wide range of economic issues. The MENA group includes Algeria, Bahrain, Cyprus, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.The purpose of this book is not to provide a country-by-country study, but rather to deal with general economic themes found in Arab MENA and Israel, such as problems associated with growth and structural change; the role of State-intervention in country-specific local markets; labor market imperfections driven by gender bias; technology gaps and endogenous growth; capital market development in a restricted financial model based on religious constraints; savings and investment behaviour in a model of state subsidization and intervention designed to control local development; and the role of the state in constraining private sector activity. Data sources used in this second edition include country-specific data, the World Bank, the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.The new material in this second edition includes a discussion of the impending and inevitable leadership changes which will occur throughout Arab MENA over the next decades. The evidence to support this evaluation is based on the current lack of transparent markets; the lack of inclusive macro policies, the impact of distortionary micro economic policies across all sectors; and the impact of anti-globalization and xenophobia on innovation. Old chapters are revised with updated data, a discussion of the role of the 'State' and 'Oligarchies' in the economies of most of the MENA countries, an in-depth exploration of the investment in human capital and growth and an identification of the most important binding constraints to economic development in Arab MENA and Israel.This book serves as both a textbook and a summary of the very large literature on MENA. It examines the economic realities of the region and compares them across the MENA economies. It should be stressed that this book is not about the latest political debate on who did what to whom in the Middle East or in North Africa. The focus is on economics, not political economics.

Political Economies of the Middle East and North Africa

Political Economies of the Middle East and North Africa
Author: Robert Springborg
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2020-03-16
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1509535616

Despite its oil wealth, the Middle East and North Africa is economically stagnating. Growth rates are comparatively unfavorable and insufficient to substantially improve citizens’ lives. Whether this economic inertia can be overcome or will continue into the indefinite future is a vital question that confronts both the region and the world. In this book leading Middle East scholar Robert Springborg discusses the economic future of this region by examining the national and regional political causes of its contemporary underperformance. Overgrown, weak MENA states, he explains, have been unable to escape their unfavorable historical legacies. “Limited access orders” and the deep states based in the means of coercion that underpin them undermine state capacities and constrain beneficial, autonomous political and economic activity. Increasingly challenged by their populations, MENA states face the daunting and so far unmet challenge of diversifying non-sustainable, rentier political economies away from direct or indirect dependence on oil and gas revenues. Stagnation of those revenues and failure to generate alternative income sources, combined with rapid population growth, presents the region with an economic challenge that can only be overcome by profound political change.

Challenges of Growth and Globalization in the Middle East and North Africa

Challenges of Growth and Globalization in the Middle East and North Africa
Author: Mr.Hamid R Davoodi
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 44
Release: 2003-09-05
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9781589062290

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is an economically diverse region. Despite undertaking economic reforms in many countries, and having considerable success in avoiding crises and achieving macroeconomic stability, the region’s economic performance in the past 30 years has been below potential. This paper takes stock of the region’s relatively weak performance, explores the reasons for this out come, and proposes an agenda for urgent reforms.

Expanding Opportunities for the Next Generation

Expanding Opportunities for the Next Generation
Author: Safaa El-Kogali
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 343
Release: 2015-01-28
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1464803242

Early childhood is the most important stage of human development yet in Middle East and North Africa countries there is little research and inadequate investment in this crucial stage of life. This book covers risk, protective factors, policies and programs that can address inequality and shortfalls in the early years of life.

Challenges Of Economic Development In The Middle East And North Africa Region

Challenges Of Economic Development In The Middle East And North Africa Region
Author: Julia C Devlin
Publisher: World Scientific
Total Pages: 566
Release: 2010-01-20
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9814471658

This book surveys major economic issues in the development of countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region since World War II. It presents a framework of analysis highlighting underlying continuities in the region's approach to issues of growth, management of oil and natural resources, post-conflict environments, progress in trade liberalization and regional integration, the use of industrial policy, labor market adjustment and unemployment, educational attainment and poverty incidence. At the same time, this book focuses on emerging differences across countries in the region in the prevailing approach to addressing such challenges most notably between the economies of the Gulf Cooperation Council and other MENA countries.This book also incorporates a discussion of tools and methods used by development practitioners and briefly examines issues of aid effectiveness. The approach used is intended to appeal to a wide audience including students of economic development, political scientists and development practitioners.

Inclusion and Resilience

Inclusion and Resilience
Author: Joana Silva
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 310
Release: 2013
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0821397710

Inclusion and Resilience has two broad objectives. The study seeks first to enhance knowledge about the current state of existing social safety nets (SSNs) in the Middle East and North Africa, assessing their effectiveness by bringing together new evidence, data, and country-specific analysis. Second, it proposes an open and informed debate on feasible policy options for making SSNs more effective and responsive to the population's needs. In order to do this, the authors illustrate how the main goals for SSNs-promoting social inclusion, better livelihood, and resilience to shocks-have already been achieved in some parts of the region, notwithstanding huge challenges. They also identify the groups that regional SSNs should make a priority: children and people living in rural and lagging areas. The study relies on newly collected data on citizens' preferences concerning redistribution and SSN design, discussing how political economy considerations could be taken into account in designing better SSNs, and proposing an agenda for reform, using global experiences and the new evidence presented in the book itself.

Social Movements, Mobilization, and Contestation in the Middle East and North Africa

Social Movements, Mobilization, and Contestation in the Middle East and North Africa
Author: Joel Beinin
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 349
Release: 2013-08-21
Genre: History
ISBN: 0804788030

Before the 2011 uprisings, the Middle East and North Africa were frequently seen as a uniquely undemocratic region with little civic activism. The first edition of this volume, published at the start of the Arab Spring, challenged these views by revealing a region rich with social and political mobilizations. This fully revised second edition extends the earlier explorations of Egypt, Morocco, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, and adds new case studies on the uprisings in Tunisia, Syria, and Yemen. The case studies are inspired by social movement theory, but they also critique and expand the horizons of the theory's classical concepts of political opportunity structures, collective action frames, mobilization structures, and repertoires of contention based on intensive fieldwork. This strong empirical base allows for a nuanced understanding of contexts, culturally conditioned rationality, the strengths and weaknesses of local networks, and innovation in contentious action to give the reader a substantive understanding of events in the Arab world before and since 2011.