Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Economics

PDF

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

Journal

2016

Articles 1 - 9 of 9

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Oil And Gcc Financial Markets: The Significance Of The Oil Price Collapse, Shawkat Hammoudeh Sep 2016

Oil And Gcc Financial Markets: The Significance Of The Oil Price Collapse, Shawkat Hammoudeh

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

No abstract provided.

Go to article

Housing Costs And Divorce Rate In The Mena Countries, Hassan Gholipour Fereidouni May 2016

Housing Costs And Divorce Rate In The Mena Countries, Hassan Gholipour Fereidouni

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between housing costs and divorce rate using data from a set of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries over the period of 1990-2014. Applying panel fixed-effects and the fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS) estimation methods, our results suggest that a 10% increase in the housing costs increases divorce rate about 1.5% in the sample countries. The findings also indicate that social globalization has a positive and significant relationship with divorce rate in the MENA countries.

Go to article

Financial Development And The Oil Curse: Evidence From Algeria, Farah Elias Elhannani, Abou Bakr Boussalem, Mohamed Benbouziane May 2016

Financial Development And The Oil Curse: Evidence From Algeria, Farah Elias Elhannani, Abou Bakr Boussalem, Mohamed Benbouziane

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

Most of the empirical evidence has shown that the majority of oil dependent countries have the low level of financial development; thus, they are much more volatile and exposed to the oil shocks and the so named “oil curse”. This paper aims to investigate the impact of the Algerian financial system—as one of major oil economies—on the economic growth and escaping the oil curse. Over the past two decades, Algeria has courageously attempted to modernize its financial system despite social strife and challenges posed by the large hydrocarbon sector and an inefficient public sector. In fact, various reforms have been …

Go to article

Decomposing The Determinants Of Interest Rates In Turkey And Selected: Emerging Markets Implementing Inflation Targeting Policies, Erhan Aslanoğlu, Pinar Deniz May 2016

Decomposing The Determinants Of Interest Rates In Turkey And Selected: Emerging Markets Implementing Inflation Targeting Policies, Erhan Aslanoğlu, Pinar Deniz

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

Inflation Targeting (IT) is a monetary policy in which keeping inflation as close as to the target level using policy tools is the main focus for many central banks. However, purely targeting inflation has the potential to reveal the drawback of the trade-off between inflation and output, leaving out the possibility of perfectly anticipated inflation where there is no trade-off. IT policy is relatively more difficult for emerging market economies compared to developed countries due to the potential fragilities emerging from the large amount of fluctuations in the portfolio investments. High current account deficits, fiscal dominance, lack of credibility, imperfections …

Go to article

Functional Income Distribution Consequences Of Financial Crisis In Turkey, Senim Sefil May 2016

Functional Income Distribution Consequences Of Financial Crisis In Turkey, Senim Sefil

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

The aim of this study is to examine the effects of the 2008 financial crisis on the functional income distribution in Turkey by conducting a comparative analysis of various labor share measures using different data sources. Four different labor share measures in the total market income were calculated using micro data from the 2006 -2011 Income and Living Conditions Survey of Turkey. The results of microdata calculations indicated a substantial and permanent increase during the crisis due to the labor hoarding in the labor market, leading to an increase in skilled employees’ labor income share at the expense of unskilled …

Go to article

The Impact Of Governance On Economic Growth: The Case Of Middle Eastern And North African Countries, Noha Emara, I-Ming Chiu May 2016

The Impact Of Governance On Economic Growth: The Case Of Middle Eastern And North African Countries, Noha Emara, I-Ming Chiu

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

The main goal of this paper is to evaluate the impact of governance on economic growth using a group of 188 countries. Although our main focus is on the 21 Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries, our findings can be applied to the other countries as well. We create a “composite governance index” (CGI) that summarizes the existing six governance measurements in the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI), using the Principal Components Analysis (PCA) method. The first principal component derived from the WGIs explains as much as 81% of the variations in the original six WGI measurements. We then use …

Go to article

Sharia Law And The Transition Towards More Democracy And A Market Economy – Restrictions And Opportunities, Rahel Schomaker May 2016

Sharia Law And The Transition Towards More Democracy And A Market Economy – Restrictions And Opportunities, Rahel Schomaker

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

The main source of Islamic Law, the Sharia, provides not only spiritual leadership for human beings, or guidelines how to practice the religion of Islam properly, but also includes normative implications for the design of the political and economic sphere of a state. Beyond the sheer scientific interest, these implications of Islam became relevant (again) in the context of the recent transition processes in the Middle East and North Africa. Despite not being finished yet, the transformations will raise new challenges for their perspective economies and the political systems as many religion-based parties (e.g. Al Nahda in Tunisia) become important …

Go to article

Determinants Of Household Education Expenditures: Do Poor Spend Less On Education?, Ayse Aylin Bayar, Bengi Yanik İlhan May 2016

Determinants Of Household Education Expenditures: Do Poor Spend Less On Education?, Ayse Aylin Bayar, Bengi Yanik İlhan

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

Accumulation of human capital is proved to be crucial for economic growth and poverty alleviation. Education is counted as one of the basic services that allows individuals to gain better skills and knowledge which enhances economic growth and is also essential to combat poverty. Although investment in education is mostly financed by the government, most of the families privately contribute to their children’s education. Some of the researches argued that education expenditures depend on the income level of the households. From this point of view, private education can only be afforded by households who are at the higher income groups. …

Go to article

Productivity Change Of The Egyptian Banking Sector: A Two Stage Non-Parametric Approach, Ammar Jreisat, Hassan Hassan May 2016

Productivity Change Of The Egyptian Banking Sector: A Two Stage Non-Parametric Approach, Ammar Jreisat, Hassan Hassan

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

This study aims to evaluate of the productivity change of the Egyptian Banking sector by using a data set which cover 14 banks operating in the Egyptian market from 1997 to 2013. We use a non-parametric approach Data Envelopment Analysis based analysis to investigate the productivity change in the Egyptian banking sector. Inputoriented Malmquist indices of productivity change are estimated to measure total factor productivity (TFP) change. The TFP changes are decomposed into the product of technological change and technical efficiency change (catch-up). In the second stage, potential determinants of productivity change are studied using a regression model. We find …

Go to article