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Economics

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Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

2014

Articles 1 - 19 of 19

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Simulating The Turkish Tax System, Adem Ileri, Pinar Derin-Güre Sep 2014

Simulating The Turkish Tax System, Adem Ileri, Pinar Derin-Güre

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

Tax systems are used for economic and social concerns such as promoting the economic growth or decreasing the income inequality and tax evasion, increasing the social welfare, etc. Researchers argue that the consumption taxes are quite high in Turkey compared to other OECD countries. Since, the proposed tax reform in this study decreases the VAT rate to 15 percent and increases the top statutory income tax rate to 40 percent. This paper constructs and present first set of a 55-period overlapping generations (OLG) model for Turkey to analyze and evaluate the impact of tax reform on macroeconomic variables and welfare. …

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Fdi Effects On Economic Growth: The Role Of Natural Resource And Environmental Policy, Maryam Asghari, Nathalie Hilmi, Alain Safa Sep 2014

Fdi Effects On Economic Growth: The Role Of Natural Resource And Environmental Policy, Maryam Asghari, Nathalie Hilmi, Alain Safa

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is a crucial ingredient of the global economy. In the Persian Gulf, FDI is a major source of economic growth, employment, technology, and productivity. Because of these benefits, attracting FDI in the Persian Gulf region has become a key element of strategies promoting economic development. Natural resources and environmental policy in host countries may affect the FDIeconomic growth relationship. There has been much dispute as to whether economies that are open and those with more natural capital and lax environmental policy grow faster. This paper examines whether natural resources and environmental policy in Persian Gulf countries …

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Is Poverty A Cause Or A Result Of Poor Labor Market Performance In Turkey?, Ayse Aylin Bayar, Serkhan Degirmenci Sep 2014

Is Poverty A Cause Or A Result Of Poor Labor Market Performance In Turkey?, Ayse Aylin Bayar, Serkhan Degirmenci

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

The Turkish economy has shown great economic growth performance from 2000 onwards. Many main macroeconomic indicators show remarkable improvement, including poverty and income inequality. Although poverty has declined; it still has one of the highest ratios compared to other developing countries. In this respect, fighting against poverty and sustaining poverty alleviation are still very substantial issues for Turkey. Similarly, the labor force participation rate of females in the urban labor market has an increasing trend over this period. And, again the female labor force participation rate is one of the lowest ratios among OECD countries. With these examples in mind, …

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Do Wives’ Earnings Have An Impact On Income Inequality?: Evidence From Turkey, Ayse Aylin Bayar, Bengi Yanik İlhan Sep 2014

Do Wives’ Earnings Have An Impact On Income Inequality?: Evidence From Turkey, Ayse Aylin Bayar, Bengi Yanik İlhan

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

The Turkish economy has been experiencing a structural transformation as a result of economic liberalization, especially after the 1990s. Liberalization and integration to the world economy have had inevitable distributional consequences. In that sense, trends in the distribution of income have received substantial attention in recent years. As income inequality becomes an important issue for developing countries, gender (in)equality in Turkey also has gained attention. There exists a vast survey in the literature about the relationship between gender discrimination and inequality. Mainly, more recent research has concentrated on the reasons for gender discrimination in the labor market and its effects …

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The Impact Of Institutional Quality In Attracting Foreign Direct Investment In Algeria, Bounoua Chaib, Matallah Siham Sep 2014

The Impact Of Institutional Quality In Attracting Foreign Direct Investment In Algeria, Bounoua Chaib, Matallah Siham

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

This study examines the impact of institutional quality in attracting FDI in Algeria over the period 1995-2011 using the Heritage Foundation’s economic freedom index which reflects economic institutional quality (EIQ) and two governance indicators, namely: government effectiveness (GE) and voice and accountability (VA) that represent political institutional quality. The Johansen cointegration test has been employed in order to investigate the existence of long-run relationships among the tested variables. Additionally, the vector error correction model (VECM) has been applied to analyze the long-run and short-run dynamic relationships among the various time series, besides using both impulse response functions and variance decomposition. …

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Governance And Economic Growth: Interpretations For Mena Countries, Noha Emara, Eric Jhonsa Sep 2014

Governance And Economic Growth: Interpretations For Mena Countries, Noha Emara, Eric Jhonsa

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

Using Two-stage Least Square (TSLS) regression for cross-sectional observations of 197 countries for the year 2009, the study estimates the impact of the improvement in the quality of governance on per capita income and the increase in per capita income on the quality of governance. Following Kaufman and Kraay (2002) methodology, the results suggest a positive, strong statistically significant causation from quality of governance to per capita income. In addition, the results suggest a positive causation from per capita income to quality of governance. The estimation results are used to interpret the relationship between governance and growth for 22 MENA …

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Quantitative Evaluation Of The Struggle Of Economic Performance: The Case Of Mena Countries, Noha Emara Sep 2014

Quantitative Evaluation Of The Struggle Of Economic Performance: The Case Of Mena Countries, Noha Emara

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

The recent political uprising in the Middle East and North African (MENA) economies shines the light on evaluating the so-called structural reforms that are aimed at achieving economic freedom. This paper examines the impact of liberal policies on the economic performance of labor and capital productivity in MENA economies. Using nonlinear Panel Least Squares regression with regional dummies and period fixed effects (LSDV) for a sample of 18 MENA countries over the period 1995-2009, the study estimates the impact of different aspects of economic freedom on labor and capital productivity. The economic freedom measure encompass different areas, including freedom of …

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Competition And Economic Growth: An Empirical Analysis With Special Reference To Mena Countries, Marwa W. Gomaa Sep 2014

Competition And Economic Growth: An Empirical Analysis With Special Reference To Mena Countries, Marwa W. Gomaa

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

The underlying study analyzes the impact of competition on economic growth, and tests whether this impact might change according to the technological gap between the observed country and the technological leader country. Using panel data estimation for a sample of 115 countries over the period 1995-2010, and controlling for the MENA countries in the sample, the results suggest that intensive domestic competition, proxied by business freedom, tends to hinder the growth rate of an economy independent of the country's distance from the technological frontier, providing evidence in support to the Schumpeterian argument. However this effect is almost negligible for MENA …

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Cbe And Fx Devaluation: Bitter Enemies Or Is It Just A Matter Of Time? Analyzing The Impact Of An Egp Devaluation On Egypt’S Trade Balance, Ziad Waleed Amer Sep 2014

Cbe And Fx Devaluation: Bitter Enemies Or Is It Just A Matter Of Time? Analyzing The Impact Of An Egp Devaluation On Egypt’S Trade Balance, Ziad Waleed Amer

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

After the 2011 revolution, Egypt’s central Bank (CBE) changed its stance from a managed floating exchange rate regime to stabilizing the EGP, even though the market kept pushing for a devaluation to adjust Egypt’s trade competitiveness given the deteriorating state of the economy in general and the external balance specifically. This paper tries to judge the behavior of the Central Bank by looking at the possible effects of a real devaluation on Egypt’s trade competitiveness. Using an ARDL model, we study both the 2003 devaluation and the 2013 partial devaluation, and conclude that the impact of a real devaluation on …

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Does The Budget Deficit Crowd-Out Private Credit From The Banking Sector? The Case Of Egypt, Samah Shetta, Ahmed Kamaly Sep 2014

Does The Budget Deficit Crowd-Out Private Credit From The Banking Sector? The Case Of Egypt, Samah Shetta, Ahmed Kamaly

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

Driven by the observed growing budget deficit and the heavy reliance on debtfinancing from the banking sector, this study sets to test the lazy banking hypothesis for Egypt. According to this hypothesis, government borrowing crowds out private investment through its dampening effect on private credit. The study estimates a VAR model using quarterly data spanning for almost four decades. The estimated model has unearthed a number of interesting results. As the government issues more debt instruments to finance its deficit, banks shift their portfolio away from risky private loans and opt for lazy behavior characterized by a shrinking overall credit …

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An Analysis Of North Africa's Capacity To Achieve Renewable Energy Development, Wai Mun Hong Sep 2014

An Analysis Of North Africa's Capacity To Achieve Renewable Energy Development, Wai Mun Hong

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

Although blessed with abundant solar and wind energies, North Africa has yet to maximise its socioeconomic gain from tapping these resources. In view of North African demographic and middle class expansion, energy demand is set to increase. Tapping renewable energy sources will not only address these problems, but also will be an impetus to the faltering socioeconomic dynamic the region needs to boost sustainable development to benefit from globalisation. However, with bureaucratic-laden institutions and corruptions hindering the private sector from flourishing, governments are compelled to mobilise public finances to cover the lack of private investments in renewable energy projects. Increasing …

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Economic Conditions In Egypt: Current And Future, Gouda Abdel-Khalek May 2014

Economic Conditions In Egypt: Current And Future, Gouda Abdel-Khalek

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

No abstract provided.

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Poverty In Secular And Islamic Economics; Conceptualization And Poverty Alleviation Policy, With Reference To Egypt, Karima Korayem, Neamat Mashhour May 2014

Poverty In Secular And Islamic Economics; Conceptualization And Poverty Alleviation Policy, With Reference To Egypt, Karima Korayem, Neamat Mashhour

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

No abstract provided.

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Middle Class And Pro-Poor Growth In Egypt: The Missing Connection, Abeer Rashdan May 2014

Middle Class And Pro-Poor Growth In Egypt: The Missing Connection, Abeer Rashdan

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

Assessing whether distributional changes are “pro-poor” has become increasingly widespread in academic and policy circles. Based on the methodology of Ravallion and Chen (2003), Kakwani and Pernia (2000) and Kakwani, Khandker, and Son (2003) using grouped data, the paper generates three indices to test whether distributional changes were indeed pro-poor during the period (1990-2008). Another issue is whether pro-poor judgments should be correlative with the size of the middle class. The paper presents the evolution of middle class in Egypt using different thresholds. The middle class in Egypt has followed the path of bulging in size under a certain threshold …

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Economic Development And Industrial Pollution In The Mediterranean Region: A Panel Data Analysis, Sevil Acar, Mahmut Tekce May 2014

Economic Development And Industrial Pollution In The Mediterranean Region: A Panel Data Analysis, Sevil Acar, Mahmut Tekce

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

This paper aims to analyse the determinants of industrial pollution in selected Mediterranean countries. As carbon dioxide (CO2) emerges as the main pollutant in the industrial sector, per capita CO2 emissions from manufacturing industries and construction has been taken as a proxy for industrial pollution. The study uses data from the World Development Indicators for the period 1971-2010. The results from the panel data model estimations indicate the existence of an inverse U-shaped relation between GDP per capita and industrial pollution in selected Mediterranean countries, which validates the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis. In addition, the share of industry, per capita …

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Estimation Of Gender Wage Differentials Using Oaxaca Decomposition Technique, Marwa Biltagy May 2014

Estimation Of Gender Wage Differentials Using Oaxaca Decomposition Technique, Marwa Biltagy

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

This paper focuses on estimating wage differences between males and females in Egypt to understand the determinants of the gender wage gap and control of this variation. The methodology of this paper is based on studying and analyzing the topic of wage differentials between males and females by using the Oaxaca decomposition technique. The data used in the analysis is obtained from the Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey 2006 (ELMPS 2006), which was presented by Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) in cooperation with Economic Research Forum (ERF). The findings of this paper help deepen the understanding of …

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The Relationship Between Oil Price And The Algerian Exchange Rate, Abderrezak Benhabib, Si Mohammed Kamel, Samir Maliki May 2014

The Relationship Between Oil Price And The Algerian Exchange Rate, Abderrezak Benhabib, Si Mohammed Kamel, Samir Maliki

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

The goal of this study is to investigate the relationship between oil price and the nominal US Dollar/Algerian Dinar exchange rate through an empirical analysis using a VAR Model (Vector Autoregressive Model) upon monthly data for the period 2003-2013. Results show that a cointegration relationship is not detected between the oil and exchange rate in Algeria. However, the estimation of a VAR model indicates that a 1% increase in oil price would tend to depreciate Algerian Dinar against US Dollar by nearly 0.35%. This negative impact emphasizes how the Algerian dinar is a non-oil currency and explains how the foreign …

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Attempts To Industrial Reforms In Algeria: Do They Fit The Logic Of Globalization?, Chérif Begga, Abdelhamid Merghit May 2014

Attempts To Industrial Reforms In Algeria: Do They Fit The Logic Of Globalization?, Chérif Begga, Abdelhamid Merghit

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

Since its independence in 1962, Algeria, as an oil producing country, undertook the construction of a socialist economy supported by heavy industrialisation and substantial investment in human capital. This strategy of development was based on state-led industrialization, after it nationalized almost the whole economy in 1966. However, this policy focused on establishing large state enterprises and investing heavily in the public sector while not allowing any significant role for the private sector. This rapid industrialization resulted in severe inefficiencies in the productive capacity of various industries and generated fiscal imbalances in the mid-1970s, which constrained Algeria’s ability to continue its …

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Regional Integration Effects On Investment And Growth In Algeria, Nacira Boukhezer May 2014

Regional Integration Effects On Investment And Growth In Algeria, Nacira Boukhezer

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

The positive effect of financial development on growth has led several authors to advocate the liberalization of the financial sector from the constraints caused by repressive policies disturbing its operation. This policy will theoretically promote financial deepening, which will positively impact growth through increased savings and its allocation to more profitable sectors. The new requirements of the global economy have made economic and financial systems more integrated and liberalized, encouraged by the formation of regional groupings. The partnership between Algeria and the European Union (EU) could be a way of convergence and development for the banking system which has long …

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