Growth and Development Commons^™

Built By Hand, Run By Machine: Robots And The Uneven Displacement Of Native And Migrant Workers In Germany (2012-2024), Farida Mohamed Elkhosht

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates whether industrial robot adoption generates differential employment effects for native and migrant workers across German local labor markets, using district-level data for 393 districts over 2012–2024. This question matters because Germany combines one of the world's highest concentrations of industrial robots with one of the largest migrant workforces in the OECD. Despite growing policy interest in the distributional effects of technological change, limited evidence exists on whether automation affects native and migrant employment differently within the same local labor markets. Using Bartik shift-share design to measure exogenous variation in robot exposure, the study finds that the effect …

The Impact Of Corruption On Private Investment In The Mena Region: An Empirical Study On The Period Of 1996-2023, Mohamed A. El Regdawy

Theses and Dissertations

This study aims to examine and understand empirically the impact of corruption on private investment in the MENA region during the period of 1996-2023, as private investment is a key enabler for sustainable economic growth. To better understand such a relationship, a Pooled Mean Group estimator was implemented to figure out this relationship in both the short run and long run. The findings confirm that in the long run, within the context of MENA, corruption was used as a tool to overcome the lack of quality in the regulations that were supposed to enable the role of the private sector. …

Digital Public Service Delivery As An Institutional Outcome: Data Governance And Interoperability In The Egyptian Public Sector, Waad Hegazy

Theses and Dissertations

Moving beyond technology-centered theories of digital transformation, this thesis examines the institutional and governance factors shaping digital public service delivery in Egypt. It analyzes how governance structures, data governance arrangements, and interoperability frameworks influence the extent to which digital transformation initiatives result in integrated, scalable, and citizen-facing public services. Using a qualitative research design, the study draws on an analysis of relevant policy and program documents and semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders involved in digital transformation initiatives in Egypt. The findings indicate that persistent challenges in digital public service delivery are driven less by technological constraints than by fragmented governance …

Airbnb And The End Of The Local, Nadia Beyersdorf

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how second-home ownership and self-catered tourism reshape community life in Tenby, Wales. While gentrification research often focuses on permanent displacement, less attention has been given to the movement of temporary residents that erodes local culture, social ties, and transforms everyday relationships in coastal towns.

Trade Liberalization With Brics: A Cge Model Of Egypt, Kareem Ashraf

Theses and Dissertations

This paper presents an ex-ante impact assessment of a hypothetical FTA between Egypt and the BRICS from an Egyptian economy-wide and sectorial perspectives, with a granular look into manufacturing. The chosen methodology is a static SAM-based Computable General Equilibrium model calibrated to Egypt’s 2018-2019 Social Accounting Matrix (SAM). With respect to existing literature, the paper uniquely stands in considering an Egypt-BRICS FTA with a granular assessment of manufacturing subsectors and in running a simulation of Egypt’s trade liberalization with the wider BRICS alliance, including the accession of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Ethiopia, and Iran, which joined the bloc along with Egypt …

Covid-19 And Labor Shortage In France: Exploring The Contribution Of Tunisian Migrant Workers In Bridging The Labor Shortage, Sana Gasmi

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis employed a qualitative approach, combining both desk research and in-depth interviews with 11 participants: nine Tunisian migrant workers and two Tunisian migrant experts. The thesis examined labor shortage in France during the pandemic and the extent to which Tunisian migrant workers managed to bridge the labor shortage relying on the Segmented Labor market theory which was originally developed by Piore (1979), and the two concepts: System Effects and Systemic Resilience. Findings indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic unveiled several weaknesses in the French labor market system including the acute labor shortage. Faced by labor shortage, France turned to migrant …

Does Low-Income Housing Change Neighborhoods? Evidence From The Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program, Maria Dikler

Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines how LIHTC developments affect a census tract's characteristics. The results indicate that tracts with LIHTC developments have increased education, poverty, diversity, renters, and multi-family buildings. These tracts also have decreased household incomes and rents. However, the study reveals no significant effects on labor force participation or employment.

On Income Inequality And Poverty In Egypt: Is Prosperity Immoral?, Mohamed Karim Lotfy Abdelkhalek

Theses and Dissertations

There are varying perspectives on, and divergent solutions to, the phenomena of income inequality and poverty. There seems to be polarizing views on both of these sensitive topics. One side of the argument believes income inequality should in itself be mitigated through redistribution measures, while the other argues that this should not be the focus of policy makers, as it deters them from facing the more pressing issue facing society – which is absolute poverty. The relationship between income inequality, poverty, and citizen well-being in Egypt is one that warrants further research, and this paper aims to fill this lacuna. …

International Financial Assistance And Inequality In Emerging Markets: Colombia, Egypt And Turkey, Sara Farag

Theses and Dissertations

This research study investigates the effects of the three main pillars of structural adjustment policies imbedded in IFI funding facilities on income inequality in three specific cases; Colombia, Egypt and Turkey to uncover if income inequality present in those emerging markets is attributed to; the policy reforms conditionality or to pre-existent country features. The three main pillars of policy conditions discussed in this thesis are 1. Government Expenditure Reforms, 2. External Sector Reforms, and 3. Financial Sector Reforms. My hypothesis is that, although pre-existent country features may have had an impact on the levels of inequality a populace faces, the …

Stuck In The Middle: An Analysis Of Economic Growth And The Technological Intensity Of Exports, Aya Abdel Halim

Theses and Dissertations

Driven by the persistence of some economies’ lower-middle-income status, also known as the middle-income trap, this research aims to identify the relationship between exports and their growth rates. A Cobb-Douglass model augmented by the different types of exports is employed, and the relationship is estimated for a panel of 77 lower-middle-income economies using multiple two-step system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) model. This research’s contribution to the literature is two-fold: First, it analyzes exports from both an aggregated level (i.e., total exports) as well as at a disaggregated level by the technological intensity of exports. To add, the panel of …

Financial Inclusion And Monetary Policy - Investigating The Relationship Between Financial Inclusion And Monetary Policy: The Case Of Egypt, Salma Maher

Theses and Dissertations

In the past decade, financial inclusion has become an issue of increasing importance to developing nations. This is due to its perceived effects on poverty alleviation, sustainable growth and enhancing monetary policy effectiveness. Unfortunately, there is little empirical research on the effects of financial inclusion. The thesis hopes to contribute to the literature by inspecting the relationship between financial utilization indices and monetary policy in Egypt. The thesis utilizes quarterly data on outstanding deposits and loans from 2004 to 2020 as well as a VAR model – supplemented with an ARDL model – to test the aforementioned relationship. The thesis …

Rental Discrimination On The Basis Of Immigration Status, Diego S. Osorio

Theses and Dissertations

We employ a field experiment to assess the degree of housing discrimination against Hispanic immigrants versus someone with Hispanic heritage. The results indicate that individuals who indicate that they are immigrants in their rental applications are less likely to receive a response.

Evaluating Long-Range Transportation Plans For Mainstreaming Of Climate Adaptation Among Virginia Mpos, Sebastian L. Shetty

Theses and Dissertations

Despite the strides made towards addressing climate change through greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction strategies, it has become increasingly apparent that attempting to mitigate the crisis in such a manner alone is insufficient. This thesis joins a growing body of research on how our societies must adapt to a changing climate, contributing more evidence on common barriers to adaptation and how they might be overcome. Through an attempt to evaluate the progress made towards mainstreaming, or integrating, climate change concerns into five Virginia MPOs’ long-range transportation plans (LRTPs), this study provides support for prior hypotheses around the potential for MPOs …

The Banality Of Corporate Evil, Amina Dessouki

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis critiques the notion of corporate social responsibility (CSR) through tracing the multiple dynamics between a multinational corporation and a development consultancy working on a recycling project in collaboration with the Zabaleen in Mansheyet Nasser, Egypt. The thesis looks at the ways in which actors negotiate their different positions, the harmonies and discordances that unfold through various agendas coming together, the silences produced, and the ways in which structural violence is intensified under the guise of development. The thesis contrasts the detached efforts of corporate workers and development consultants with the lives of the zabaleen, who live in a …

The Extent To Which The Provision Of Water And Sanitation Services Affect The Individual’S Decision To Migrate: The Case Of Egypt, Sara Mohamed Soliman

Theses and Dissertations

Determinants of migration, although researched copiously shed little light on the importance of access to sustainable, basic water and sanitation utilities on an individual’s decision to migrate. This research reveals that individuals originating from rural Upper Egypt, rural and urban Lower Egypt, and rural and urban Alexandria and Suez Canal regions are more likely to migrate relative to those from the urban Greater Cairo region. Access to water has been deemed as insignificant while access to sanitation is a significant factor in determining migration patterns as do macro- economic differences in origin governorates, gender, educational background before migration, and employment …

Vision Redux: Power And Policy In Saudi Arabia, Ross Douglas Kimm

Theses and Dissertations

The size and scope of the Vision 2030 modernization plan and the associated Saudi Aramco initial public offering are watershed events in the history of the modern Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. However, they are not outside the history of the country’s development. This thesis, tracing the roots of this latest development plan back to the founding of the current Saudi state, found that Vision 2030 shares many characteristics with previous efforts. Further, it also found precedence for powerful princes rising to power at times of tectonic change. Finally, while historical context is key to understanding this moment in the Kingdom, …

The Impact Of The Capital Market, The Insurance Sector And The Mortgage Finance Sector On Economic Growth In Egypt, 2005-2019, Hana Anis

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis aims to explore the relationship between financial markets and economic growth in Egypt for the 15 years period, starting from 2005 to 2019. The study concentrates on the non-banking financial sector which includes the stock market, the debt market, the mortgage and the insurance sectors. The Vector Autoregressive (VAR) model is utilized to describe the relationship between GDP growth rate, as a proxy for economic growth, and a number of variables from the financial sector. Results of the analysis show that there is a significant relationship and statistical causality between the growth rate and the debt market, represented …

The Effect Of National Leaders’ Profiles On Gdp Per Capita, Maha Mostafa Gaber

Theses and Dissertations

A national leader is the policy maker in a country, whose economical decisions hold the power to make a nation either prosper or collapse. Therefore, it becomes crucial to understand the official who enact these decisions. A unique dataset of over 326 world leaders from 51 countries between the period 1972 to 2018 was constructed, building on leader Experience and Attribute Descriptions Database, in order to study the differences in leaders’ characteristics and determine the most important attributes which significantly affect level of GDP per capita. This paper studies the effect of government leaders’ profiles on GDP per capita by …

Female Labor Force Participation And Economic Growth: Granger Causality Test, Zulakha Rahman

Theses and Dissertations

Does rising female labor force participation precede economic growth, or does the relationship run in the other direction? This paper addresses this question by performing a Granger causality test to examine the relationship between economic growth and female labor force participation worldwide. The economic growth –is measured in two ways: using Growth Domestic Product, Purchasing Power Parity (constant 2011 international dollar) and Growth Domestic Product using local currency units. The test uses a completely balanced panel dataset spanning over 28 years from 1990 to 2018 and using 151 countries for Purchasing Power Parity dataset and 154 countries in GDP in …

The Effect Of Perceived Corruption On Voter Turnout In Post-Communist Countries In The European Union: Evidence From The Life In Transition Survey Iii, Ivana Pancurakova

Theses and Dissertations

This paper measures the effect of perceived corruption on voting in post-communist countries in the EU using probit models, Dong and Lewbel’s special estimator, and two stage least squares models. Corruption has a significant and negative effect on voter turnout even when controlling for the endogeneity in the corruption variable.

Institutional Quality And Illicit Financial Flows In Developing And Developed Countries: An Empirical Assessment, Zin Kyaw Lin

Theses and Dissertations

This paper investigates the direct linkage between institutional quality and illicit financial flows (IFFs) of 47 developing and developed countries from the period of 2005 to 2014. Corruption and political stability are found to be correlated to the IFFs.

The Effect Of Parental Death On Children’S Wellbeing, Monil S. Shah

Theses and Dissertations

I study the effect of parental death on a child’s wellbeing, including workforce participation, education, marital status and health. Using propensity score matching, I find that parental death leads to worse outcomes for children who lose a parent compared to those with two parents, with negative effects exacerbated for daughters.

Perceived Corruption In Ukraine: A National Analysis Using Individual Level Data From 2012-2014, Cody X. Weglinski

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the relationship of perceived corruption in Ukraine and the factors that influence that perception. In particular, this paper investigates the idea that an influential Russian presence affects the perception of governmental corruption amongst Ukrainian business owners and managers.

The Impact Of Exchange Rate Changes On Sectoral Activity: The Case Of Egypt, Nada Shokry

Theses and Dissertations

NOTE: A revised and corrected version, the version of record, is available online at: https://erf.org.eg/app/uploads/2018/11/1252.pdf

This paper investigates the effect of changes in exchange rate on sectoral production in Egypt. For this purpose, the study, first, uses a MIDAS regression to compare between the sign and magnitude of the effect of two exchange rate measures on 22 subsectors and 4 aggregate sectors' production in the period between 1982 till 2014. One measure is the monthly deflated official bilateral exchange rate of EGP against the US dollar and the other is the annual real effective exchange rate of the EGP. The …

Unemployment, Does It Really Hurt?, Claudia Vargas

Theses and Dissertations

This paper analyzes the consequences of changes in the unemployment rate in Colombia on the level of education attained for adolescents. Increases in the unemployment rate are associated with an increase in the average number of years of education. No significant effect was found for men of the same age.

Slavery, Migration, And Local Development In The Western Us, Colin Q. Sharpe

Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines the effects of migration from eastern slave states in the 19th century on the subsequent development of counties in the Western US. I find that increased migration from slave states has a large, statistically significant negative effect on 2010 income, and no significant effect on racial inequality or overall income inequality. These findings are robust to a variety of specifications, including controls for geographic factors, state fixed effects, and various county level social and economic conditions. Data on individual migrants suggest that the cause of the negative income effect is the lower average human capital endowment of …

Geospatial Modeling Of Vietnamese Fdi, Cuong Nguyen Tien

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis sets a goal to analyze and project geographically disaggregated measures of FDI using aggregate data. We regress the country level FDI with aggregate, fine geospatial data on GDP, urban extent, and risk. By disaggregating the model, we will predict the FDI flow in every 1000 square kilometer area.

Household Shocks And Transition Into Marriage: Evidence From Rural Ethiopia, Boyd K. Tembo

Theses and Dissertations

The study tests the primary hypothesis that household shocks do not have a positive and significant correlation with a child's transition into early marriage. It finds that there is no statistically significant correlation between parental death and transition into marriage for both genders of subjects in the study.

The Doha Round And Globalization: A Failure Of World Economic Development?, William E. Keating

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this thesis is to analyze the WTO’s Doha Round and its numerous developmental objectives, assess the major issues that led to its stagnation, as well as examine the economic prospects for developing nations and the potential future of international trade and development.

Modeling The Economic Impacts Of Large Deployments On Local Communities, Aaron L. Gregory

Theses and Dissertations

The Global War on Terrorism has required the large scale deployment of active-duty troops to support operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. This thesis presents an economic analysis of the impacts these deployments have had on local communities as measured by changes in local retail sales. County level data from Colorado, Kansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee were combined with open source deployment information to construct panel models. Panel model analysis is a form of regression that combines cross-sectional and time-series dimensions. Seasonality and general economic conditions were also incorporated into the model. The goal of this research is to provide an …