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on Arab World |
| By: | Caroline Van Rijckeghem |
| Date: | 2010–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bou:wpaper:2010/04&r=ara |
| By: | Deniz Cicek; Ceyhun Elgin |
| Date: | 2010–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bou:wpaper:2010/07&r=ara |
| By: | Beck, Thorsten; Demirguc-Kunt, Asli; Merrouche, Ouarda |
| Abstract: | This paper discusses Islamic banking products and interprets them in the context of financial intermediation theory. Anecdotal evidence shows that many of the conventional products can be redrafted as Sharia-compliant products, so that the differences are smaller than expected. Comparing conventional and Islamic banks and controlling for other bank and country characteristics, the authors find few significant differences in business orientation, efficiency, asset quality, or stability. While Islamic banks seem more cost-effective than conventional banks in a broad cross-country sample, this finding reverses in a sample of countries with both Islamic and conventional banks. However, conventional banks that operate in countries with a higher market share of Islamic banks are more cost-effective but less stable. There is also consistent evidence of higher capitalization of Islamic banks and this capital cushion plus higher liquidity reserves explains the relatively better performance of Islamic banks during the recent crisis. |
| Keywords: | Banks&Banking Reform,Debt Markets,Access to Finance,Financial Intermediation,Bankruptcy and Resolution of Financial Distress |
| Date: | 2010–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5446&r=ara |
| By: | Rana Hendy (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne & Paris School of Economics); Chahir Zaki |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a microsimulation analysis to evaluate the impact of trade liberalization policies in Egypt on income redistribution. Our analysis aims at identifying the effects of those measures on redistribution aspects. For this, we rely on a macro - micro approach integrating results obtained from a discrete choice model of labor supply in a Computable General Equilibrium model (CGE). In the empirical work, we use the Egyptian Labor Market and Panel Survey (ELMPS) of 1998 and 2006 as well as the Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) of 2001. This assessment allows us to find out to what extent such macroeconomic policies affect, on the microeconomic level, females poverty, wages and employment opportunities. |
| Date: | 2010–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erg:wpaper:555&r=ara |
| By: | Deniz Igan; Burcu Aydin |
| Abstract: | The period following the 2000-01 crisis was marked by a successful disinflation program sustained through inflation targeting and fiscal discipline in Turkey. This paper studies the impact of monetary and fiscal policies on credit growth during this period. Using quarterly bank-level data covering 2002-08, we find evidence that liquidity-constrained banks have sharper decline in lending during contractionary monetary policies and that crowding-out effect disappears more for banks with a retail-banking focus when fiscal policies are prudent.The results are statistically weak, suggesting that bank lending channel is not strong in Turkey and government finances has limited direct impact on credit. |
| Date: | 2010–10–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:10/233&r=ara |
| By: | Sami Bibi (University of Laval); AbdelRahmen El-Lahga |
| Abstract: | The main objective of this paper is to perform a decomposition analysis of the level of inequality between socioeconomic groups and geopolitical regions of each country to better our understanding of the contribution of each socioeconomic group to overall inequality. This paper will fill in an important gap of knowledge of inequality patterns in the Arab region, by drawing a rough picture of monetary inequality. Our results show that differences in mean income across groups are much larger in Tunisia, Morocco and mainly Yemen and accounts for a much larger proportion of overall inequality. |
| Date: | 2010–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erg:wpaper:557&r=ara |
| By: | Ines Bouassida; AbdelRahmen El Lahga (University of Tunis) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the trend and changes of household expenditure polarization in five Arab countries between 1975 and 2006. Applying a set of recent polarization measures developed by Duclos et al. (2004) and Wolfson (1994), we find that polarization remained stable in most countries except Yemen which witnessed a significant increase of polarization during the period 1998–2006. While bi-polarization evolves in the same direction as inequality, our empirical results show that polarization per se behaves differently from inequality. The decomposition of polarization by geographical region shows that in all five countries’ household expenditures are spatially polarized, where nearly 80% of overall polarization is explained by intra-regional polarization. |
| Date: | 2010–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erg:wpaper:559&r=ara |
| By: | Herrera, Santiago; Youssef, Hoda; Youssef, Hoda; Zaki, Chahir |
| Abstract: | The paper analyzes the impact of the recent global crisis in the context of the previous two decades'growth and capital flows. Growth decomposition exercises show that Egyptian growth is driven mostly by capital accumulation. To estimate the share of labor in national income, the analysis adjusts the national accounts statistics to include the compensation of self-employed and non-paid family workers. Still, the share of labor, about 30 percent, is significantly lower than previously estimated. The authors estimate the output costs of the current crisis by comparing the output trajectory that would have prevailed without the crisis with the observed and revised gross domestic product projections for the medium term. The fall in private investment was the main driver of the output cost. Even if private investment recovers its pre-crisis levels, there is a permanent loss in gross domestic product per capita of about 2 percent with respect to the scenario without the crisis. The paper shows how the shock to investment is magnified due to the capital-intensive nature of the Egyptian economy: if the economy had the traditionally-used share of labor in income (40 percent), the output loss would have been reduced by half. |
| Keywords: | Economic Theory&Research,Debt Markets,Access to Finance,Emerging Markets,Banks&Banking Reform |
| Date: | 2010–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5451&r=ara |
| By: | Bassim Shebeb (University of Bahrain); Nadhem Al-Saleh |
| Abstract: | With the process of expansion and the structural transformation taking place in Bahrain, it is crucial to measure and analyze the growth rates of gross domestic product (GDP), gross output and multifactor productivity (MFP) to develop proper policies that are in line with the new economic vision of Bahrain, known as Vision 2030. Thus, this paper comes with two main objectives: first, to provide explainable estimates for the growth rate of the gross output in the Bahraini economy and secondly to identify the main sources of the growth. The main findings of this study show that the annual growth rate of the gross output in Bahrain ranged from a maximum of about 11.7% in the year 2006 to a minimum of about 7.7% in the year 2002. The average annual growth rate of gross output over the time period 2002–2008 was 9.43%. The empirical findings also show that the MFP’s annual growth rate was relatively low over the study time period. Consequently, it could be concluded that the relatively high growth rate of gross output in the Bahraini economy was mainly due to the high growth rate of other inputs (M) over the last few years. The study concludes that there is an urgent need to improve MFP in Bahrain to contribute significantly to the output growth rates. Therefore, the study calls for further research to identify the main components that contribute to the growth of MFP in Bahrain and its decomposition. |
| Date: | 2010–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erg:wpaper:558&r=ara |
| By: | Nadia Belhaj Hassine (Economic Research Forum (ERF)); Veronique Robichaud; Bernard Decaluwé |
| Abstract: | This paper is an attempt to contribute to the research on poverty-alleviation potential of trade, by exploring the poverty effects of agricultural trade liberalization in Tunisia. Specifically, the study uses a small open economy computable general equilibrium (CGE) that includes technology transfer and endogenous productivity effects from trade openness in agriculture to investigate whether the trade reforms benefit the poor and whether agricultural productivity growth boosts the potential gains from trade. The structure of the paper is as follows. Section 2 outlines the plan for empirical investigation and presents the procedure to measure total factor productivity. Section 3 describes the CGE model and explains how the link between productivity and trade policy is incorporated. Section 4 presents some features of the Tunisian economy, in particular with regard to the agricultural sector and reviews the data used in the econometric and CGE models. Section 5 reports the empirical results and section 6 synthesizes the main findings and draws some conclusions. |
| Date: | 2010–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erg:wpaper:556&r=ara |
| By: | Monia Ghazali (Institut Supérieur de Finance et Fiscalité de Sousse) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the relationship between technological change and the relative demand of skilled workers in Tunisia. For this purpose, we use a firm level database drawn from the national annual survey report on firms (NASRF) provided by the Tunisian National Institute of Statistics (TNIS). The annual data covers 635 firms from manufacturing and non- manufacturing sectors over the period 1998–2002. The estimation of the demand for skilled labor is based on the estimation of a translog cost function. We control for potential endogeneity issues and we give empirical evidence supporting the trade-induced technological change theoretical intuition. Our empirical results confirm the existence of a trade-induced technological change that contributes to increasing the relative demand for skilled workers. Yet, the relationship between trade and technology deserves deeper interest. Further empirical research on transmission channels would reinforce current studies on skill- biased technological change. |
| Date: | 2010–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erg:wpaper:554&r=ara |
| By: | Miriam Shabafrouz (GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the use of hydrocarbon revenues in post-conflict Algeria. While the bloody years of the 1990s now seem to be over, recurring terror attacks and the ongoing state of emergency leave room for doubt that a situation of stable peace has been achieved yet. It is therefore necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of post-conflict peace-building efforts in Algeria and identify ways of improving these measures. The resources, which are mainly controlled by the central state, can have positive and negative effects on the political economy: they can enhance growth and possibilities for the distribution of wealth, but the dependency on them makes the whole economy vulnerable to crises. Analysing the economic (and other) causes of the outbreak of the intra-state war in 1992 and the reasons for its escalation and its fading out can be revealing when assessing the extent to which critical conditions have or have not been addressed by recent and current peace-building efforts. The author’s analysis reveals that the measures taken by the government—such as implementing a programme of national reconciliation, the stimulation of certain sectors of the economy and the resolute reduction of foreign debt—all aim at stabilization and have all been driven by hydrocarbon income to a large extent. However, the recent rise and sudden drop in the price of oil and gas have both had an effect on the scope of these measures and reveal their limits. Moreover, some of the critical causes of the civil war such as the unfair distribution of revenue, the lack of political participation and destabilizing demographic changes still persist and have largely remained unaddressed. One of the author’s concluding assumptions therefore is that it is very likely that the use of resource revenues for conflict prevention and peace-building will only lead to sustainable results when embedded in full-fledged reforms of Algeria’s entire economic and political system. |
| Keywords: | Algeria, violent conflict, terrorism, peace-building, resource management,socio-economic development, natural resources, oil, gas |
| JEL: | F23 L14 O14 |
| Date: | 2010–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gig:wpaper:132&r=ara |
| By: | alessandrini, sergio |
| Abstract: | This paper presents some stylized features of the financial integration of the four basin regions (Baltic Sea, Black Sea, Caspian Sea and Mediterranean Sea regions) and discusses the developments, trends and features of the IIP in the regions. Chapter 3 identifies the gaps in them, distinguishing the EU e non-EU members and provides an overview of the asymmetries and the convergence as a result of the financial integration in the different markets. After the review the trends the final chapter points to areas where further efforts are needed for achieving greater regional integration. |
| Keywords: | Financial integration; FDI; Private capital flows; FTA |
| JEL: | F21 F36 |
| Date: | 2010–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:26080&r=ara |
| By: | Drine, Imed; Grach, Mouna |
| Abstract: | Whether policy support should be designed differently for women entrepreneurs is a particularly relevant question. To answer this, and to inform the design of policies to provide appropriate support for women entrepreneurs, the paper compares male and female perceptions of typical entrepreneurship support services, such as government provision of information, training and funding. The focus is on Tunisia, a developing country characterized by high level of unemployment, particularly of women. Based on a survey of 50 men and 50 women entrepreneurs in the regions of Sfax, Sousse and Tunis, our results suggest that existing support services are inadequate for promoting female entrepreneurship. Accordingly we discuss support measures specifically designed for women entrepreneurs. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship, gender, women entrepreneurs, Africa |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2010-100&r=ara |