|
on Arab World |
| By: | Badi H. Baltagi (Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University, 426 Eggers Hall, Syracuse, NY 13244-1020); Yusuf Soner Baskaya (Türkiye Cumhuriyet Merkez Bankası); Timur Hulagu (Central Bank of Turkey) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents wage curves for formal and informal workers using a rich individual level data for Turkey over the period 2005-2009. The wage curve is an empirical regularity describing a negative relationship between regional unemployment rates and individuals' real wages. While this relationship has been well documented for a number of countries including Turkey, less attention has focused on how this relationship differs for informal versus formal employment. This is of utmost importance for less developed countries where informal employment plays a significant role in the economy. Using the Turkish Household Labor Force Survey for the period 2005-2009 observed over 26 NUTS-2 regions, we find that real hourly wages of informal workers in Turkey are more sensitive to variations in regional unemployment rates than wages of formal workers. This is true for all workers as well as for different gender and age groups Key Words: Formal/Informal Employment; Wage Curve; Regional Labor Markets JEL No. C26, J30, J60, O17 |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:max:cprwps:145&r=ara |
| By: | Cengiz, F.; Hoffmann, L. (Tilburg University, Tilburg Law and Economics Center) |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:kubtil:2012010&r=ara |
| By: | Herrala, Risto (BOFIT); Turk Ariss, Rima (BOFIT) |
| Abstract: | The Arab Spring is a clear indicator of the urgency of achieving inclusive growth and ensuring job creation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, where private sector development is still hindered by limited access to credit. Following Kiyotaki and Moore's (1997) seminal model, we apply a novel methodological approach to a unique data set of MENA firms to estimate credit limits and their impacts on capital accumulation. Notably, we find higher credit limits in countries where the Arab Spring erupted than in other MENA countries and that their marginal effect on capital accumulation has been statistically and economically significant. |
| Keywords: | financing constraints; credit limits; MENA countries; |
| JEL: | G31 L20 O16 |
| Date: | 2012–11–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:bofitp:2012_029&r=ara |
| By: | Marek Dabrowski; Luc De Wulf |
| Abstract: | In this brief the authors analyze the key challenges facing the MED11 countries and propose policy measures that could improve the region’s economic and social performance. |
| Keywords: | Macroeconomics and macroeconomic policy, Trade, economic integration and globalization, Middle East and North Africa |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sec:ebrief:1213&r=ara |
| By: | Saleh, Mohamed (TSE,IAST) |
| Abstract: | I examine the impact of the transformation of elementary religious schools (kuttabs) into modern primary schools in 1953-56 on the educational and occupational differentials between religious groups in Egypt. Before the reform, non-Muslims enjoyed better educational and occupational outcomes than the Muslim majority and, unlike Muslims, were almost all enrolled in modern schools. Using several new data sources, the individual-level census sample from 1996, the official schooling reports from 1907 to 1969, and the village/urban quarter-level census data from 1897 to 1986, I find that the inter-religious educational and occupational gaps both declined in the second half of the twentieth century. The educational reform seems to explain the reduction in the occupational gap, but cannot explain the decline of the educational gap. |
| Keywords: | educational modernization; religious schools; Middle Eastern economic history; human capital; modern schools |
| JEL: | I N35 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:wpaper:26115&r=ara |
| By: | May Elsayyad (Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance); Shima'a Hanafy (University of Marburg) |
| Abstract: | This paper empirically studies the voting outcomes of Egypt’s first parliamentary elections after the Arab Spring. In light of the strong Islamist success in the polls, we explore the main determinants of Islamist vs. secular voting. We identify three dimensions that affect voting outcomes at the constituency level: the socio-economic profile, the economic structure and the electoral institutional framework. Our results show that education is negatively associated with Islamist voting. Interestingly, we find significant evidence which suggests that higher poverty levels are associated with a lower vote share for Islamist parties. Later voting stages in the sequential voting setup do not exhibit a bandwagon effect. |
| Keywords: | Voting Outcomes, Arab Spring, Political Islam, Sequential Voting |
| JEL: | D72 D78 O53 P26 Z12 Z13 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mar:magkse:201251&r=ara |
| By: | Dehghan Nejad, Omid |
| Abstract: | This note provided some reasons that why the Iranian government should avoid removing subsidies in the current Iranian economy situation. |
| Keywords: | Energy; subsidies; natural resources; Iran's economy |
| JEL: | Q43 |
| Date: | 2012–12–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:43217&r=ara |
| By: | Hasan, Zubair |
| Abstract: | This paper is in a series of writings on Islamic home financing. It spells out certain norms Islamic banks must observe in home financing and demonstrates that the conventional model based on an Excel formula does not meet the stated norms. It may well be emphasized that in Islam the question of observing these norms arises before not after the selection of the formula: additional juristic requirements may only follow subsequently. Is it not then queer that many Islamic banks are using the formula to determine the periodic installment payments in their home financing programs? The paper finds for example the popular MMP non-compliant of the stated norms. It presents a new model and argues that the alternative is not only fully observant but is superior to MMP on some other counts as well. |
| Keywords: | Home finance; Excel amortization formula; Compounding; Islamic norms; Justice; MMP |
| JEL: | G21 |
| Date: | 2012–11–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:42835&r=ara |
| By: | Ralf Klischewski (Faculty of Management Technology, The German University in Cairo) |
| Abstract: | Since most activists participating in the recent uprisings in Arab countries have been using social media to an unprecedented extent, public analyst and researchers have rushed to reflect on and explain the phenomena, often attributing a ‘change agency’ to social media as such. This exploratory research combines recent publications and use statistics with insights from blogs and focus group meetings in order to challenge our understanding of the role of social media and its usage in reshaping the government-citizen relationship: Are the traits of social media significant enough to single them out and discuss their specific impact on the government-citizen relationship? Are we well advised to attribute an ‘agency’ of social media in shaping politics and inducing political change? And in view of the actual use of social media: What are the options of containing emerging ‘destructive’ phenomena and ‘improving’ the government-citizen relationship? Answers are presented as lessons learned for future e-government research: (1) Social media enable a new political sphere for Arab citizens, however (2) social media as such do not act and therefore do not 'create' e.g. democracy, rather (3) social media need care taking to serve well as mediator among citizens and between citizens and government. |
| Keywords: | Social media, government-citizen relationship, Egypt, Arab countries, e-government research |
| JEL: | M15 |
| Date: | 2012–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:guc:wpaper:34&r=ara |
| By: | Premand, Patrick (World Bank); Brodmann, Stefanie (World Bank); Almeida, Rita K. (World Bank); Grun, Rebekka (World Bank); Barouni, Mahdi (CRES, République Tunisienne) |
| Abstract: | In economies characterized by low labor demand and high rates of youth unemployment, entrepreneurship training has the potential to enable youth to gain skills and create their own jobs. This paper presents experimental evidence on a new entrepreneurship track that provides business training and personalized coaching to university students in Tunisia. Undergraduates in the final year of licence appliquée were given the opportunity to graduate with a business plan instead of following the standard curriculum. This paper relies on randomized assignment of the entrepreneurship track to identify impacts on labor market outcomes one year after graduation. The analysis finds that the entrepreneurship track was effective in increasing self-employment among applicants, but that the effects are small in absolute terms. In addition, the employment rate among participants remains unchanged, pointing to a partial substitution from wage employment to self-employment. The evidence shows that the program fostered business skills, expanded networks, and affected a range of behavioral skills. Participation in the entrepreneurship track also heightened graduates' optimism toward the future shortly after the Tunisian revolution. |
| Keywords: | youth employment, self-employment, entrepreneurship training, program evaluation, behavioral skills, soft skills |
| JEL: | O12 J24 I21 L26 |
| Date: | 2012–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7079&r=ara |
| By: | Tounsi, Said; Ezzahid, El Hadj; Alaoui, Aicha El; Nihou, Abdelaziz |
| Abstract: | The exploration of the structural features and sectoral interdependences of and in an economy is fundamental for the understanding of its modes of functioning and of its transformations over time. Input-output analysis is largely used to fulfill this objective. Furthermore, information provided by the Leontief inverse matrix is useful for the identification of key sectors. This identification may guide policy makers in setting an adequate industrial strategy. In this paper, the classification of productive sectors is performed by using the unweighted Rassmussen approach. The ordering of sectors depends on the intensity of their links with other sectors. Two results ought to be highlighted. First, key sectors of the Moroccan economy reduced to two sectors in 2007 instead of four sectors in 1998. Second, the ordering of sectors is highly sensitive to the precision of the data and to the year in which the classification is realized. -- |
| Keywords: | input-output analysis,backward linkage,forward linkage,unweighted Rassmussen approach,Morocco |
| JEL: | C67 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:201259&r=ara |