nep-ara New Economics Papers
on MENA - Middle East and North Africa
Issue of 2014‒01‒10
six papers chosen by
Paul Makdissi
University of Ottawa

  1. Working Paper 195 - Inequality Economic Growth and Poverty in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) By AfDB
  2. Neoliberal unshared growth regime of Turkey in the post-2001 period By Herr, Hansjörg; Sonat, Zeynep M
  3. The impact of the exports of BRIC countries plus Turkey on the exports of Pakistan By Nakhoda, Aadil
  4. Regulating access to the fiber in Turkey: Would regulatory holiday be a tool to increase the investment of operators? By Ünver, Mehmet Bilal; İlhan, Erhan
  5. A multivariate analysis of the causal flow between renewable energy consumption and GDP in Tunisia By Ben Salha, Ousama; Sebri , Maamar
  6. ESTIMATING WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR RELIABLE ELECTRICITY SUPPLY: A CHOICE EXPERIMENT STUDY By Aygul Ozbafli; Glenn Jenkins

  1. By: AfDB
    Date: 2014–01–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:adb:adbwps:999&r=ara
  2. By: Herr, Hansjörg; Sonat, Zeynep M
    Keywords: economic development, economic policy, economic conditions, trend, Turkey, développement économique, politique économique, conditions économiques, tendance, Turquie, desarrollo económico, política económica, condiciones económicas, tendencia, Turquía
    Date: 2013
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ilo:ilowps:484126&r=ara
  3. By: Nakhoda, Aadil
    Abstract: The BRIC countries (Brazil, the Russian Federation, India and China) plus Turkey contribute a significant proportion of the exports that originate from developing countries. The varieties imported from the BRIC countries plus Turkey in the textile, creative and leather industries are likely to take precedence over the imported varieties from smaller developing countries as either their production is relatively more efficient in labor-intensive industries or their resources are relatively more abundant. Therefore, the prominence of the exports of the BRIC countries plus Turkey can have implications for smaller developing countries that also specialize in the production of labor-intensive products, such as Pakistan. I study the impact of the exports of the BRIC countries plus Turkey on the exports of Pakistan to the set of importing countries based on their importance as major export destinations of Pakistan for each industry considered and the set of importing countries based on the geographical location of the importing countries as regional and non-regional destinations of the BRIC countries plus Turkey. In this paper, I aim to determine whether the exports from the BRIC countries plus Turkey either complement or substitute exports from Pakistan to the specific set of export destinations.
    Keywords: International trade; crowding-out of exports; complementary exports; technology upgrading; exporter and importer linkages;
    JEL: F1 F14 F15 F23 M21
    Date: 2013–12–25
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:52477&r=ara
  4. By: Ünver, Mehmet Bilal; İlhan, Erhan
    Abstract: In this paper, regulatory policies and their effects on NGA investment are analysed through a categorisation of four-part: (i) conventional (e.g., copper-based) type regulation, (ii) no imposition of mandatory access, (iii) regulatory holiday, (iv) deregulation. While EU's regulatory policy towards NGA networks originally was denoting somewhere between the first two options, the recent developments refashion an approach near the first. While US experience clearly exhibits deregulation under the fourth category, Turkey's NGA policy repsesents an approach near the third yet marking a difference with the regulatory steps taken recently. This study first elaborates Turkish experience, then deepens EU regulatory approach from the beginning to the its current NGA strategy under the recommended principles and Commission's decisional practice. Throughout the discussion, the interplay beween copper based regulations, e.g., LLU prices and the NGA investments are delved into with factual analysis along with the market behaviours. At last, it is found that conventional regulatory approach has hazardopus effects over NGA investment, and needs to be overhauled in view of some tools that could be gained from Turkish experience, e.g., protecting first-mover advantages from regulation along with ascertained rules of level playing field. Last but not the least, rather than US based deregulation, a controlled regulatory holiday would rather be an appropriate option given the need for regulatory predictability and the hazards of conventional regulatory approach in an emerging NGA environment. --
    Date: 2013
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:itse13:88527&r=ara
  5. By: Ben Salha, Ousama; Sebri , Maamar
    Abstract: This paper examines the causality linkages between economic growth, renewable energy consumption, CO2 emissions and domestic investment in Tunisia between 1971 and 2010. Using the ARDL bounds testing approach to cointegration, long-run relationships between the variables are identified. The Granger causality analysis, on the other hand, indicates that there is bi-directional causality between renewable energy consumption and economic growth, which supports the feedback hypothesis in Tunisia. In addition, the quantity of CO2 emissions collapses as a reaction to an increase in renewable energy consumption. These findings remain robust even when controlling for the presence of structural break. We conclude that more efforts should be undertaken to further develop a suitable infrastructure to the renewable energy sector, given its enhancing-effects on economic growth and reducing-effects on CO2 emissions.
    Keywords: ARDL, Economic growth, Granger causality, Renewable energy consumption, Structural break, Tunisia.
    JEL: C3 Q4
    Date: 2013–12–29
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:52572&r=ara
  6. By: Aygul Ozbafli (JDINT'L Department of Economics Queen's University, Canada); Glenn Jenkins (Department of Economics, Queen's University, Canada, Eastern Mediterranean University, Mersin 10, TURKEY)
    Abstract: This research examines households’ willingness to pay (WTP) for an improved electricity service. Households’ stated WTP is estimated using the choice experiment method (CE). The data used in the estimations came from 350 in-person interviews conducted during the period 5–22 August 2008 in North Cyprus. Compensating variation (CV) estimates for a zero-outage scenario are calculated using the parameter estimates from the mixed logit (ML) model; these are 6.65 YTL (Turkish lira) per month (5.66 USD) for summer and 25.83 YTL per month (21.97 USD) for winter. In order to avoid the cost of outages, households are willing to incur a 3.6% and a 13.9% increase in their monthly electricity bill for summer and winter, respectively. The WTP per hour unserved is 0.28 YTL (0.24 USD) for summer, and 1.08 YTL (0.92 USD) for winter. A preliminary cost–benefit analysis indicates that the annualized economic benefits are approximately 16.3 million USD for the residential sector, and justify an investment in additional generation capacity of approximately 120 MW.
    Keywords: Willingness to pay; choice experiment; electricity; outages; reliability
    JEL: D12 D61 L94 L98 Q41
    Date: 2013–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qed:dpaper:224&r=ara

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