nep-ara New Economics Papers
on MENA - Middle East and North Africa
Issue of 2018‒01‒15
eight papers chosen by
Paul Makdissi
Université d’Ottawa

  1. Combating domestic violence against women in Turkey. The role of women's economic empowerment By Aurélien Dasre; Angela Greulich; Inan Ceren
  2. Fertility Regulation Behavior: Sequential Decisions in Tunisia By Olfa Frini; Christophe Muller
  3. Do Emigrants Self-Select along Cultural Traits? Evidence from the MENA Countries By Docquier, Frédéric; Tansel, Aysit; Turati, Riccardo
  4. The Migration of Fear: An Analysis of Migration Choices of Syrian Refugees By Mehmet Balcilar; Jeffrey B. Nugent
  5. The performance of Islamic banks in the MENA region: Are specific risks a minor attribute? By Imène Berguiga; Philippe Adair; Nadia Zrelli; Ali Abdallah
  6. Displaced Loyalties: The Effects of Indiscriminate Violence on Attitudes Among Syrian Refugees in Turkey By Kristin Fabbe; Chad Hazlett; Tolga Sinmazdemir
  7. Pratiques managériales frauduleuses en Algérie : diversité, ampleur et perceptions des acteurs By Foued Cheriet
  8. Qui sont les électeurs à distance ? L’exemple du Mali, du Sénégal, et de la Tunisie By Lisa Chauvet; Flore Gubert; Thibaut Jaulin; Sandrine Mesplé-Somps; Etienne Smith

  1. By: Aurélien Dasre (CRESPPA - Centre de recherches sociologiques et politiques de Paris - UP8 - Université Paris 8, Vincennes-Saint-Denis - UPN - Université Paris Nanterre - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, INED - Institut national d'études démographiques); Angela Greulich (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, INED - Institut national d'études démographiques); Inan Ceren (SIES - Systèmes d'information et des Etudes Statistiques - French Ministry of Education and Research)
    Abstract: This paper identifies motors and barriers for combatting domestic violence against women in Turkey – a country where modernism and conservatism are in constant interplay. We combine information from the Demographic Health Surveys and the Turkish Domestic Violence Survey and distinguish between controlling behavior, physical and sexual violence. Our empirical analysis tests how far a woman's intra-household decision making power (as measured by her education, her activity status, her income etc.) bears the potential to reduce her risk of experiencing domestic violence in Turkey. The analysis takes into account contextual factors as well as partner and household characteristics. We find that women's participation in the labor market does not, on its' own, reduce women's risk of experiencing intimate partner violence, but an egalitarian share of economic resources between spouses in likely to protect women against domestic violence. This finding has two important implications: First, higher education enabling women to access formal wage employment allows women not only to gain economic independence, but also to freely choose their partner. Second, unstable economic conditions that harm earning opportunities for men are an important risk factor for couples to experience conflits that can result in domestic violence against women. Against the background of the recent economic crisis that comes hand in hand with a backlash of gender and family norms in Turkey, our results highlight the need of policy action in this field.
    Keywords: economics,Violence against women,gender
    Date: 2017–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-01660703&r=ara
  2. By: Olfa Frini (ISCAE - Institut Supérieur de Comptabilité et d'Administration des Entreprises - Université de la Manouba [Tunisie]); Christophe Muller (GREQAM - Groupement de Recherche en Économie Quantitative d'Aix-Marseille - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - ECM - Ecole Centrale de Marseille)
    Abstract: Fertility analysis in Tunisia is revisited by focusing on regulation instruments instead of the number of births or the number of children alive. In Muslim societies, in which marriage is the exclusive acknowledged childbearing context, a woman may be seen as starting her fertility regulation period by postponing her age at marriage. Once married, she can adjust the delay before her first birth control. Then, she can decide whether or not to use a contraceptive, and finally she can select a specific contraception method. These four decisions, approximately arranged sequentially, may somewhat interact with the sequential stages of the woman’s lifecycle and involve distinct motivations: (1) enrolment in higher education; (2) participation in the labor market; (3) a given fertility objective; and (4) dealing with middle age and old age health problems. Using data from the 2001 Tunisian PAP-FAM survey data, we estimate econometric models that provide an approximate description of fertility regulation as an outcome of the above sequential decisions. Accordingly, the significant effects of our explanatory variables gradually arise and vanish across the models as the women proceeds in her fertility regulation process. Our findings suggest that family network and sociocultural environment greatly shape the household preference for children. Although strict causality inference is beyond the possibilities of a single cross-section, the elicited correlations point to suggestive explanations that call for additional collection efforts to better capture lifecycle decisions of family members and the interactions of the extended family across this lifecycle.
    Keywords: contraception method,contraceptive use,marriage duration at first birth control,age at marriage,fertility regulation,Tunisia
    Date: 2017–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01624778&r=ara
  3. By: Docquier, Frédéric (Université catholique de Louvain); Tansel, Aysit (Middle East Technical University); Turati, Riccardo (IRES, Université catholique de Louvain)
    Abstract: This paper empirically investigates whether emigrants from MENA countries self-select on cultural traits such as religiosity and gender-egalitarian attitudes. To do so, we use Gallup World Poll data on individual opinions and beliefs, migration aspirations, short-run migration plans, and preferred destination choices. We find that individuals who intend to emigrate to OECD, high-income countries exhibit significantly lower levels of religiosity than the rest of the population. They also share more gender-egalitarian views, although the effect only holds among the young (aged 15 to 30), among single women, and in countries with a Sunni minority. For countries mostly affected by Arab Spring, since 2011 the degree of cultural selection has decreased. Nevertheless, the aggregate effects of cultural selection should not be overestimated. Overall, self-selection along cultural traits has limited (albeit non negligible) effects on the average characteristics of the population left behind, and on the cultural distance between natives and immigrants in the OECD countries.
    Keywords: international migration, self-selection, cultural traits, gender-egalitarian attitudes, religiosity, MENA region
    JEL: F22 J61 Z10
    Date: 2017–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11173&r=ara
  4. By: Mehmet Balcilar (Department of Economics, Eastern Mediterranean University); Jeffrey B. Nugent (University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, US)
    Abstract: The current literature on forced migration offers only limited knowledge of how each of the different consequences of war, such as damage to property and casualties to family members, and the services provided to the refugees in the host country, affect the difficult choices that refugees subsequently must make as to when and where to migrate once again. This paper contributes to the literature on forced migration by studying the effects of armed violence in the country that has given rise to the largest number of refugees in the world in the last decade, namely Syria, on those various migration-related decisions. The study is based on all three waves (2013, 2014 and 2015) of a survey conducted of Syrian refugees in Turkey, the country with the largest number of Syrian refugees. The study first examines the various impacts of war (property damage, casualties, sleeping disorders) on the refugees by gender, age, education, income and other characteristics. More importantly, it then investigates the consequences of these different impacts of war as well as the duration of the refugee’s stay in Turkey, the quality of services provided to these refugees and the individual characteristics of the refugees on various alternative choices about the timing and destination of future migration by refugees using a logit model. The results show that (1) the longer and greater the level of violence in the country of origin, and the longer the time spent outside of Syria, the lower the likelihood of the choice to return to the country of origin; (2). the longer the time the refugee has spent in Turkey, the higher is the probability of permanent settlement in another European country; and (3) the more and higher quality of services provided to the refugees, the more likely they are to remain in Turkey While females are more likely to want to return to Syria, men and especially those with greater education, higher income and personal networks are more likely to want to relocate somewhere in Europe or elsewhere.
    Keywords: refugees, forced migration, labor market, employment, immigration, logit model, civil war, Syria, Turkey.
    JEL: F22 J10 J15 R23 C25 N45
    Date: 2018
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emu:wpaper:15-36.pdf&r=ara
  5. By: Imène Berguiga; Philippe Adair (ERUDITE - Equipe de Recherche sur l’Utilisation des Données Individuelles en lien avec la Théorie Economique - UPEC UP12 - Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne - Paris 12 - UPEM - Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée); Nadia Zrelli; Ali Abdallah
    Abstract: Islamic banks face specific risks related to Sharia-compliant contracts. We provide an exhaustive literature review addressing the methodological issues of the measurement of performance and document the main stylised facts regarding the performance of Islamic banks (IBs) in the MENA region. We investigate 53 IBs in 11 MENA countries over 2007-2014, first using cross-sectional analysis as of year 2013. A panel data model with instrumental variables estimates the impact of risks upon the returns on assets and equity of Islamic banks. Four salient results emerge: Sharia compliance exerts an ambiguous effect upon performance; Islamic specificity is a minor attribute according to the insignificant share of profit and loss sharing (PLS) contracts in total assets; there is no relationship between Sharia compliance and specific risk;. loan loss provisions do not restrict to specific risks (PLS), hedging all risks
    Keywords: performance,risks ,cross-section analysis,Islamic banks,MENA region,panel data econometrics
    Date: 2017–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01667412&r=ara
  6. By: Kristin Fabbe (Harvard Business School); Chad Hazlett (UCLA); Tolga Sinmazdemir (Bogazici University)
    Abstract: How does violence during conflict affect the political attitudes of civilians who leave the conflict zone? Using a survey of 1,384 Syrian refugees in Turkey, we employ a natural experiment owing to the inaccuracy of barrel bombs to examine the effect of having one’s home destroyed on political and community loyalties. We find that refugees who lose a home to barrel bombing, while more likely to feel threatened by the Assad regime, are less supportive of the opposition, and instead more likely to say no armed group in the conflict represents them – opposite to what is expected when civilians are captive in the conflict zone and must choose sides for their protection. Respondents also show heightened volunteership towards fellow refugees. Altogether, this suggests that when civilians flee the conflict zone, they withdraw support from all armed groups rather than choosing sides, instead of showing solidarity with their civilian community.
    Keywords: Syria; Turkey
    JEL: J15 F22
    Date: 2017–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:esocpu:7&r=ara
  7. By: Foued Cheriet (UMR MOISA - Marchés, Organisations, Institutions et Stratégies d'Acteurs - CIRAD - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - Montpellier SupAgro - Centre international d'études supérieures en sciences agronomiques - INRA Montpellier - Institut national de la recherche agronomique [Montpellier] - CIHEAM - Centre International des Hautes Études Agronomiques Méditerranéennes - Montpellier SupAgro - Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier, Montpellier SupAgro - Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier)
    Abstract: This paper aims to analyze the diversity and breadth of managerial fraud practices through the involved agents perceptions’. For this, we exploited the results of two surveys of 28 private enterprises and public officials in nine different regions in Algeria. Our results showed widespread practices of corruption and commercial or tax fraud, with an institutionalization of practices, and the existence of rational process of innovation in the fraud. These fraud practices appear to be an efficient response of businesses to adapt organization to a complex administrative context, in an unstable economic environment and an abundance of public financial funds.
    Abstract: L’objet de cet article est d’analyser la diversité et l’ampleur des pratiques de fraude managériale à travers les perceptions des acteurs impliqués. Pour cela, nous avons exploité les résultats de deux enquêtes menées auprès de 28 entrepreneurs privés et de 9 fonctionnaires publics dans différentes régions en Algérie. Nos résultats ont montré entre autres, une généralisation des pratiques de corruption et de fraude commerciale et fiscale, accompagnée d’une institutionnalisation des pratiques, et de l’existence de processus rationnel d’innovation dans la fraude. Ces pratiques de fraude apparaissent comme une réponse d’adaptation des entreprises à un contexte administratif complexe, à un environnement économique instable et à une abondance des disponibilités financières publiques.
    Keywords: fraud,enterprises firms businesses,entreprise,institution,fraude,corruption,Algérie
    Date: 2017–10–13
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01616618&r=ara
  8. By: Lisa Chauvet (IRD, UMR DIAL, PSL, Université Paris-Dauphine); Flore Gubert (IRD, UMR DIAL, PSL, Université Paris-Dauphine); Thibaut Jaulin (Sciences Po Paris); Sandrine Mesplé-Somps (IRD, UMR DIAL, PSL, Université Paris-Dauphine); Etienne Smith (CERI, Sciences Po Paris)
    Abstract: Cet article propose une analyse des déterminants de la participation aux élections à distance des Maliens, Sénégalais et Tunisiens, et de l’importance de leur vote dans les résultats électoraux nationaux. Pour cela, les auteurs mobilisent des enquêtes originales dont la plupart ont été menées à la sortie des urnes en France lors des dernières élections tunisiennes (législatives), maliennes et sénégalaises (présidentielles). L’analyse met tout d’abord en exergue la moindre mobilisation électorale de ces trois diasporas au regard de celle observée dans les territoires nationaux. Elle montre ensuite que les élections à distance mobilisent avant tout des migrants dont la situation dans le pays de résidence est stable et qui conservent des liens forts avec leur pays d’origine. Les résultats montrent également que les individus ayant la double-nationalité tendent à cumuler leur implication politique dans le pays d’accueil et dans leur pays d’origine : la participation aux élections du pays d’origine et de résidence n’est donc pas un jeu à somme nulle, bien au contraire. Enfin, les auteurs examinent la couleur du vote des migrants. Bien que leurs préférences électorales soient parfois différentes de celles des résidents, la faiblesse de leurs effectifs ne leur permet pas d’être des acteurs-pivots des alternances politiques nationales. Il n’en demeure pas moins qu’ils sont généralement courtisés par l’ensemble des partis politiques, et que leur rôle symbolique dans les campagnes électorales est important.
    Keywords: Migration, élection, transnationalisme, Afrique
    JEL: F22 H41 H75 O55
    Date: 2017–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dia:wpaper:dt201713&r=ara

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