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on MENA - Middle East and North Africa |
| By: | Jamal Bouoiyour (CATT, IRMAPE); Refk Selmi (CATT, IRMAPE) |
| Abstract: | The international community was caught by surprise on 5 June 2017 when Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt severed diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing it of destabilizing the region. More than one year after this diplomatic rift, several questions remain unaddressed. This study focuses on the regional business costs of the year-long blockade on Qatar. We split the sample to compare the stock market performances of Qatar and its Middle Eastern neighbors before and after the Saudi-led Qatar boycott. We focus our attention on the conditional volatility process of stock market returns and risks related to financial interconnectedness. We show that the Gulf crisis had the most adverse impact on Qatar together with Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Although not to the same degree as these three countries, Bahrain and Egypt were also harmfully affected. But shocks to the volatility process tend to have short-lasting effects. Moreover, the total volatility spillovers to and from others increase but moderately after the blockade. Overall, the quartet lobbying efforts did not achieve the intended result. Our findings underscore Qatar's economic vulnerability but also the successful resilience strategy of this tiny state. The coordinated diplomatic efforts of Qatar have been able to fight the economic and political embargo. |
| Date: | 2019–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1903.08076&r=all |
| By: | Suzuki, Ken (Asian Development Bank Institute); Paul, Saumik (Asian Development Bank Institute); Maru, Takeshi (Asian Development Bank Institute); Kusadokoro, Motoi (Asian Development Bank Institute) |
| Abstract: | We examine the effects of the recent influx of Syrian refugees on the Turkish labor market. Exploiting this natural experiment, we estimated the causal impacts of involuntary migration on labor market outcomes. We selected the five refugee-hosting regions with the highest number of refugees as treatment regions and four comparable regions with a low refugee-to-population ratio as control regions. Using a difference-in-differences estimation, we found that informal Turkish workers in the refugee-hosting regions were about 4% more likely to leave their job than workers in regions that did not widely host refugees. Such negative impacts on labor market outcomes became larger in 2014–2015 compared with 2012–2013. Furthermore, while females and older workers withdrew themselves from the labor market, males and younger workers become unemployed after the refugee influx. |
| Keywords: | refugee; migration; Syria; Turkey; difference-in-differences estimation |
| JEL: | F22 J00 |
| Date: | 2019–03–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:adbiwp:0935&r=all |
| By: | Cesur, Resul (University of Connecticut); Gunes, Pinar Mine (University of Alberta); Tekin, Erdal (American University); Ulker, Aydogan (Deakin University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effect of a nationwide healthcare reform implemented in Turkey on women's fertility decisions. The Family Medicine Program (FMP), introduced in 2005, provided a wide-range of primary healthcare services, free of charge, and achieved universal access by matching each citizen to a specific family physician, who operates at neighborhood clinics, called Family Health Centers, on a walk-in basis. Although reducing fertility was not specified among the goals of the reform, reproductive-health and family-planning services have been covered under the FMP. To establish causality, we exploit the staggered rollout of the FMP implementation across Turkish provinces over time using a difference-in-differences estimation strategy. Our estimates indicate that the FMP significantly reduced childbearing among both teenagers and women ages 20-29. These results can be explained by increased access to and reduced cost of reproductive-health and family-planning services. However, the patterns in which the program effect has evolved over time differs between the two groups of women in a way that provides additional insights about the mechanisms. For teenagers, the FMP had a direct effect on childbearing, reflected by an immediate and rapidly-increasing pattern, which is not surprising given the broad agreement about the negative consequences of teenage childbearing among government and public health officials, including those in Turkey. For women ages 20-29, however, the program had a gradual and slowly-increasing effect, which is consistent with an empowerment channel. This should be interpreted as an unintended consequence of the program because, if anything, Turkey is a country where the government's position is to encourage fertility behavior and discourage birth control practices among women at prime childbearing ages. |
| Keywords: | fertility, childbearing, healthcare, Turkey, health, insurance |
| JEL: | I13 J13 |
| Date: | 2019–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12186&r=all |
| By: | Aboojafari, Roohollah (Asian Development Bank Institute); Daliri, Alireza (Asian Development Bank Institute); Taghizadeh-Hesary, Farhad (Asian Development Bank Institute); Mokhtari, Mohammad (Asian Development Bank Institute); Ekhtiari, Mohsen (Asian Development Bank Institute) |
| Abstract: | Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in their growth stage reach the point where, on the one hand, personal resources do not meet their needs, and, on the other, they do not have enough collateral to attract external finance. Access to finance can be facilitated by obtaining loans from financial institutions backed by governmental credit guarantees. Therefore, the development of a sound credit guarantee scheme will be an important step in filling the financing gap of SMEs. We investigate the situation of the credit guarantee scheme for SMEs in Iran by using the available data and interviews with activists from this field with the grounded theory method. We show the weaknesses of the Iranian credit guarantee scheme, and based on the analysis, present solutions and policy recommendations in accordance with the social and economic environment of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The most important problem is the lack of a credit database for comprehensive assessment of SMEs, especially knowledge-based enterprises. The lack of a robust database makes it impossible to carry out a comprehensive evaluation because these models require a large amount of data. The lack of accurate models makes it difficult to rate credit status and thus to issue credit guarantees. In addition, the current level of the capital of the credit guarantee funds in Iran is not sufficient given the large number of SMEs in the country. |
| Keywords: | small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); knowledge-based enterprises; credit guarantee scheme (CGS); comprehensive credit evaluation |
| JEL: | C52 G32 H81 O10 |
| Date: | 2019–03–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:adbiwp:0930&r=all |
| By: | Moudine, Chourouk; El Khattab, Younes; Bettah, Mounia |
| Abstract: | Over the last decades, the world economy has undergone profound changes, producing a heterogeneous trajectory in terms of growth rate and development dynamics. Economic studies that have looked into this issue have revealed that institutional quality has an undeniable role in economic development, to the extent that a country's explicit and implicit standards of behavior condition its economic performance. Thus, the initiation of a rapid process of economic catch-up requires the establishment of an institutional framework that takes into account the specificities of a society and explicit and implicit norms of behavior that condition economic behavior. This study is part of the same analysis and attempts to highlight institutional quality’s important role in explaining economic performance. The analysis was based on the exploitation of a set of databases, in order to determine the institutional variables that explain the level of development. |
| Keywords: | Institutional Quality, Economic growth, Development level, Intangible Capital |
| JEL: | O47 |
| Date: | 2019–02–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:92670&r=all |
| By: | Imad El Hamma; Farid Echcharfi |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eru:erudwp:wp19-07&r=all |
| By: | Benzarour, Choukri; Mekhnache, Aissam |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to evaluate the appropriateness of the traditional and crafts sector to achieve economic and environmental performance in light of the socio-economic and moral model through its respect for the concept of corporate social responsibility. This study sheds light on the sector of handicrafts and crafts as one of the emerging alternatives to diversify the Algerian economy. It deals with the most important dimensions of the social responsibility of the institution under the socio-economic and moral model. |
| Keywords: | social responsibility of the institution , handicraft sector in Algeria, assess the suitability of craft activities in Algeria for economic and environmental performance. |
| JEL: | L6 M14 Q5 |
| Date: | 2019–03–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:92871&r=all |