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on MENA - Middle East and North Africa |
| By: | Siderius, Christian; Conway, Declan; Yassine, Mohamed; Murken, Lisa; Lostis, Pierre-Louis; Dalin, Carole |
| Abstract: | We quantify the heavily oil-dominated WEF nexus in three Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries (Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia) across spatial scales and over time, using available empirical data at the national level, and explore the exposure to nexus stresses (groundwater depletion) in other countries through virtual water trade. At the domestic scale, WEF trade-offs are fairly limited; while all sectors require considerable amounts of energy, the requirements for water and food production are modest compared to other uses. At the international scale, revenues from oil exports in the GCC allow the region to compensate for low food production and scarce water availability. This dependency is dynamic over time, increasing when oil prices are low and food prices are high. We show how reducing domestic trade-offs can lead to higher exposure internationally, with rice imports originating in regions where groundwater is being depleted. However, Saudi Arabia’s increased wheat imports, after reversing its food self-sufficiency policy, have had limited effects on groundwater depletion elsewhere. Climate change mitigation links the WEF nexus to the global scale. While there is great uncertainty about future international climate policy, our analysis illustrates how implementation of measures to account for the social costs of carbon would reduce the oil and gas revenues available to import food and desalinate water in the GCC. |
| Keywords: | WEF nexus; social cost of carbon; security; food trade; embedded groundwater depletion; ES/R009708/1 |
| JEL: | N0 |
| Date: | 2020–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:104091&r=all |
| By: | Costa-Font, Joan (London School of Economics); Gyori, Mario (London School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | The worldwide obesity epidemic has impacted women more heavily than men. These gender-based differences are particularly pronounced in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region where gender obesity gaps on average exceed 10 percentage points. This paper examines one of the explanations, namely the role of female empowerment on gender gaps in obesity. We study the effect of several measures of female empowerment including female labour market participation on gender obesity gaps over a time span of 41 years (1975-2016) in a sample of 190 countries. We document that after controlling for a number of relevant controls, gender obesity gaps are only associated to measures of female empowerment in the MENA region but that this is not true worldwide. We then use an instrumental variable approach in order to illustrate that the causality runs indeed from empowerment, proxy it by both labour market and political participation to gender obesity gaps and not vice versa. Our results reveal that a one percentage point increase in female labor market participation (female MPs in national parliament) predicts a 0.2 (0.09) percentage point decrease in gender gaps in obesity in the MENA region. |
| Keywords: | female overweight, obesity, female empowerment, female labour market participation, Middle East and North Africa Region, female political participation |
| JEL: | I18 J16 |
| Date: | 2020–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13687&r=all |
| By: | Nicolò Bird (IPC-IG) |
| Abstract: | Understanding the factors that limit transitions to decent work remains a central concern for policymakers, as changes in the world of work considerably affect the availability and distribution of quality jobs. Many of these global issues are mirrored in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). This policy brief focuses on the role of social protection to promote transitions to work for young people in MENA, especially among vulnerable groups. |
| Keywords: | labour market policies; youth transition to work; MENA; social protection; poverty reduction |
| Date: | 2020–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipc:pbrief:69&r=all |
| By: | Nicolò Bird (IPC-IG) |
| Abstract: | Understanding the factors that limit transitions to decent work remains a central concern for policymakers, as changes in the world of work considerably affect the availability and distribution of quality jobs. Many of these global issues are mirrored in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). This report by the IPC-IG and UNICEF MENARO focuses on the role of social protection to promote transitions to work for young people in MENA, especially among vulnerable groups. |
| Keywords: | labour market policies; youth transition to work; MENA; social protection; poverty reduction |
| Date: | 2020–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipc:pbrief:71&r=all |
| By: | Patrick Honohan (Peterson Institute for International Economics); Adnan Mazarei (Peterson Institute for International Economics) |
| Abstract: | Lebanon has spent the last 20 years juggling an excessive level of debt and current account deficits. Apparent financial wizardry by the central bank (Banque du Liban) helped keep the exchange rate fixed, inflation low, and debt service flowing until 2020. But these efforts merely postponed the inevitable, at a high cost. Repeated shocks to the Lebanese economy and governance weaknesses pushed the financial contraption over the cliff before the COVID-19 outbreak. The explosion that ripped through the Port of Beirut in early August added to the disarray. The Lebanese pound has crashed, the government has defaulted on some of its debt, and restrictions have been placed on deposit withdrawals and access to foreign exchange. Lebanon faces an uncertain future of uneven suffering. It will need foreign assistance, but such assistance will not extend to covering the losses of the banking system. How the losses are distributed will set the scene for Lebanon’s future development. Policymakers should aim for fairness, predictability, and stability without overindebtedness. |
| Date: | 2020–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iie:pbrief:pb20-12&r=all |
| By: | Jeyhun Mikayilov; Abdulelah Darandary; Ryan Alyamani; Fakhri Hasanov; Hatem Al Atawi (King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center) |
| Abstract: | Aggregate residential electricity consumption in Saudi Arabia has increased rapidly over the past several decades, largely due to population increases and fast economic growth (SAMA 2019). The growth in electricity consumption has been driven, among other factors, by government-administered prices fixed in nominal terms for years with minor adjustments. |
| Keywords: | Energy consumption, Energy demand, Energy modeling, Energy policy, Residential electricity |
| Date: | 2020–09–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:prc:dpaper:ks--2020-dp18&r=all |
| By: | Stefano Caria; Grant Gordon; Simon Quinn; Soha Shami; Alexander Teytelboym; Maximilian Kasy |
| Abstract: | We introduce a novel methodology for adaptive targeted experiments. Our Tempered Thompson Algorithm balances the goals of maximizing the precision of treatment effect estimates and maximizing the welfare of experimental participants. A hierarchical Bayesian model allows us to adaptively target treatments at different groups. We implement our methodology in a field experiment. We examine the impact of three interventions designed to improve formal employment outcomes of Syrian refugees and local jobseekers in Jordan: one treatment to address liquidity constraints, one to address information frictions, and one to address challenges of self-control. Six weeks after being offered treatment, none of the interventions has a significant or meaningful impact on the probability that individuals are in wage employment; we estimate that our targeting algorithm had a positive but small effect on aggregate employment (approximately 1 percentage point). However, we find large employment effects of all treatments for refugees at the two-month follow-up, and suggestive evidence of four-month impacts for the cash grant; liquidity appears to be a key barrier to employment for refugees. |
| Keywords: | adaptive experiments, refugees, job search |
| JEL: | C93 J6 O15 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8535&r=all |
| By: | Samer Hamati (IPC-IG) |
| Abstract: | "Poverty is considered a key driver of civil conflict. However, this link has not yet been sufficiently investigated in the case of Syria, perhaps due to a lack of pre-conflict data. This article endeavours to fill this gap by computing poverty figures and uncovering some of Syria's poverty profile based on the household income and expenditure survey that took place in 2009, two years before the start of the conflict. We found that there were more extremely poor Syrian households but fewer overall poor households in 2009 than in 2007, with a greater incidence of poverty in rural areas than in urban areas. The poorest rural areas in 2009 were in the governorates of Hama, Deir Azzor and Daraa, while the poorest urban area was in Hassakeh. The findings of this article might provide key inputs for future investigations linking poverty to the incidence and intensity of the current conflict". (…) |
| Keywords: | Computing, pre-conflict, poverty, data, Syria |
| Date: | 2019–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipc:wpaper:185&r=all |
| By: | Nicolò Bird (IPC-IG); Wesley Silva (IPC-IG) |
| Abstract: | Entender os fatores que limitam as transições para trabalhos decentes ainda é uma das principais preocupações para elaboradores de políticas, na medida em que mudanças no mundo do trabalho afetam, consideravelmente, a disponibilidade e a distribuição de trabalhos de qualidade. Muitas dessas questões globais são espelhadas no Oriente Médio e Norte da à frica (MENA). Este One Pager apresenta um relatório elaborado pelo IPC-IG e UNICEF MENARO, que analisa o papel da proteção social na promoção da transição ao trabalho para jovens na região MENA, especialmente aqueles em grupos vulneráveis. |
| Keywords: | políticas do mercado de trabalho; transição dos jovens ao trabalho; MENA; proteção social |
| Date: | 2020–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipc:csport:42&r=all |
| By: | Nicolò Bird (IPC-IG) |
| Abstract: | Entender os fatores que limitam as transições para trabalhos decentes ainda é uma das principais preocupações para elaboradores de políticas, na medida em que mudanças no mundo do trabalho afetam, consideravelmente, a disponibilidade e a distribuição de trabalhos de qualidade. Muitas dessas questões globais são espelhadas no Oriente Médio e Norte da à frica (MENA). Este Policy Brief apresenta um relatório elaborado pelo IPC-IG e UNICEF MENARO, que analisa o papel da proteção social na promoção da transição ao trabalho para jovens na região MENA, especialmente aqueles em grupos vulneráveis. |
| Keywords: | políticas do mercado de trabalho; transição dos jovens ao trabalho; MENA; proteção social |
| Date: | 2020–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipc:pbport:69&r=all |
| By: | Nicolò Bird (IPC-IG) |
| Abstract: | Entender os fatores que limitam as transições para trabalhos decentes ainda é uma das principais preocupações para elaboradores de políticas, na medida em que mudanças no mundo do trabalho afetam, consideravelmente, a disponibilidade e a distribuição de trabalhos de qualidade. Muitas dessas questões globais são espelhadas no Oriente Médio e Norte da à frica (MENA). Este One Pager apresenta um relatório elaborado pelo IPC-IG e UNICEF MENARO, que analisa o papel da proteção social na promoção da transição ao trabalho para jovens na região MENA, especialmente aqueles em grupos vulneráveis. |
| Keywords: | políticas do mercado de trabalho; transição dos jovens ao trabalho; MENA; proteção social |
| Date: | 2020–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipc:pbport:71&r=all |