This paper investigates the patterns of agricultural productivity growth in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries during the period 1970–2000. We use a nonparametric, output-based Malmquist index to examine whether our estimates confirm or invalidate the results of previous studies...

Poverty analysis conducted in Tunisia so far depends heavily upon the choice of poverty lines. The latter are usually constructed by considering a fraction of median incomes. This yields large differentials between urban and rural lines up to a factor 2 leading to the conclusion that the...

This paper investigates the roles of human capital and openness in the process of technology diffusion and productivity growth in the Mediterranean agricultural sector. We estimate a nonlinear productivity growth specification that nests the logistic and the confined exponential technology...

A widely held view in the economic literature is that productivity growth is an important pathway through which trade liberalization affects the poor. This paper explores the links between trade openness, agricultural productivity, growth and poverty reduction in a panel of Mediterranean...

This paper is an attempt to contribute to the research on poverty-alleviation potential of trade, by exploring the poverty effects of agricultural trade liberalization in Tunisia. Specifically, the study uses a small open economy computable general equilibrium (CGE) that includes technology...

This paper evaluates the contribution of inequality of opportunity to inequality in earnings in Egypt and analyzes its evolution across four age cohorts and over three periods of time. On average, inequality of opportunity is found to account for 30 percent of total earnings inequality. The...