Recently, there has been an upsurge of empirical studies that test the convergence prediction of the neoclassical growth theory at the country, regional, state or provincial levels. These studies examine whether poorer economies will eventually catch up with richer ones in terms of both income...

This paper examines the causes and policy implications of the 1997-98 financial crises in East Asia from an Islamic perspective. The paper suggests that the crises may be better understood as consequences of internal contradictions in the interest-based financial system as regards risk and...

Dans cette contribution, l'auteur cherche, a travers l'etude de l'evolution de l'industrie textile, a comprendre les raisons de l'accroissement rapide des IDE (Investissements Directs Etrangers) en Tunisie depuis le debut des annees 70 et leur declin a partir du milieu des annees 80. Dans cette...

Interest in economic policy and performance in Iran under the Islamic Republic remains vigorous two decades after the Revolution. Since 1979, Iran has undergone important socio-economic and institutional changes and has been affected by significant economic and political upheavals. This paper...

Starting from the observation that intra-regional trade flows in the Mashreq are abnormally low, the paper reviews the existing trade agreements and the alternative options that the countries of the region could embrace in order to deepen their trade relations. This discussion is set against the...

Recent academic and policy discussions have emphasized the poor growth performance of MENA's economies since the mid 1980s. It has been argued that the expanding global economy presents MENA with the opportunity to augment its limited pool of national savings with private capital inflows....

The paper aims at putting forward recommendations with respect of the new association agreement between the European Union (EU) and the Palestinian Territories which will be negotiated soon. In the process, the earlier association agreement is reviewed within the context of the EU's...

The paper investigates the issue in the case of Tunisia for which a 1996 World Bank published report recommended shrinking the size of its government on the basis of conclusions from cross-country growth studies. Analysis of the causal impact of government size on growth in this country proves...

This paper discusses the role of labor market flexibility in economic adjustment during the 1970s and the 1980s decades in developing countries in Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. In the first part of the paper it is argued that the success of the Asian countries to adjust to...

This paper is concerned with the estimation of stochastic frontier production functions with unbalanced panel data when unobservable firm efficiency levels are related to explanatory variables. We perform the "weighted-means" instrumental variables panel data model proposed by R. Gardner (1998)...