This paper presents a simultaneous assessment of the relationship between economic performance and three groups of economic reforms: domestic finance, trade, and the capital account. Among these, domestic financial reforms, and trade reforms, are robustly associated with economic growth, but...

The qualitative and granular nature of most structural indicators and the variety in data sources poses difficulties for consistent cross-country assessments and empirical analysis. We overcome these issues by using a machine learning approach (the partial least squares method) to combine a...

Intro -- Contents -- I. INTRODUCTION -- II. MAGNITUDE, FINANCING, AND DISTRIBUTION OF CONSUMER SUBSIDIES -- III. COUNTRY CASE STUDIES -- IV. CONCLUDING REMARKS -- APPENDIX I. IDENTIFYING MAGNITUDE AND FINANCING OF FUEL SUBSIDIES -- APPENDIX II. EVALUATING SIZE AND DISTRIBUTION OF REAL INCOME...

Intro -- Contents -- I. INTRODUCTION -- II. DATA AND METHODOLOGY -- III. MODELING AND INTERPRETING THE EQUILIBRIUM REAL EXCHANGE RATE -- IV. ASSESSING THE EQUILIBRIUM REAL EXCHANGE RATE -- V. CONCLUSIONS -- Appendix: Methodological Problems with Smoothing -- REFERENCES.

Intro -- Contents -- I. INTRODUCTION -- II. MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS OF THE JORDANIAN CAPITAL MARKET -- III. LINKAGES OF THE ASE TO MAJOR ARAB, EMERGING, AND DEVELOPED STOCK MARKETS -- IV. STRENGTHS, VULNERABILITIES, AND MACROECONOMIC LINKAGES OF THE ASE -- V. CONCLUSIONS -- REFERENCES.

Over the past two years, ongoing political transitions in many Arab countries have led to social unrest and an economic downturn. This paper examines comparable historical episodes of political instability to derive implications for the near- and medium-term economic outlook in the Arab...