The developing countries of the Southern Mediterranean (SOM) have missed the extraordinary surge of private international investment in recent years. Although the SOM region was an important destination for foreign direct investments, its share of world FDI has declined. In 1994, private capital...

The lagging economic performance of the Southern Mediterranean (SOM) region over the past decade is often attributed to the region’s relative lack of openness to international trade. The closer analysis of the region’s trade patterns undertaken in this study suggest a more complex picture....