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...

This paper overviews and analyzes Egypt's service sector, its commitments under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the country's main service liberalization policies. The paper compares Egypt's GATS commitments to those of other developing countries. It argues that the pattern...

This paper studies the impact of the financial and economic liberalization in Tunisia since the mid-1980s on the financial structure and behavior of the corporate sector. We analyze the effect of financing constraints, due to market imperfections as well as credit allocation policies, on the...

Do countries with lower policy-induced barriers to international trade grow faster, once other relevant country characteristics are controlled for? There exists a large empirical literature providing an affirmative answer to this question. We argue that methodological problems with the empirical...

The role of education, technological diffusion and trade is investigated for 11 MENA countries for 1980-1992, using panel data techniques. Technological diffusion is measured by R&D activities in each country?s major trading partners and that country?s import propensity from each partner....