Despite recent gains, the development challenges of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region remain formidable. Job creation remains the most important one given the magnitude of its demographic transition and the seventy million people that are expected to seek employment opportunities in...

This paper estimates an augmented gravity model incorporating different aspects of trade facilitation in developed and developing countries. Trade facilitation is defined as measures that aim at making international trade easier by eliminating administrative delays, simplifying commercial...

In this paper the author examines the forces that lead institutions to persist and change. He argues that the equilibrium institutions of society are the outcome of a political process which may be highly persistent and path dependent. This explains why patterns of underdevelopment are so...

The rationale for GCC countries increasingly contracting of BITs is controversial. This paper empirically examines the short term and long term impact BITs contracting on FDI and distinguishes it by the income level of the contracting partner country. The paper uses panel data for the period...

This paper examines the impact of a rise in the Value Added Tax (VAT) on poverty and inequality in Lebanon. To this end, the paper develops an empirical model based on consumer demand theory and uses only household survey data on expenditures and spatial price indexes. The simulation results —...

Using data for a sample of developing countries, we analyze the effects of external flows, namely migrants' remittances and FDI flows, on real output growth, price inflation, and components of aggregate demand. The historical evidence indicates unstable patterns of FDI inflows to a sample of...

This paper revisits Mehanna’s (2004) assessment of the viability of the future project of the Gulf Monetary Union (a goal set for 2010) while examining member countries over three time periods: (1) 1990-1999; (2) 2000-2006; and (3) average period 1990-2006. It follows the theory of Optimum Currency...

This paper estimates the impact of schooling on the timing of marriage and early fertility using the 2003 Turkish Demographic and Health Survey and duration analysis methodology. The source of exogenous variation in schooling is the extension of compulsory schooling in Turkey in 1997. The...

Our paper proposes to establish the political economy determinants of cross-industry distribution of protection in Tunisia in the post-independence period. Instead of the lobbying hypothesis, we assume that the government was seeking legitimacy and to that end, chose import substitution as...

In the last few decades, the informal sector has played a major role in many of the LDC’s labor markets. Yet, little is known about the dynamics of this sector. This paper addresses an important question, namely whether informal employment is a stepping stone, as first argued by economists...