Regional events continue to affect the short-term economic prospects in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), while major developments in the global economy over the past six months have put the region on a two-track growth path for 2012. These developments include a significant rise in crude...

The report estimates Middle East and North Africa's (MENA's) infrastructure investment and maintenance needs through 2020 at 106 billion dollars per year or 6.9 percent of the annual regional gross domestic product (GDP). Developing oil exporting countries (OEC) will need to commit almost 11...

This paper examines private sector job creation in Tunisia over the period 1996-2010 using a unique database containing information on all registered private enterprises, including self-employment. In spite of stable growth of gross domestic product, overall net job creation was disappointing...

The economic successes of China and India are viewed with admiration but also with concern because of the effects that the growth of these Asian economies may have on the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region. The evidence in 'China's and India's Challenge to Latin America' indicates that...

Four years ago, President Barack Obama set the goal of doubling exports within five years and creating 2 million new export-related jobs. The strategy put in place, however, has failed to achieve superior growth. Freund argues that the emphasis on small and medium enterprises in the National...

While other emerging regions were thriving, MENA's aggregate export performance over the past two decades has been consistently weak. Using detailed firm-level export data from Customs administrations, this report explains why. One central finding is that the size distribution of MENA's...

This insightful volume is a careful selection of the major contributions to the controversy as to whether regional trade agreements harm the multilateral system of trade negotiation. It focuses on key topics such as: the theory of preferential trade agreements; regionalism and multilateralism;...