IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/erg/wpaper/435.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Growth Fundamentals and Economic Growth in the MENA Region

Author

Listed:
  • Hadi Salehi-Esfahani

    (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

Abstract

This paper examines the strategies of Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries concerning growth-enhancing institutions and policies. Long-term economic growth depends crucially upon the quality and robustness of a country’s institutions. The fundamental institutions are typically perceived as rule of law, impartial courts, representative government, effective bureaucracy, and open markets with minimum necessary regulation. However, building these growth fundamentals takes a long time and a great deal of resources. As a result, for developing countries with weak institutions, a key growth strategy question is whether to focus on building their institutions and to wait for the long-term growth to emerge or to seek short- and medium-term substitutes for the fundamentals, which are not permanent solutions and may violate some principles of good governance, but bring about growth for a while and create opportunities for further development. It is argued that some MENA countries have been investing in the fundamentals with limited returns so far. Some others have found good substitutes and have grown faster. But, most have lacked conscious and effective growth strategies. This bodes poorly for the ability of the latter countries to cope with the waves of future economic shocks.

Suggested Citation

  • Hadi Salehi-Esfahani, 2008. "Growth Fundamentals and Economic Growth in the MENA Region," Working Papers 435, Economic Research Forum, revised 09 Jan 2008.
  • Handle: RePEc:erg:wpaper:435
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://erf.org.eg/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/435.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: http://bit.ly/2nzgv6A
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Barro, Robert J, 1996. "Democracy and Growth," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 1-27, March.
    2. Lawrence J. Lau & Yingyi Qian & Gerard Roland, 2000. "Reform without Losers: An Interpretation of China's Dual-Track Approach to Transition," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 108(1), pages 120-143, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. J. Clark & Robert Lawson & Alex Nowrasteh & Benjamin Powell & Ryan Murphy, 2015. "Does immigration impact institutions?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 163(3), pages 321-335, June.
    2. Blanco, Luisa & Grier, Robin, 2012. "Natural resource dependence and the accumulation of physical and human capital in Latin America," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 281-295.
    3. Jian-Guang Shen, 2002. "Democracy and growth: An alternative empirical approach," Development and Comp Systems 0212002, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Sang-Heui Lee & Jay Wyk, 2015. "National institutions and logistic performance: a path analysis," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 9(4), pages 733-747, December.
    5. Chowdhury, Shyamal K., 2004. "The effect of democracy and press freedom on corruption: an empirical test," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 85(1), pages 93-101, October.
    6. Aysit Tansel & Nil Demet Güngör, 2016. "Gender Effects of Education on Economic Development in Turkey," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Nadereh Chamlou & Massoud Karshenas (ed.), Women, Work and Welfare in the Middle East and North Africa The Role of Socio-demographics, Entrepreneurship and Public Policies, chapter 3, pages 57-86, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    7. Steven N. Durlauf & Andros Kourtellos & Chih Ming Tan, 2012. "Is God in the details? A reexamination of the role of religion in economic growth," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(7), pages 1059-1075, November.
    8. Myint Moe Chit, 2018. "Political openness and the growth of small and medium enterprises: empirical evidence from transition economies," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 55(2), pages 781-804, September.
    9. Tausch, Arno, 2018. "The return of religious Antisemitism? The evidence from World Values Survey data," MPRA Paper 90093, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Antonio Ciccone & Marek Jarociński, 2010. "Determinants of Economic Growth: Will Data Tell?," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(4), pages 222-246, October.
    11. Franklin Allen & Jun & Chenying Zhang & Mengxin Zhao, 2012. "China's Financial System: Opportunities and Challenges," NBER Chapters, in: Capitalizing China, pages 63-143, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Abeliansky, Ana & Krenz, Astrid, 2015. "Democracy and international trade: Differential effects from a panel quantile regression framework," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 243, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.
    13. Delgado, Michael S. & McCloud, Nadine & Kumbhakar, Subal C., 2014. "A generalized empirical model of corruption, foreign direct investment, and growth," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 298-316.
    14. Jieming Zhu, 2005. "A Transitional Institution for the Emerging Land Market in Urban China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 42(8), pages 1369-1390, July.
    15. Rahman, Tauhidur & Mittelhammer, Ron C. & Wandschneider, Philip R., 2011. "Measuring quality of life across countries: A multiple indicators and multiple causes approach," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 43-52, February.
    16. Amir-ud-Din, Rafi & Rashid, Abdul & Ahmad, Shabbir, 2008. "Democracy, Inequality and Economic Development: The Case of Pakistan," MPRA Paper 26935, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Torsten Persson & Guido Tabellini, 2009. "Democratic Capital: The Nexus of Political and Economic Change," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 1(2), pages 88-126, July.
    18. Niclas Berggren & Mikael Elinder, 2012. "Is tolerance good or bad for growth?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 150(1), pages 283-308, January.
    19. Yong Glasure & Aie-Rie Lee & James Norris, 1999. "Level of economic development and political democracy revisited," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 5(4), pages 466-477, November.
    20. Subhani, Muhammad Imtiaz & Osman, Ms. Amber & Lakhiya, Zubair, 2011. "The Structure and Performance of Economy of Pakistan (Comparative Study between Democratic and Non-Democratic Governments)," MPRA Paper 34732, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2011.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:erg:wpaper:435. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sherine Ghoneim (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/erfaceg.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.