News

By Simon Neaime New legislation by the Lebanese government, which provides a big boost to the salaries of public sector employees, puts considerable pressure on the country’s public finances...more

By Hanan Morsy Although the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean region had been enjoying a decade of relatively high growth just prior to the Arab Spring, the fruits of prosperity remained...more

By Zafiris Tzannatos Two interconnected challenges for the Arab countries are how to increase the low participation of women in the labour market and how to reduce a longstanding reliance on the public sector...more

By Resul Cesur ,  Erdal Tekin and  Aydogan Ulker The widespread replacement of coal with natural gas as Turkey’s key energy source over the past 25 years has led to much improved air quality...more

By Rania Al-Mashat There is a clear need for MENA countries to create policy frameworks that will improve the credibility and effectiveness of economic policy-making...more

By Jamal Ibrahim Haidar and Hedi Larbi The World Bank’s Doing Business rankings provide a useful benchmark, but making them a key policy goal is inappropriate for Arab countries where the reform agenda needs to be far more wide-ranging. more...

By Caroline Krafft and Halimat Alawode Attainment of higher education is strikingly unequal in Egypt and Tunisia, and a little less so in Jordan. This column reports research showing that more...

By Amyra Asamoah, Emine Hanedar and Baoping Shang Despite a growing global consensus about the need for reform of costly and environmentally damaging energy price subsidies, many countries remain resistant. more...

By Shanta Devarajan Comparing the experiences of MENA and East Asia in recent decades reveals the delicate nature of the latter’s remarkable structural transformation: more...