Working Papers

A Spatial Analysis of Regional Economic Growth in MENA Countries

No.

1426

Publisher

ERF

Date

November, 2020

Topic

C3. Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models

O5. Economywide Country Studies

O4. Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity

In this paper various spatial econometric models are performed to check the existence of spatial growth spillovers across a sample study including 73 countries from MENA, Asia, and Europe over the period 1996-2014. The results indicate the occurrence of positive spatial correlation in terms of economic growth within and between the different regions included in the study. However, the findings are somewhat disappointing for the MENA region since we did not find evidence of the presence of strong connections of MENA economies with the other regions namely Asia and Europe.