Working Papers
Power Sector Reforms and Technological Change: Evidence from Arab League Members
No.
1423
Publisher
ERF
Date
November, 2020
Topic
L5. Regulation and Industrial Policy
O3. Technological Change, Research and Development, Intellectual Property Rights
F1. Trade
O1. Economic Development
Power sector reforms have been widely adopted in the turn of the 21st Century, including in the Middle East and North Africa. Have the promises that accompany such reforms led to technological change in the region? Adopting an instrumental variable approach and using an index of power sector reforms and aggregate macroeconomic data for 18 Arab League member states between 1982 and 2013, we provide robust evidence that there is a positive causal relationship between power sector reforms and technological change, proxied by high-tech exports, in Arab countries. While the literature has evidenced a relationship between such reforms and economic growth, our results suggest that technological change is a transmission channel of this relationship.
Authors
Thibault Lemaire
PhD Candidate in Economics, Université Paris 1...
Authors
Dina Ragab
Assistant Lecturer, Faculty of Economics and Political...