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.
Power Sector Reforms and Technological Change: Evidence from Arab League Members

Authors

Thibault Lemaire

PhD Candidate in Economics, Université Paris 1...

Power Sector Reforms and Technological Change: Evidence from Arab League Members

Authors

Dina Ragab

Assistant Lecturer, Faculty of Economics and Political...