Economic Growth Before and After Reform: The Case of Egypt, 1973-2002

This study analyzes the sources of growth in Egypt starting from the end of 1973 war until 2002. The study uses a new estimate for capital stock to estimate a skill-augmented aggregate production function for Egypt. Using growth accounting technique, the study decomposes growth into factor accumulation and productivity change. Results indicate that the relative importance of the sources of growth changes from one period to another. The eminent growth after the 1973 war was driven by high growth in capital accumulation and productivity. The poor performance in the 1980s could be attributed to the slowdown in capital growth as well as the dismal growth in productivity. This downward trend in capital growth continued even after the structural adjustment program in 1991 raising the contribution of labor in economic growth to a level close to the contribution of capital. Productivity, on the other hand, has shown signs for improvement starting from the second half of the 1990s.Economic Growth, Egyptian economy, Growth Accounting, Total Factor Productivity.

Measuring the Degree of Central Bank Independence in Egypt

The past few years have witnessed a trend of increased delegation of authority to central banks. Increasing central bank independence is a recommended strategy for governments to establish a credible commitment to price stability as the final objective of the monetary authority, even at the cost of other objectives that may be more appealing to the political authorities. Existing literature on measuring central bank independence focuses on developed countries where quantifying the independence of central banks is easier, since quantifying the legal charter is sufficient to reflect the degree of central bank independence. However, in developing countries this task is thorny as quantifying the legal charter is often insufficient, since laws are often incomplete, ambiguous, or simply not respected. Thus, quantifying other indicators that reflect actual practice is required to capture any divergence between legal and actual practices. This paper attempts to quantify the degree of independence in the central bank of Egypt (CBE), from both a legal and behavioural context, since its establishment in 1961 until 2004. The study uses four indices in line with the work of Jacome (2001), Cukierman, et al. (1992), and Cukierman and Webb (1995), where each index is designed in such a way to capture a somewhat different aspect of independence. This study captures the discrepancies between the degree of independence conferred to the CBE by law and actual practice. The empirical findings of this paper offers insights about the direction of efforts that should be made to enhance central bank independence which is the key to achieving price stability and the stability of the financial system in general.Central bank independence, Central Bank of Egypt, price stability, central bank credibility, indices of central bank independence, monetary policy

Inward FDI in Egypt and its policy context

Egypt, starting from the second half of the first decade of the 21st century, has begun to realize its potential as an important recipient of foreign direct investment (FDI) among developing economies. Having received only US$500 million of inward FDI (IFDI), amounting to 0.5$ 9.4 billion (approximately 5.7% of GDP), in 2008. While investment in oil and gas accounted for a large share of IFDI (over half in 2006-2009), the remainder is fairly well diversified. Developed economies account for three-quarters of Egypt's IFDI, but the share of emerging markets has risen recently. Largely because of the global financial crisis, inflows dropped in 2009, by 30%. IFDI is likely to be adversely affected in 2011 following the political turbulence associated with the January 25 Revolution. However, this democratic transformation carries the seeds of genuine political stability based on effective institutions and the rule of law, which would encourage long-term domestic and foreign investment

Is State Feminism the Key to Gender Equality?

“The male point of view forces itself upon the world as a way of apprehending it. Perspectives from the male standpoint enforces a woman\u27s definition, encircles her body, circumlocutes her speech, and describes her life” (Mackinnon, 1983, 636). How the world views women is sometimes out of their hands. Ogasawara (1999) explains that “there is a multiplicity of socially acceptable images of Japanese women today” (pg.87). Throughout this thesis, I will explore the several, but limited, images that Japanese society has rendered acceptable for women. I will also examine how Japanese State Feminism aims to give women the opportunity to have agency to change those images. In this thesis, I use the term State Feminism to refer to ‘Femocrats’, i.e. feminists who are policymakers and thus come to play a role in presenting women’s issues and demands within the policymaking sector in the state in order to help better represent women’s demands and close the gender gap between both sexes. In this thesis, I hypothesize that based on the fact that Japan is a strongly conservative society that encompasses a good number of conservative elites and policymakers, the creation of national bureaus and unions, supported by either specific movements or in a specific context (such as international pressure, economic concerns), has put Japanese feminism in a position in which said organs function according to the context they are in. Thus, this leads us to question whether State Feminism can solely help feminists achieve gender equality. Throughout this thesis, I deduce that State Feminism on its own has not been enough to achieve gender equality. It was rather certain conditions that have led even conservative, patriarchal policymakers to add women-friendly policies, paving the way for State Feminism to take root, even if it did not fully developed

Does the Budget Deficit Crowd-Out Private Credit From the Banking Sector? The Case of Egypt

Driven by the observed growing budget deficit and the heavy reliance on debtfinancing from the banking sector, this study sets to test the lazy banking hypothesis for Egypt. According to this hypothesis, government borrowing crowds out private investment through its dampening effect on private credit. The study estimates a VAR model using quarterly data spanning for almost four decades. The estimated model has unearthed a number of interesting results. As the government issues more debt instruments to finance its deficit, banks shift their portfolio away from risky private loans and opt for lazy behavior characterized by a shrinking overall credit tilted more and more toward government debt-instruments. This behavior not only limits their exposure to the private sector, hence reducing private investment, but also adversely affects investment and hence overall growth potential. In addition, evidence shows that output growth positively impacts the willingness of the banking sector to extend more credit to both the government and the private sector. Finally, and consistent with the lazy bank model, impulse response functions show that the effect of a government borrowing shock is contractionary (as opposed to the effect of private credit shock which is slightly expansionary) with regard to the overall banking sector credi

Design, synthesis and evaluation of multimodal paramagnetic lipids for liposomal fluorescence and magnetic resonance imaging

Molecular imaging techniques have revolutionised our understanding of disease states and the underlying processes causing their occurrence. Such a feat would not have been accomplished without the utilisation of the imaging probes central to the field of molecular imaging. The work undertaken in this thesis describes the synthesis and biological evaluation of lipidic contrast agent probes, designed for effective cellular entry and solid tumour imaging. A gadolinium (Gd) based paramagnetic lipid (Gd.DOTA.DSA) was synthesised and liposome formulations containing this lipid were optimised for maximum cellular labelling. MRI signal enhancing properties of bimodal paramagnetic-fluorescent liposomes utilising Gd.DOTA.DSA was shown both in vitro and in vivo. Tumour MRI results revealed these liposomes to benefit from a prolonged in vivo circulation time and excellent tumour accumulation properties as co-validated by both MRI and fluorescence microscopy of tumour sections. Here, the enhanced permeation and retention (EPR) effect of tumour tissue was exploited, whereby nanoparticles such as the paramagnetic liposomes described, are able to accumulate in tumour tissue due to leaky endothelial layers of damaged blood vessels. A further bimodal fluorescent and paramagnetic lipid (Gd.DOTA.Rhoda.DSA) was designed and synthesised and was shown to label cancer cells in vitro and effectively enhance tumour MRI signal in vivo. These results were also analysed by MRI and fluorescence modalities. Work towards a trimodal fluorescent, 1H and 19F MRI agent was undertaken and prospective routes for its final synthesis purposed

IMPLEMENTATION OF QANUN NUMBER 11 OF 2018 CONCERNING ISLAMIC FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS AT STATE-OWNED BANKS IN LHOKSEUMAWE CITY

This study will look into how regional regulation in Aceh is applied, specifically Qanun No.11 Year 2018 in terms of shari'a financial affiliate. This study is conducted at Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI), Bank Tabungan Negara (BTN), and Bank Mandiri, all of which are state-owned enterprises (BUMN) in the city of Lhokseumawe. This study's goal is to examine Qanun adoption by the aforementioned conventional banks, as well as the forecasts that those affiliates face in the process of implementing the Qanun of shari'a financial affiliate. This study is qualitative in nature since it completely and comprehensively explains the phenomena under investigation. Data was gathered by observation, interview, and documentation. The interactive model of inquiry was used to assess all of the data collected. According to the findings of this study, traditional banks have been devoted to Qanun implementation since 2019, starting with survey management and piloting public education linked to shari'a financial affiliate qanun. Traditional banks are currently in a 'ongoing' phase when it comes to the conversion of traditional accounts to shari'a accounts. Furthermore, asset asymmetry and employment management efforts have been ongoing. Nonetheless, there were a slew of roadblocks in the actual world. Among these were the growing lines of everyday customers wishing to convert their accounts to shari'a, the frequent occurrence of issues in the shari'a IT system, and the lack of clarity on the status of employees converting to shari'a. However, by 2021, every conventional bank in Aceh will have to be converted to shari'a law in accordance with Qanun No.11 of 2018

A multi-level analysis of public spending, growth and poverty reduction in Egypt:

"Egypt is a lower middle-income country with a per capita gross domestic product (GDP) in 2003 of US$3,949 measured in international dollars, or purchasing power parity (World Bank 2005a). In the decade from 1975 to 1985, Egypt enjoyed rapid economic growth... however... Egypt still lags behind many middle-income countries in key social indicators. Further reforms are necessary to reduce poverty, especially if Egypt is to achieve the United Nations' Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving the number of poor between 1990 and 2015. Government expenditures are an important means of promoting economic growth, reducing poverty, and improving income distribution... The overarching objective of this report is to use a multi-level analysis approach to assess both the effects of various government expenditures on growth and poverty reduction and the trade-offs between these two goals in order to determine policy options toward the achievement of the MDGs. The study involves analyses and simulations at household, sectoral, and regional levels, and at macro-levels using alternative analytical tools. While the analyses at each level were carried out independently, the report provides a synergy of the findings... The report concludes with a synthesis of the different levels of analysis." Authors' AbstractPublic investments, economic growth, Poverty reduction, Social indicators, Income distribution, Millennium Development Goals,