Public infrastructure and private investment in the Middle East and North Africa

The authors examine the impact of public infrastructure on private capital formation in three countries of the Middle East and North Africa-Egypt, Jordan, and Tunisia. They highlight various channels through which public infrastructure may affect private investment. Then they describe their empirical framework, which is based on a vector autoregression (VAR) model that accounts for flows and (quality-adjusted) stocks of public infrastructure, private investment, as well as changes in output, private sector credit, and the real exchange rate. The authors propose two aggregate measures of the quality of public infrastructure and use principal components to derive a composite indicator. Their analysis suggests that public infrastructure has both"flow"and"stock"effects on private investment in Egypt, but only a"stock"effect in Jordan and Tunisia. But these effects are small and short-lived, reflecting the unfavorable environment for private investment in their sample of countries. Reducing unproductive public capital expenditure and improving quality must be accompanied by policy reforms aimed at limiting investment to infrastructure capital that crowds in the private sector and corrects for fundamental market failures. This will entail privatization and greater involvement of the private sector in infrastructure investment. While infrastructure (in the form of the provision of critical telecommunications, transport, and energy services) is important, other improvements in the environment in which domestic investment is conducted are crucial. These include the need to provide financing on adequate terms and guarantee a secure and efficient justice system.

Labor market reforms, growth, and unemployment in labor-exporting countries in the Middle East and North Africa

This paper studies the impact of labor market policies on growth and unemployment in labor-exporting countries in the Middle East and North Africa. The analysis is based on a framework that captures many of the main features of the labor market in these countries. We conduct a variety of policy experiments, including a reduction in payroll taxation, cuts in public sector wages and employment, an increase in employment subsidies, a reduction in trade unions'bargaining power, and a composite reform program. Our key message is that to foster broad-based growth and job creation in the region, labor market reforms must not be viewed in isolation but rather as a component of a comprehensive program of structural reforms.Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Labor Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Labor Markets,Municipal Financial Management,Environmental Economics&Policies,Labor Markets,Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research

Poverty and Economic Policy Network (PEP) : external assessment of activities and future directions

The Poverty and Economic Policy Network (PEP) has adopted a different and highly effective approach towards equipping new researchers with the necessary competencies through research that is more narrowly focused. In terms of research and capacity building, the evaluation suggests future directions based on program achievements, describes emerging strengths towards commissioned research, opportunities for financing, and decentralised arrangements for program management. The report provides an overview of the policy network; summarises principal activities; assesses the extent to which PEP has been achieving stated objectives, and looks at new directions for the network

The evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa: Insights from rapidly expanding genomic surveillance

INTRODUCTION Investment in Africa over the past year with regard to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) sequencing has led to a massive increase in the number of sequences, which, to date, exceeds 100,000 sequences generated to track the pandemic on the continent. These sequences have profoundly affected how public health officials in Africa have navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. RATIONALE We demonstrate how the first 100,000 SARS-CoV-2 sequences from Africa have helped monitor the epidemic on the continent, how genomic surveillance expanded over the course of the pandemic, and how we adapted our sequencing methods to deal with an evolving virus. Finally, we also examine how viral lineages have spread across the continent in a phylogeographic framework to gain insights into the underlying temporal and spatial transmission dynamics for several variants of concern (VOCs). RESULTS Our results indicate that the number of countries in Africa that can sequence the virus within their own borders is growing and that this is coupled with a shorter turnaround time from the time of sampling to sequence submission. Ongoing evolution necessitated the continual updating of primer sets, and, as a result, eight primer sets were designed in tandem with viral evolution and used to ensure effective sequencing of the virus. The pandemic unfolded through multiple waves of infection that were each driven by distinct genetic lineages, with B.1-like ancestral strains associated with the first pandemic wave of infections in 2020. Successive waves on the continent were fueled by different VOCs, with Alpha and Beta cocirculating in distinct spatial patterns during the second wave and Delta and Omicron affecting the whole continent during the third and fourth waves, respectively. Phylogeographic reconstruction points toward distinct differences in viral importation and exportation patterns associated with the Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants and subvariants, when considering both Africa versus the rest of the world and viral dissemination within the continent. Our epidemiological and phylogenetic inferences therefore underscore the heterogeneous nature of the pandemic on the continent and highlight key insights and challenges, for instance, recognizing the limitations of low testing proportions. We also highlight the early warning capacity that genomic surveillance in Africa has had for the rest of the world with the detection of new lineages and variants, the most recent being the characterization of various Omicron subvariants. CONCLUSION Sustained investment for diagnostics and genomic surveillance in Africa is needed as the virus continues to evolve. This is important not only to help combat SARS-CoV-2 on the continent but also because it can be used as a platform to help address the many emerging and reemerging infectious disease threats in Africa. In particular, capacity building for local sequencing within countries or within the continent should be prioritized because this is generally associated with shorter turnaround times, providing the most benefit to local public health authorities tasked with pandemic response and mitigation and allowing for the fastest reaction to localized outbreaks. These investments are crucial for pandemic preparedness and response and will serve the health of the continent well into the 21st century

Privatisation et institutions dans les économies en développement et en transition

Nabli Mustapha K. Privatisation et institutions dans les économies en développement et en transition. In: Revue d'économie du développement, 8e année N°1-2, 2000. Gouvernance, équité et marchés mondiaux. Sélection des Actes. Conférence ABCDE – Europe. Paris, 21-23 juin 1999. pp. 95-106

After Argentina: Was MENA Right to Be Cautious?

3rd MRM - Mediterranean Social and Political Research Meeting, Montecatini Terme, 20 March 2002, Opening Lectur

2006 economic developments and prospects : financial markets in a new age of oil

Mustapha K. Nabli u.a

INCOME INEQUALITY IN THE ARAB REGION: DATA AND MEASUREMENT, PATTERNS AND TRENDS

This paper provides a review of empirical knowledge about income inequality in the Arab region, focusing primarily on the issues of data and measurement, and the characterization of its patterns and trends. The review shows good progress in the availability of data and quality of measurement. However, the region remains far behind progress being achieved worldwide in terms of coverage and comparability across countries, improvements in quality and content of data, and, more importantly, accessibility of available micro-data to scholars. Within these data constraints and limitations, the available evidence shows moderately high levels of inequality in terms of household expenditure compared to other regions of the world. The patterns of inequality show quite significant variation across countries. One striking result is the weak time variability of the inequality indexes in most of the countries of the region. Alternative measures of welfare distribution such as of horizontal inequality, polarization or inequality of opportunity have been widely used worldwide to supplement the Lorentz-based inequality criteria, but such measures are very scarce in Arab countries. We finally offer suggestions for a research agenda to better our understanding about the nature and determinants of inequality in the region.Inequality, redistribution, household surveys, data issues, Arab countries