Foreign direct investment in Morocco

In this paper, we first compare the characteristics of Moroccan and foreign manufacturing firms between 1987 and 1996, and finds, as expected, that the latter perform better in terms of productivity, are technologically more advanced and more export-oriented, and pay higher wages than the former. Second, based on ongoing research, we suggest that foreign presence may have a positive impact on Moroccan productivity but that the relationship depends on local absorptive capacity or the technological gap (i.e. distance between foreign and local firms in terms of total factor productivity). It would appear that the larger the technological gap, the greater the spillover, up to a certain point. One interesting implication is that the effects of FDI may vary greatly across industries. This line of research deserves further investigation and may call for more appropriate sectoral policy response to foster spillovers between foreign and local firmsFDI, Technological gap, Spillovers

Trade and GDP Growth in Morocco: Short-run or Long-run Causality?

This study utilizes cointegration and Granger-causality tests to examine the relationship between trade and economic growth in Morocco over the period 1960-2000 using the VEC model. The result indicate that both exports and imports enter with positive signs in the cointegration equation. The results show that imports and exports Granger caused GDP and imports Granger caused exports. These results can be interpreted as a causality from the foreign sector to the domestic growth of Morocco. Import expansion increases exports that affect the GDP growth.GDP, Exports, Imports, Granger Causality, Cointegration

Are Trump and Bitcoin Good Partners?

During times of extreme market turmoil, it is acknowledged that there is a tendency towards "flight to safety". A strong (weak) safe haven is defined as an asset that has a significant positive (negative) return in periods where another asset is in distress, while hedge has to be negatively correlated (uncorrelated) on average. The Bitcoin's surge alongside the aftermath of Trump's win in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections has strengthened its status as the modern safe haven. This paper uses a truly noise-assisted data analysis method, termed as Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition-based approach, to examine whether Bitcoin can act as a hedge and safe haven for U.S. stock price index. The results document that the Bitcoin's safe-haven property is time-varying and that it has primarily been a weak safe haven in the short term and the long-term. We also demonstrate that precious metals lost their safe haven properties over time as the correlation between gold/silver and U.S. stock price declines from short-to long-run horizons

Relationship between Remittances and Macroeconomic Variables in Times of Political and Social Upheaval: Evidence from Tunisia's Arab Spring

If Tunisia was hailed as a success story with its high rankings on economic, educational, and other indicators compared to other Arab countries, the 2011 popular uprisings demonstrate the need for political reforms but also major economic reforms. The Arab spring highlights the fragility of its main economic pillars including the tourism and the foreign direct investment. In such turbulent times, the paper examines the economic impact of migrant' remittances, expected to have a countercyclical behavior. Our results reveal that prior to the Arab Spring, the impacts of remittances on growth and consumption seem negative and positive respectively, while they varyingly influence local investment. These three relationships held in the short-run. By considering the period surrounding the 2011 uprisings, the investment effect of remittances becomes negative and weak in the short-and medium-run, whereas positive and strong remittances' impacts on growth and consumption are found in the long term.Comment: ERF 23rd Annual Conference , Mar 2017, Amman, Jorda

National Innovation System In Morocco

The aim of this paper is to describe the national innovation system (NIS) in Morocco. Technological inputs (R & D, number of researchers, number of students in science and technology etc.) and the institutional organization of research are discussed. INS in the Moroccan case is characterized by weak of allocated resources and by the dysfunction of its various componentsNIS, Technology, R&D

Migration, Employment and labour Market integration Policies in France

The purpose of this study is to describe the mode of operation of the institutions involved in migration in France. Migrants’ admission requirements are characterized by difficulties and lack of flexibility. There is a large discrepancy between the egalitarian republican discourse on the one hand and the economic and social reality of ethnic discrimination on the other. In France, several sectors of economic activity are directly or indirectly closed to foreigners, including a large part of public and nationalized sector jobs. Thus, EDF, GDF, SNCF and Air France can only hire workers of French nationality. Similarly, a foreigner can not run a bar or tobacconist’s shop, an entertainment company, a private institution of technical education; cannot be director of a periodical or a broadcasting company, is excluded from a range of business transport, insurance companies and commerce. Indeed, nearly 600,000 private sector jobs are closed to non-EU nationals, except when bilateral agreements exist between France and the country of origin. In addition, the mobility of migrants among the EU countries is impossible

Effective Cost of Brain Drain

In developing countries, remittances and intra-family private transfers sent by household members who migrate to more developed countries constitute a fundamental source of income and capital accumulation. Then, it is important to understand the motives of migrants who decide to remit back to their families. Drawing on the theory of labor migration under asymmetric information, we show that low-skilled workers are expected to provide higher amounts of remittances when remittances are motivated by self-interest. This transfer paradox is explained as follows. Since low skilled workers are likely to return home when informational symmetry is restored, the optimal remittance level is a decreasing function of the migrant's skill level since remittances may be seen as an implicit insurance, whose benefits are received only under migration return.Remittances, asymmetric information, migration

Trade liberalization and labor market: Case of Tunisia

Tunisia is considered one of the best performing countries in terms of economic growth among countries in the Middle East and North Africa. During the past 30 years, this growth was 5% on average. At the same time, the country has opted very early for a very pronounced policy of opening to the outside, and the West in particular. It is attractive to link this performance in terms of growth to such liberalization. This paper shows clearly that this is not the case. Not only the liberalization has not produced the desired effects in terms of employment and wages (the effects are certainly positive, but remain very low and cover only the export-oriented sectors), but it has increased specialization in products intensive in labor and unskilled cheap, and whose technology content is low. Similarly, this policy has accentuated the inequalities between skilled workers and unskilled workers.Trade liberalization, inequality, specialization