On the empirics of risk-sharing across MENA countries

In this article, we compute the potential welfare gains and the realized gains from risk-sharing among Middle East and North African (MENA) countries, including the oil-rich Gulf region and the resource-scarce economies. We find that the overall potential welfare gains across MENA countries are positive for all countries under the assumption of full risk-sharing. The potential welfare gains among the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are positive even though the magnitudes are smaller compared to those of the rest of the MENA region. We also quantify the extent of risk-sharing for the MENA region and show that it is significant for the MENA region and its subgroups; however, we could not find any sign of inter-temporal smoothing across the same groups. Decomposing the aggregate output shocks shows that the extent of risk-sharing is significant when only positive output shocks exist across the resource-scarce MENA economies. However, we observe that GCC countries share output risks with each other even under negative output shocks.     

媒体压力与空气质量改善

本文使用2014—2017年我国省级报纸对省份内地级市的空气污染报道数据,实证检验了媒体压力在促进空气质量改善中的作用。研究发现,媒体对污染报道的增加,显著促进了城市空气质量的改善,且这种改善的效果受污染报道发表报纸是否为省级党委机关报以及城市主政官员特征的影响。这意味着,媒体污染报道主要通过对政府官员形成的压力来促进地方政府进行污染治理、改善空气质量。进一步研究发现,环境治理投入的增加与工业污染排放的减少,是媒体压力促进城市空气质量改善的有效途径。本文的结论,对于理解新时代我国舆论监督的作用机制以及更好发挥新闻媒体监督在环境治理中的作用,提供了新的视角。     

Cost-efficiency and financial and geographical characteristics of banking sectors in the MENA countries

We utilize the translog stochastic frontier model to estimate the cost-efficiency levels for conventional and Islamic, Cooperation Council (GCC) and non-GCC banks in the Middle East and North African (MENA) countries. The estimated cost-efficiency averages around 77% for those MENA banks, but with slight changes in this score for the individual countries. The results also show that the banks in the GCC countries are the most efficient in the region and the efficiency scores for the conventional and Islamic banks are similar. Finally, the recent financial crisis seems to have a slight impact on the observed efficiency scores of those banks.     

Risk sharing in the Middle East and North Africa

This study investigates welfare gains and channels of risk sharing among 14 Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries, including the oil‐rich Gulf region and the resource‐scarce economies such as Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia. The results show that for the 1992–2009 period, the overall welfare gains across MENA countries were higher than those documented for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) nations. In the Gulf region, the amount of factor income smoothing does not differ considerably when output shocks are longer lasting rather than transitory, whereas the amount smoothed by savings increases remarkably when shocks are longer lasting. In contrast, both factor income flows and international transfers respond more to permanent shocks than to transitory shocks in the non‐oil MENA countries. The results also show that a significant portion of shocks is smoothed via remittance transfers in the economically less‐developed MENA countries, but not in the oil‐rich Gulf and OECD countries. Finally, for the overall MENA region, a large part of the shock remains unsmoothed, suggesting that more market integration is needed to remedy the weak link of incomplete risk sharing.     

Institutional Quality and Public Debt Accumulation: An Empirical Analysis

The question of public debt management for both developed and developing economies has generated an enormous amount of political as well as academic interest. This study examines how governance affects public debt accumulation in the MENA countries during the 1996–2015 period. The six Worldwide Governance indicators (voice and accountability, political stability and the absence of violence/terrorism, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law and control of corruption) were used to measure the quality of governance in these countries. The results show that only three governance indicators support well the hypothesis that poor governance leads to higher accumulation of MENA public debt. Moreover, the estimates suggest a significant indirect impact of bad governance operating via decreased GDP growth. These findings have important implications for policy makers of these countries, which are currently facing major fiscal and external imbalances due to the high cost of war and terrorist attacks, low oil prices and a decline in trade. Sound public debt management represents an urgent task especially that public debt management problems often find their origins in the lack of attention paid by policymakers to the costs of bad governance and weak macroeconomic management.     

Do environment regulations matter for EU-MENA trade?

This study examines the impact of environmental regulations stringency on agricultural trade between European Union (EU) and Middle East and North Africa (MENA countries). Using a gravity model and applying the zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP) model, we estimate the impact of environmental regulations stringency on bilateral agricultural exports between 28 EU and 20 MENA countries during the period 2001–2014. The results have showed that environmental regulations do matter for agricultural trade between both regions because in the presence of excessive zero trade observations, they act as significant fixed export costs that affect the probability of trade. More stringent environmental regulations stimulate innovative efforts in cost-saving green technologies, which increase productivity and positively affect agricultural exports. The results have favoured the revisionist Porter hypothesis (PH), according to which environmental regulations may stimulate innovative efforts, which mitigate the negative effects of higher fixed abatement costs and enhance trade competitiveness.     

Does Institutional Quality Matter for Financial Development and Growth? Further Evidence from MENA Countries

This study scrutinises the role of institutional quality in the linkage of financial development and economic growth in 21 Middle East and North African (MENA) countries. Using the common correlated effect mean pooled approach and annual data for the period 1980–2012, we find that not all measures of financial development promote economic growth in the absence of institutional quality, but they all augment growth in the presence of institutional quality. Furthermore, we find that foreign direct investment enhances the growth of MENA countries by the development of financial markets.     

DOES MONOPOLISTIC COMPETITION EXIST IN THE MENA REGION? EVIDENCE FROM THE BANKING SECTOR

The goal of this paper is to empirically assess the level of banking competition in selected Middle East and Northern African (MENA) countries. The analysis employs the estimation of a non‐structural indicator (H‐statistic) introduced by Panzar and Rosse and draws upon a panel dataset of eight MENA countries (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates) over the period 1997–2012. The empirical findings are robust towards three different panel data econometric techniques (Ordinary Least Squares, Pooled Generalized Least Squares with Fixed Effects, and Generalized Method of Moments) and consistent with other similar studies, providing sufficient evidence in favour of a banking monopolistic competition regime. Furthermore, the estimation of three other alternative measures of competition (Lerner index, adjusted Lerner index, and conduct parameter) provides similar results, revealing that the banking sector in the MENA region is characterized by a low level of Significant Market Power (SMP). Overall, the analysis shows that, despite similarities in the process of financial regulatory reforms undertaken in the eight MENA countries, the observed competition levels of banks vary substantially, with Algeria and Morocco consistently outperforming the rest of the region.     

What does MENA region initially need: Grow output or mitigate CO2 emissions?

We contribute to the economic growth–CO₂ emissions literature in the MENA region by focusing on both production and environmental functions. Adopting an original analytical framework, our empirical investigation parallels two approaches. The first one follows the studies by Lean and Smyth (2010a) and Sadorsky (2012) which examine the dynamic interaction of energy consumption and trade openness using production function. The second one extends the recent works by Halicioglu (2009), Jalil and Mahmud (2009), and Jayanthakumaran et al. (2012) which attempt to introduce energy consumption and trade openness in the environmental function as a solution to circumvent omitted variable bias. Our findings suggest that MENA countries should adopt policies to control the increase of pollution as well as to stabilize the productivity growth. One of these policies is to increase the share of renewable energy relative to non-renewable energy sources.     

The impact of FTAs on MENA trade in agricultural and industrial products

This article analyses the impact of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) on Middle East and North African Countries (MENA) trade for the period 1994–2010. The analysis distinguishes between industrial and agricultural trade to take into account the different liberalization schedules. An augmented gravity model is estimated using up-to-date panel data techniques to control for all time-invariant bilateral factors that influence bilateral trade as well as for the so-called multilateral resistance factors. We also control for the endogeneity of the agreements and test for self-selection bias due to the presence of zero trade in our sample. The main findings indicate that North–South-FTAs and South–South-FTAs have a differential impact in terms of increasing trade in MENA countries, with the former being more beneficial in terms of exports for MENA countries, but both showing greater global market integration. We also find that FTAs that include agricultural products, in which MENA countries have a clear comparative advantage, have more favourable effects for these countries than those only including industrial products.     

Oil,Laws, and Female Labor Force Participation

Despite the rapid rise of women’s education and the fall of their fertility rates in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), female labor force participation (FLFP) rates remain low. This paper argues that oil and gas rents and Islamic family law jointly matter. Controlling for country and year fixed-effects in a long panel dataset, it shows that per capita oil and gas rents reduce FLFP rates in countries with Islamic family law more than others. The results are robust to econometric methodology and to controlling for the interaction of rents and all other time-constant factors that are common across the MENA region, such as culture, social norms, and institutions. Moreover, the results cannot be replicated by substituting historical plough use, a strong predictor of gender discrimination, in place of Islamic family law. Policy implications are discussed.     

Earnings response coefficient in the MENA region

This article documents the earnings response coefficient (ERC) for nonfinancial firms listed in the Middle East and North Africa region during the period between 2003 and 2013. Our results show significantly positive ERC for our sample firms. The results are robust across different countries and different industries. Our results also show that ERC increases with increasing the measurement interval. It indicates that more information is incorporated in prices as the measurement interval increase. Consequently, we argue that significance of reported earnings is higher for long-term investors in the MENA region.     

Financial development and economic growth nexus in the MENA countries: Bootstrap panel granger causality analysis

This paper investigates the direction of causality between financial development and economic growth in the Middle East and North African (MENA) countries. The panel causality testing approach, developed by Kónya (2006) [Kónya, L. (2006), exports and growth: Granger causality analysis on OECD countries with a panel data approach, Economic Modelling, 23, 978–992], based on the Seemingly Unrelated Regressions and Wald tests with the country specific bootstrap critical values, is applied to the panel of fifteen MENA countries for the period 1980–2007. In order to capture the different aspects of financial development, six different indicators are used. Empirical results show that there is no clear consensus on the direction of causality between financial development and economic growth for all measurements of financial development and it is also observed that the findings are country specific.     

Environmental disclosure and stock market liquidity: evidence from Arab MENA emerging markets

The objective of this study is to examine the impact of environmental disclosure levels on the stock market liquidity of Arab Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) companies. For that, a self-constructed disclosure index was applied to the annual reports for the years 2010, 2011 and 2012 and the bid-ask spread was used as a proxy for stock market liquidity. Results indicate that levels of environmental disclosure in MENA companies are quite low. In addition, using a sample of 276 firm-year observations, multivariate analysis shows that the higher the level of environmental disclosure provided in the annual reports, the lower the spread between the market bid and ask prices, thereby indicating an increase in stock market liquidity.     

Are developing countries accumulating sufficient total factor productivity to sustain their economic growth and job creation? Empirical evidence from the Middle East and North Africa region

This study contributes new evidence on why the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has failed to create decent jobs for decades. The growth accounting exercise reveals that the region suffered from an acute total factor productivity (TFP) deficit in the 1990s; it improved remarkably in the 2000s, before deteriorating significantly in the period between 2010 and 2017. Throughout the three subperiods, the region’s growth relied heavily on capital accumulation. The severe deficit in TFP and the heavy reliance on physical capital for decades impaired the region’s ability to sustain economic growth and to create decent jobs in the long run. The study recommends more government interventions in knowledge accumulation as a critical precondition for employment generation in developing countries.     

京津冀大气治理生态补偿支付原则研究

生态补偿是跨界大气污染治理的重要政策工具。迄今为止,京津冀大气治理生态补偿机制仍未出台,严重制约着京津冀生态环保协同发展做深做实,创新思维方式、构建非传统领域生态补偿理论体系是当务之急。厘清了传统生态补偿认识误区,创新性地提出了生态补偿支付原则统一框架,将"污染者付费原则"(PPP)和"受益者付费原则"(BPP)统一在"改变者付费原则"(CPP)分析框架中,为京津冀大气治理生态补偿机制设计提供了思想前提和理论基础;通过构建京津冀大气治理CGE模型具体测算了特定大气质量控制目标下河北应获得的生态补偿额。这对于加快补齐京津冀生态文明建设制度短板、有效弥补河北大气治理资金需要、强化京津冀生态环境联建联防联治具有重要意义,对于全国和其他重点区域大气治理具有普遍启示意义。     

Effects of different environmental regulations and their heterogeneity on air pollution control in China

This study endeavors to explore the impact of different environmental regulations and their heterogeneity on air pollution control in China. By employing a slacks-based measure of directional distance function model, considering undesirable outputs, the efficiency of air pollution control of China’s 30 provinces during 2001–2014 is evaluated. The estimates indicate that the efficiency of air pollution control is fluctuating, and there is obvious regional differences. By using provincial-level panel data and panel threshold models, empirical results show that: (1) There is a nonlinear relationship between environmental regulation and air pollution control efficiency, and it can be positively correlated, but it is constrained by the stringency of regulation: there is a single threshold for formal (command-and-control (CAC) and market-based) regulation, while there is a double threshold for informal regulation. (2) Different environmental regulations have different governance effects. Compared with CAC regulation, market regulation can attract more attention of enterprises. (3) It may be ineffective to expect informal regulation to improve the air pollution control efficiency. Therefore, in order to achieve real sustainable development, the government should set up reasonable regulation stringency and optimize the combination of regulation tools.

     

The impact of corruption on FDI: is MENA an exception?

The eruption of the Arab Spring in Tunisia and Egypt was ensued by deterioration in FDI inflows. Whether a new Middle East free of corruption accompanying previous dictatorships will offset the negative ramifications of the uprisings and enhance FDI in the long run remains debatable. Since the evidence on the causal relationship between corruption and FDI is inconclusive, this study attempts to take another step. The paper investigates the link between corruption and FDI flows to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and assesses whether or not corruption has more importance than other FDI determinants. By employing several panel settings with various econometric specifications on 21 MENA countries over the period 2003 to 2009, it is demonstrated that FDI varies positively with corruption. Additionally, FDI in MENA was found to vary positively with per capita income, openness, freedom and security of investments and negatively with the tax and homicide rates. Since corruption was not found to hinder FDI inflows, treating corruption should be based on sound legal procedures that infringe neither on the rights, freedom and security of FDI nor on the degree of openness and freedom of the economy, which are the real stimulants of FDI in MENA.     

Environmental rationalities and the development state in East Asia: Prospects for a sustainability transition

This paper reviews what is known about recent trends in environmental governance among the newly industrializing countries of East Asia and the implications of these developments for a sustainability transition within the region. The conceptual starting point for the review is research that examines sustainability transitions within the framework of a multi-level perspective on system innovation. One of the challenges presented by this framework is that of understanding how existing political economies and governance structures promote stability or change in socio-technical regimes. By socio-technical regimes we mean the predominant organizational, social and technological configurations through which societal needs are constituted and met. In the case of the rapidly industrializing and urbanizing economies of East Asia, the trajectory of socio-technical regimes will have profound consequences for local, regional and global environments. Our review of trends in environmental governance as they relate to socio-technical regimes within the region traces a pattern of initial efforts to strengthen environmental regulatory regimes very much along the lines of the policy models of OECD economies. The degree to which these initial efforts have taken root varies from country to country in the region. What is beginning to emerge in several countries within the region, however, are a variety of policy and institutional innovations that hold promise for opening up spaces for change in socio-technical regimes, and for creating opportunities for new pathways of industrialization and urbanization to take hold that are less pollution, materials and energy-intensive.     

The validity of the ELG hypothesis in the MENA region: cointegration and error correction model analysis

The export-led growth (ELG) hypothesis is examined for nine Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries in three-variable vector autoregressive and error correction models. When considering total exports, the results reject the ELG hypothesis in almost all of these countries. When only manufactured exports are examined, no support is found for ELG in countries with relatively low shares of manufactured exports in total merchandise exports but strong support in countries with relatively high shares. These findings suggest that promoting exports may contribute to economic growth only after a certain threshold of manufactured exports has been reached.