Nasser Dine Mohamedou

Economist, Public Policy Specialist, and Data Scientist

Mohamedou Nasser Dine is Mauritania's economist, public policy specialist, and data scientist. He holds a Ph.D. in International Public Policy from Osaka University, Japan, specializing in spatial econometrics and its applications in labor economics and trade. His doctoral dissertation was titled "Spatial Econometrics and its Applications in Labor Economics." Mohamedou earned a Master's degree in Financial Mathematics from Mohammed V University in Morocco. Throughout his academic career, He has published in peer-reviewed journals such as the Japanese Economic Review, the Journal of Economic Integration, and the African Education Review. He has also authored several policy briefs and columns published in the Economic Research Forum. Mohamedou has served as a Project Manager and Head of the Accelerator Lab at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Mauritania and Economic and Banking specialist with UNDP IICPSD in Istanbul. With over seven years of experience in the financial and banking sectors, he has also worked as an economic consultant for the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), Jakarta. His research interests include labor economics, international trade, public economics, education, and applied econometrics. Additionally, Mohamedou has worked as a teaching assistant at Osaka University.

Determinants of school attendance in Mauritania

What are the determinants of school attendance in Mauritania? This column reports on analysis of data from the country’s 2019 National Household Survey, which highlights how factors like gender, age, residency and access to resources such as phones and national identification influence school attendance. The research findings offer insights into the challenges of ensuring equitable access to education and provide a basis for targeted policy interventions.

National economic institutions and participation in the global value chain

The economic institutions of a country – including property rights, business freedom and government integrity – play a central role in determining the extent of its participation in the global value chain. This column reports new research findings on associations between eight economic institutions and integration into international trade networks in a number of countries in the Middle East and North Africa.

Employment, global value chains and spillover effects in Turkey

Firms’ involvement in global value chains is increasing rapidly and it is vital for policy-makers to understand the direct effects on domestic employment, as well as spillover effects on the economy. This column sheds light on participation trends in Turkey and its repercussions for jobs.

Productivity, global value chains and cross-industry spillovers in Turkey

Participation in global value chains is widely understood to have positive effects on firms’ productivity. Less appreciated is the significance of input-output interlinkages between industrial sectors as sources of productivity spillovers. This column explores the magnitude of these effects for industries in Turkey.

Egypt’s most urgent priority is creating more and better jobs for its growing youth population. This column reports on the first Development Dialogue, an ERF–World Bank joint initiative, which brought together students, scholars, policy-makers and private sector leaders at Cairo University to confront the country’s labour market challenge. The conversation explored why youth inclusion matters, what the data show and how dialogue and the forthcoming Country Economic Memorandum can inform practical pathways to accelerate job creation.

Preparing youth for the workforce of the future

As economies undergo rapid digital and green transformations, young people face a growing mismatch between their skills and what the modern labour market needs. This column argues that enabling youth to compete in the workforce of the future requires systemic reforms in education, skills formation and labour market institutions, especially in developing economies.

Connectivity and conflict: understanding the risks of inequality in the Middle East

While high inequality does not always lead to conflict, new research reported in this column shows that widespread internet access acts as a catalyst, transforming economic grievances into political instability. For policy-makers in the Middle East and North Africa, this means that as digital connectivity expands, the security costs of ignoring economic disparities rise dramatically. The combination of idle youth, high inequality and high-speed internet is a volatile mix.

The political economy of stalled structural reforms in MENA

There is a persistent pattern to the structural reforms that are required to underpin economic progress in the countries of the Middle East and North Africa: ambitious strategies are announced and partially implemented, but ultimately they are diluted or reversed. This column argues that the repeated stalling of reform is not primarily a failure of economic design. Rather, it reflects deep-seated political economy constraints rooted in rent dependence, elite bargaining and weak institutional credibility. Without addressing these underlying dynamics, reform efforts are likely to remain symbolic rather than transformative.

Closing the gender gap in political participation in MENA

Women across the Middle East and North Africa participate less than men in politics – not only in political parties and elections, but also in petitions, boycotts, protests and strikes. This column reports evidence from ten countries showing that differences in education, employment and political attitudes explain part of this disparity, yet a significant gender gap remains.

The Forum ERF

ERF