Economic Research Forum (ERF)

Shahrokh Fardoust

Author

Shahrokh Fardoust
Research Professor at the Global Research Institute, College of William and Mary

Shahrokh Fardoust is Research Professor at the Global Research Institute and Visiting Scholar in Economics at the College of William and Mary. He holds a MA and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

Content by this Author

Retooling development aid in the 21st century

Following a series of shocks from the global financial crisis to the Covid-19 pandemic and the food and fuel crisis, it remains as important as ever for development agencies and other stakeholders to deliver budget support to emerging market and developing economies. This column identifies several factors that policy-makers should consider as they design funding streams for development projects. At their core is the need to strike an appropriate balance between funding conditionality and recipient countries’ ownership and development priorities.

The importance of budget support for progress on sustainable development

Adequate financing, policy reforms and sound macroeconomic frameworks are essential for developing countries to meet their development goals – and getting the balance right between conditionality and country-level independence is a critical challenge for policy-makers everywhere. This column highlights the increasing importance of budget support from multilateral development banks, together with the continuing need for international cooperation. From economic growth to poverty reduction, budget support is a vital development tool in a wide range of circumstances.

How can the digital economy benefit everyone in the Arab world—and prevent the region from falling farther behind?

Digitalization is one of the main forces shaping the modern global economy—and an area in which the Arab world has fallen behind. Policy-makers in the region must find ways to capitalize on the enormous dividends of new digital technologies and mitigate their risks. Reaping the benefits will require improved education and training, better cybersecurity, more private sector support, and international cooperation.

Economic issues affecting MENA through the lens of public opinion

For more than a decade, policy-makers in developing countries in the Middle East and North Africa have been confronted with high inequality, low growth, rising poverty, and high youth and women’s unemployment. They now face new challenges as well. This column, originally published by the Middle East Institute, identifies some of the most important issues affecting the region, relates them to the results of a recent survey of 12 Arab countries carried out by Arab Barometer, and suggests some pathways out of the current quagmire.

How can the Biden administration help improve MENA’s economic prospects?

President Biden’s administration will face a number of major challenges in the Middle East over the next four years, from great power competition and climate change to cybersecurity and refugees and migration. This column, originally published by the Middle East Institute in Washington, DC, outlines what it can do to help improve economic prospects across the region.

Formidable challenges facing the Middle East require a sea change in economic policies

Weakening global growth, endemic conflicts and increased tensions within the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) – as well as emerging challenges such as climate change and rapid demographic shifts – are likely to have an adverse impact on the region’s economic, social and political stability in the coming years. This column outlines the policy responses that are needed to avert disaster.

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Beyond job creation: how can Egypt’s gender gap in work be closed?

More than 2 million jobs are needed each year to absorb new entrants into Egypt’s labour market and raise the country’s employment rate. The job challenge is even more acute for women, whose labour force participation remains low despite recent gains in education. This column reports on the second Development Dialogue, an ERF–World Bank Group joint initiative, which brought together students, scholars, policy-makers and private sector leaders at the American University in Cairo to consider how the country’s gender gap in work can be closed.

Digitalisation, global value chains and regional integration in MENA & SSA

Participation in global value chains is vital for countries pursuing structural transformation and inclusive economic development. This column summarises new evidence on how much production processes have been globalised in Africa and the Middle East relative to other regions; whether this process has taken place with partners within or outside the region; and whether it has taken place more in manufacturing or services.

How trade policy can reduce MENA’s cereal import vulnerability

Heavy dependence on imported cereals, combined with climate change, water scarcity and geopolitical uncertainty, continues to threaten food resilience across MENA. This column explains how an inclusive trade policy can play a key role in making the region’s food security less vulnerable to shocks.

The political economy of algorithms in the Middle East

The Middle East is entering a new political-economic era – one in which algorithms, data and artificial intelligence may become as strategically important as oil once was. Across the region, governments are investing heavily in digital infrastructure, smart governance and AI-driven economic transformation. This column outlines how AI and algorithmic governance are reshaping power, inequality and state capacity in the region.

The risks of a two-speed AI economy in MENA

Much of the debate about artificial intelligence in the Middle East and North Africa focuses on how many jobs it will replace. As this column explains, the more important challenge is that the new technology is likely to create a two-speed labour market, where countries with the capacity to invest in digital infrastructure and skills move rapidly ahead while others struggle to keep pace. Unless governments combine credible national reforms with targeted regional cooperation, AI could widen, not reduce, the economic divides across MENA.

From mega-investment to mega-productivity: closing MENA’s conversion gap

Across the Middle East and North Africa, governments are investing heavily in infrastructure, technology, diversification and new industries. Yet capital accumulation alone does not guarantee productivity growth. As this column argues, the region’s deeper challenge is its ‘investment-to-productivity conversion gap’: ensuring that large-scale investment translates consistently into stronger firms, technological diffusion, skills and better jobs. A different metric of success is required: not how much capital is deployed, but how much productive capability that capital leaves behind.

Sanctions and conflict: why corruption changes the equation

Why do sanctions produce such different political outcomes across the countries that have been targeted? This column reports research examining the role of pre-existing corruption in shaping the relationship between sanctions and subsequent conflict or political instability. The evidence indicates that trade sanctions are associated with higher conflict-related deaths where pre-existing corruption is high.

Why energy efficiency still struggles to attract finance in Egypt

Egypt has reduced energy subsidies and gradually adjusted domestic energy prices toward cost-recovery levels, improving the economic case for energy efficiency investments – but financing has not kept pace. Drawing on structured interviews with banks, developers and public officials, this column traces why energy efficiency projects in the country still struggle to attract capital, and sets out how a ‘financing ladder’ used elsewhere – from revolving funds to risk guarantees to green bonds – could close the gap.




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