Economic Research Forum (ERF)

The impact of Covid-19 on labour markets in MENA

Employment is recovering but income losses persist in MENA countries in the second year of the pandemic. Two recent ERF ...

The impact of loans and grants on development: Evidence from Egypt

Evaluations of grant programmes have shown that the return to capital is high in developing countries, but the impacts of ...

Gender and economic vulnerability in Egypt’s labour market

The past decade has presented both new challenges and new opportunities for the Egyptian labour market. This column outlines the ...

Mental health in Tunisia during the Covid-19 crisis

Social restrictions imposed in response to the pandemic and job losses from the economic downturn all take their toll on ...

It is time for Africa to focus on getting vaccines in arms

Rates of vaccination against Covid-19 are still disappointingly low in Africa. This column, originally published at Al Jazeera, argues that ...

Entrepreneurship and economic development in the MENA region

Entrepreneurship has come to be considered one key to countries’ economic development. This column assesses the connection between entrepreneurship and ...

Financial informality among formal firms: evidence from Egypt

A significant number of small and medium-sized enterprises stay disconnected from credit markets even after they become formal firms – ...

Better roads improve regional economies: evidence from Turkey

Paving dirt roads and building highway networks have unsurprisingly been shown to produce substantial economic gains, but what is the ...

Most read

Empowering Egypt’s young people for the future of work

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.

Untapped talent, unrealised growth: jobs and women in the MENAAP region

Only around one in five women of working age participate in the labour markets of the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan. As this column explains, the region can no longer afford to leave half its human capital underused. Expanding women’s labour force participation is central to growth and resilience in the face of looming demographic change.




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