Economic Research Forum (ERF)

Kassim M. Dakhlallah

Kassim M. Dakhlallah

The Lebanese tragedy: who is to blame?

The dilemma of public debt in Lebanon

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Meltem Dayioglu

Meltem Dayioglu

Compulsory schooling in Turkey: a deterrent to teenage marriage and births

Education gains through compulsory schooling: evidence from Turkey

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Ralph de Haas

Ralph de Haas

Gender discrimination in small business lending: evidence from Turkey

Leveraging the demographic transition in North Africa

Life satisfaction in Arab countries

Microcredit: choosing between inclusion and impact?

What’s holding back the private sector in MENA?

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Jaime de Melo

Jaime de Melo

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

Boosting trade through flexible rules of origin in preferential agreements

Challenges of digitalisation in MENA and sub-Saharan Africa

Harmonising rules of origin for the African continental free trade area

Africa’s continental free trade area: a stepping-stone to integration?

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Hayriye Özgül Özkan-Değirmenci

Hayriye Özgül Özkan-Değirmenci

Unemployment and the marginally attached

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Most read

The green transition in MENA economies: challenges and policy pathways

The economies of the Middle East and North Africa are at a critical turning point. Global decarbonisation pressures, energy market volatility and technological transformation are increasingly challenging hydrocarbon-based growth models. This column argues that the green transition is not only an environmental necessity but also a strategic economic imperative.

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.

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.

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.




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