Good research is impossible without access to reliable micro data. The Economic Research Forum has always known this and consequently, has invested time, effort and money into doing something about it. ERF is now proud to announce what might be one of its most-far-reaching initiatives yet: the Open Access Micro Data Initiative (OAMDI) for the Arab countries, Iran and Turkey.
OAMDI offers researchers several types of micro data that ERF has collected, harmonized and prepared for dissemination in a convenient automated process. The first phase of the initiative covers 17 Household Income and Expenditure Surveys from 3 Arab countries, 3 Labor Market Panel Surveys from Egypt and Jordan, and a data set on micro and small enterprises from 4 countries. More data sets will be available in the near future.
The initiative, which involved cooperation with several regional statistical agencies, is modeled on the World Bank Open Data initiative. To read more about these data sets or to access them, please visit www.erfdataportal.com
The Mena region has definitely changed in the aftermath of the Arab uprising. Although the ascendance of Islamist parties to power might not be to the satisfaction of some, there is no doubt that it has become a reality.
The question is what kind of economic policies Islamist parties are going to come up with and whether their visions are the right ones for development.
The ascendance of Islamist parties to power following the Arab uprisings might not be to the satisfaction of some, but there is no doubt that it has become a reality. The question is, are they managing the economies they inherited? And to what extent are they likely to adjust and steer their countries towards a better and more robust economy and an effective and democratic political system.
Plenary session 3 – Outlook and Possible Scenarios
The session explored the different paths Islamist parties are likely to follow, as well as the challenges and opportunities they are facing and their ability and willingness to achieve a balance between then neo-liberal economic programs they appear to support and the need for a social justice and income distribution that would respond to the peoples’ demands and expectations following the uprisings. The transition Islamist political parties are experiencing from opposition to ruling power was also discussed at during the session.
Among the most controversial regional questions of our age are how serious is environmental degradation in the MENA countries and why? Simply put, it is because the countries of the MENA region have exhausted their share of natural resources, well beyond the sustainable levels. Environmental problems in the region range from water scarcity, water quality, air pollution, and land degradation to over exploitation of marine resources. Not only do these problems injure the environment but also they has a inverse relationship to inequality and poverty levels.
ERF dedicated a session of the 19thannual conference to a book launch for an extraordinary new publication: Economic Incentives and Environmental Regulations edited by Hala Abou-Ali. Published by Edward Elgar, in cooperation with ERF, this book explores challenges related to water sanitation and hygiene, air pollution, and land degradation in a diversified portfolio of MENA countries. These countries have very different socio-economic profiles, yet they all share the same environmental problems.
إن الربيع العربي منح مكاسب سياسية كبيرة للإسلاميين في كلٍ من مصر وتونس. فقد استفادت الأحزاب الإسلامية من كونها الأكثر تنظيماً، بجانب ما لها من سمعة في كونها بعيدة عن الفساد، ولكنها تواجه الآن تحديات متعلقة بالحكم. إن الحكومات التي تم الإطاحة بها في كل من تونس ومصر، كانت تطبق برامج ليبرالية مع حماية القطاع العام المتضخم وتوجيه الإقراض المصرفي الحكومي. والتساؤل الآن هو ما إذا كانت الحكومات الإسلامية سوف تحيد كثيراً عن هذا البرنامج.
ناقشت الجلسة العامة الثانية للمؤتمر السنوي بعنوان مقارنة للأداء الاقتصادي في البلدان ذات الحكم الإسلامي القضايا التالية: ماذا يحدث عند وصول الأحزاب الإسلامية إلى السلطة؟ هل يمكن لهذه الأحزاب أن تطور خصائص محددة لسياسات التنمية الاقتصادية؟ وهل ستكون نتائج التنمية مماثلة؟ وما الدروس التي يمكن استخلاصها من هذا التحليل المقارن لدول الربيع العربي؟
ERF took the opportunity to launch one of its most important projects at the Annual Conference: its Open Access Micro Data project. It is impossible to do state of the art microeconomic research without access to data. Open data provides a low cost distribution technology. It is a right to be demanded by populations to enhance transparency and accountability as such.
Major progress in the MENA region has been achieved to make data available and accessible to the public. This is considered a huge opportunity for researchers to make use of this data to analyze questions, provide evidence and come up with solutions to current issues of our time; argues Nemat Shafik, International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Mustapha Nabli (Former Governor, Central Bank of Tunisia & ERF)
Chaired by Mustapha Nabil (Former Governor, Central Bank of Tunisia and ERF), the session gathered three speakers sharing their research and perspectives about the economic performance in countries where Islamist parties took power post the uprisings.
Hazem El-Beblawi (Former Deputy Prime Minister, Egypt & ERF)
In his talk, Hazem El-Beblawi (Former Deputy Prime Minsiter, Egypt) focused on the post-Jan 25th’s economic problems Egypt is facing. According to him, raw natural resources are very limited; he therefore highlighted the need to introduce industrialized approach, technology being the ultimate solution.
The political upheavals, which swept the Arab World in early 2011 ushered in Islamist political parties in Egypt, Tunisia, and potentially elsewhere in the region. The rise of political Islam in the Middle East is contended by some to be the consequence of multidimensional crises experienced by the region. Economists and political analysts argue that some of these explanations may include failed economic policies, widespread authoritarianism, increasing unemployment, corruption and rapid urbanization.
ERF’s 19th annual conferenceEconomic Development and the Rise of Islamist Parties aims to understand the causes behind the rise of Islamist parties, the conditions under which they succeed and the likely outcome in Arab Spring countries. The conference, to be held March 3-5 2013, will be hosted by the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD) in Kuwait.
Reducing corruption requires integrity and economic growth. This was the main message I took from the Economic Research Forum’s (ERF) annual conference in Cairo this week focused on eradicating corruption. More traditional calls for transparency and accountability, while still critical, were overshadowed by the recognition that incentives for corruption will persist unless people have a moral aversion to it and evidence that the only foolproof correlation with low corruption is high per capita income.
Jordan and Yemen are two examples of transitions in the MENA region. However, their experiences differ. Speaking in the workshop at the 2012 ERF Annual Conference, Jillian Schwedler addressed the issue of moderation in their respective cases.
“Does political inclusion produce ideological moderation”? Schwedler argued that investigating political rhetoric is insufficient proof for moderation. Political actors may be perceived as moderate only to go on to embark on a fundamental and radical agenda. That’s why it is necessary to note what politicians say implicitly rather than just explicitly, “looking at politicians, what they say internally rather than what they say publicly (matters)”.
Schwedler defined “moderation” as a shift from a rigid position to a more flexible and liberal one. In this context, she mentioned the example of the Jordanian IAF (Islamic Action Front), a branch of the Jordanian MBH (MuslimBrotherhood, itself an offshoot of the Brotherhood in Egypt) who have renounced ‘violence,’ and often participated in Jordan’s parliamentary elections.
Schwedler then discussed the changing beliefs in the cases of Jordan and Yemen, and how the Jordanian IAFand Yemeni ISLAHparty differ. IAF in Jordan is more moderate compared to its Yemeni counterpart. Violence is not a problem in Jordan, with the political elite engaged in diverse, politically progressive actions. ISLAH is against the Yemeni government taking these steps.
The structure of each of these parties varies. The ISLAH party’s composition is diverse. The party is composed of the Yemeni branch of the MBH which represents the political faction, Salafists, and tribal confederacies. This creates a loose structure, which is not the case for IAF. IAF is wholly the political wing of the MBH, thus being an integrated cohesive body.
Moreover, IAF has managed to adopt “structural logic,” which has had a positive effect on a number of societal activities, transferring a higher degree of moderation into a number of issues. This work was based on a comparative study, using “inclusion-moderation” theory which seeks to determine if each party’s structure and its new practices are strategic, and whether each party has really become more tolerant and pluralist.
