Person:
Zaki, Chahir
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Fields of Specialization
international economics; trade policy; trade and finance; trade and labor market; gravity models; computable general equilibrium models
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Last updated
January 31, 2023
Biography
Chahir Zaki is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University (Egypt) and a part-time Economist at the Economic Research Forum (Egypt). He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and Paris School of Economics (France). He has been also working as a consultant for the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the International Trade Centre and the CEPII (Centre des Etudes Prospectives et d’Informations Internationales). His fields of specialization are mainly international economics, trade policy issues, trade and finance, trade and labor market issues, gravity models and computable general equilibrium models. Regionally, his main research is on Egypt and MENA countries. Zaki has authored several refereed research papers in high quality economic journal such as
Economic Modeling, International Economic Journal, International Trade Journal, Applied Economics and the Journal of North African Studies.
Publication Search Results
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Publication
The External Wealth of Arab Nations: Structure, Trends, and Policy Implications
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-01)The paper makes two main contributions. First, it analyzes net foreign assets and liabilities in selected Arab countries over the past two decades, emphasizing the relative significance of direct versus portfolio investment. It distinguishes between foreign direct investment, portfolio equity investment, official reserves, and external debt. Second, the paper examines the effects of policy variables that affect the accumulation of net foreign assets and its components, analyzing how the existence of a sovereign wealth fund, the country's exchange rate regime, and the development of its financial system affect its net foreign assets. The main findings show that the presence of a sovereign wealth fund is positively and statistically significantly associated with foreign direct investment in Arab countries. Financial development (defined as credit to the private sector as a percentage of gross domestic product) is also statistically significant across various regressions. The more financially developed a country is, the more it should invest in riskier assets, such as portfolio assets. But Arab investors are more risk averse than investors elsewhere. Oil-exporting countries tend to invest more in debt assets than in portfolio assets. For oil-importing countries, financial development is the most important determinant of foreign direct investment.