Publication: Privilege-Resistant Policies in the Middle East and North Africa: Measurement and Operational Implications
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2018-02-12
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2018-02-12
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Renewing the social contract, one of the pillars of the new World Bank Group strategy for the Middle East and North Africa, requires a new development model built on greater trust; openness, transparency, inclusive and accountable service delivery; and a stronger private sector that can create jobs and opportunities for the youth of the region. Recent analytic work trying to explain weak job creation and insufficient private sector dynamism in the region point to formal and informal barriers to entry and competition. These barriers privilege a few (often unproductive) incumbents who enjoy a competition-edge due to their connections or ability to influence policy making and delivery. Policy recommendations to date in the field of governance for private sector policymaking have been too general and too removed from concrete, actionable policy outcomes. This report proposes -for the first time- to fill this policy and operational gap by answering the following question: What good governance features should be instilled in the design of economic policies and institutions to help shield them from capture, discretion and arbitrary implementation? The report proposes an innovative conceptual and measurement framework that encapsulates the governance features that could shield policies from capture, discretion and arbitrary enforcement that limits competition. The report offers a menu of operational and technical entry-points to enhance privilege-resistant policy making in a concrete way, that is politically tractable in different country contexts.
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“Mahmood, Syed Akhtar; Slimane, Meriem Ait Ali. 2018. Privilege-Resistant Policies in the Middle East and North Africa: Measurement and Operational Implications. MENA Development Report;. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29353 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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Publication From Privilege to Competition : Unlocking Private-Led Growth in the Middle East and North Africa(Washington, DC, 2009)The report starts with an introductory chapter that sets the stage for the issues and provides a short historical background on the development of the private sector in Middle East and North Africa (MENA), drawing on anecdotes and stories heard from many entrepreneurs and public officials consulted throughout the region during the preparation of this report. The core of the analysis is then presented in three parts. Part one assesses the performance of private sector development in the region from a macroeconomic and microeconomic standpoint (chapter two). 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This will particularly be the case in post conflict countries were social issues and stability concerns are more acute. Making policy areas resistant to privilege is important for this agenda. The complex political economy underlying policy capture and privilege-seeking may make this a seemingly intractable problem. However, the new study is inspired by recent literature on dynamics of policy change point to windows of opportunity within a complex political economy setting that allow incremental improvements with substantial cumulative effect over time. It breaks new ground by applying, to the private sector governance space, the motto “What gets measured gets done”Publication Jobs or Privileges : Unleashing the Employment Potential of the Middle East and North Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2015)This report shows that in MENA, policies that lower competition and create an unleveled playing field abound and constrain private sector job creation. 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However, there is little evidence on the political economy factors that perpetuate and or accentuate the lack of competition in the region, nor on the type of policy distortions that weaken competition and how those distortions ultimately affect job creation. This report aims to fill these gaps. It tackles the following questions: what types of firms create more jobs in MENA?; are they different from other regions?; what policies in MENA prevent the private sector from creating more jobs?; how do these policies affect competition and job creation?; and to what extent are these policies associated with privileges to politically connected firms? This report provides evidence that privileges granted to politically connected firms are associated with many of the policy distortions that the literature identifies to weaken private sector growth and job creation. This report assembles the most comprehensive firm census database ever put together for the MENA region. 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