Ideas, Networks and Jobs: Rebasing Growth In The Middle East And North Africa

Paul Collier ()
Additional contact information
Paul Collier: Department of Economics and Public Policy Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford

No 1331, Working Papers from Economic Research Forum

Abstract: Oil rents are set to wane. In the MENA Region, the legacy of four decades of dependence on oil is an economy that is not generating enough opportunities for productive employment. This paper set out a policy agenda for gradual change that is cumulatively transformative. Directly, productivity can be increased by encouraging clusters of firms capable of innovation, linked to vocational training that equips a workforce with the skills that firms need. But the socio-political transformation from a rent-seeking economy to a skill-based economy is more complex, requiring both cultural and institutional change. This cannot be planned in detail: a transformation is a unique event subject to radical uncertainty. It calls for a process of rapid social learning based on experimentation. As the society adapts, new opportunities open, and the next steps clarify. I give examples of how an adaptable framework has been built elsewhere.

Pages: 9 pages
Date: 2019-08-21, Revised 2019-08-21
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ara, nep-dev and nep-ene
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published by The Economic Research Forum (ERF)

Downloads: (external link)
http://erf.org.eg/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/1331.pdf (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 404 Not Found (http://erf.org.eg/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/1331.pdf [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://erf.org.eg/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/1331.pdf)
https://bit.ly/2HlR3xt (text/html)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 404 Not Found (https://bit.ly/2HlR3xt [301 Moved Permanently]--> http://erf.org.eg/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/1331.pdf [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://erf.org.eg/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/1331.pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:erg:wpaper:1331

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Economic Research Forum Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Namees Nabeel ().