Do intra-Arab labour flows promote regional economic integration?

Mohamed Elafif

International Journal of Development and Conflict, 2014, vol. 4, issue 2, 93-101

Abstract: The elimination of economic impediments and the dismantling of trade restrictions have become common features of economic integration across economies in the world. Many countries in several regions of the world have increased their intra-regional flows of productive factors; the Arab region has experienced an increase in labour flows, in particular during the period of the oil price boom. Consequently, remittances between Arab countries were increased; especially remittances obtained from Arab Gulf countries (GCC region). Using the panel data fixed effects estimation, this study investigates the relationship between remittances and economic integration in the Arab region, covering the period 1983–2003. Despite the existence of expanding intra-Arab labour flows, the paper argues that a continued expansion requires — in addition to other factors – a harmonization of the economic policies and removal of obstacles to intra-regional labour flows. Moreover, reducing differences in per capita GDPs of the Arab countries is important for enhancing Arab economic integration. A real desire to increase intra-Arab labour flows and subsequently economic integration is also required.

Keywords: Arab economic integration; Intra-Arab labour flows; Remittances (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.ijdc.org.in/uploads/1/7/5/7/17570463/december_14_issue_art3.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:gok:ijdcv1:v:4:y:2014:i:2:p:93-101

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.ijdc.org.in/issues.html

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Development and Conflict is currently edited by Partha Gangopadhyay

More articles in International Journal of Development and Conflict from Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().