The Economic Impact of IMF and World Bank Programs in the Middle East and North Africa: A Case Study of Jordan, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, 1983-2004

Main author: Harrigan, Jane
Other authors: El-Said, Hamed
Format: Journal Article           
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id eprints-13959
recordtype eprints
institution SOAS, University of London
collection SOAS Research Online
language English
language_search English
description This paper examines whether the economic reforms attached to IMF and World Bank policy-based lending in the Middle East and North Africa have stimulated sustained economic growth. In order to investigate this, we chose four countries to study in depth: Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco. These were chosen as they have been put forward by both the IMF and the World Bank as successful reformers who, for prolonged periods, carried out World Bank and IMF guided economic reform programs. We examine the sources of growth during the reform period in these four countries, looking at intensive versus extensive growth, growth in the tradables sector versus the non-tradables sector and growth caused by the reforms versus growth caused by exogenous factors. We discovered that the reform programs in all four countries were associated with spurts of economic growth, but that, apart from Tunisia, this was not sustained, with intensive growth in the tradables sector stimulated by the reform program.
format Journal Article
author Harrigan, Jane
author_facet Harrigan, Jane
El-Said, Hamed
authorStr Harrigan, Jane
author_letter Harrigan, Jane
author2 El-Said, Hamed
author2Str El-Said, Hamed
title The Economic Impact of IMF and World Bank Programs in the Middle East and North Africa: A Case Study of Jordan, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, 1983-2004
publisher De Gruyter
publishDate 2010
url https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/13959/