Doing Business and Imperfections in the Development of Knowledge Economy in the Arab Countries

As underlined in the previous chapter, rents may reduce the capacity of Arab economies to accelerate its adoption of knowledge economy. Major imperfections in these economies at the levels of markets, governance, and enterprises are discussed in this chapter. The limited business and enterprise creation in relation to the high unemployment of skilled labor are among the issues analyzed and discussed. As the prevailing political, macroeconomic, and business components are inter-related, imperfections are identified in almost all areas of the Arab economies. The chapter shows clearly that shifts to further knowledge economic and social policies are needed.

Education Attainment and Feminization of Labor Markets in Arab Countries with Comparisons to Eastern and Central European Countries

The feminization of labor markets through the role of education is among the means that enhance the participation of women to development and ensure further involvement of human resources in the growth and development processes. While this is a process that is highly pursued in most developed economies, it is not clearly seen to be pervasive in most developing countries. The Arab economies are among those countries where lower participation of women is observed but where education can be an important leverage for further feminization of labor markets. These issues are discussed in the present chapter to underline the role of education in Arab economies.

How Local Development is Achieved in Relation to Knowledge in EEE Countries

Local and regional development is an increasingly important issue for researchers and politicians. The challenge of enhancing prosperity, improving wellbeing, and increasing living standards has become acute for localities and regions with developing economies. Moreover, questions about the implications of globalization for local and regional development in transition economies are of strong interest. The present chapter looks at how EEE countries have been developed at regional and local levels during the transition period and identifies some examples for Arab countries using a series of indicators and statistical methods.

Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation, and Knowledge Economy in Arab Countries

Access to knowledge economy, as well as progress in this area, is continuously assessed by the expansion of the Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) in any economy. Development and enforcement of IPRs is likely to protect rights to innovation and creation and contribute thus to further production and use of knowledge. This chapter describes how Arab countries protect the rights to innovation through patents, copyrights, geographical indications, models, labels, and other distinctive measures. Issues related to lack of enforcement and limited implementation of IPRs are not absent from Arab economies.

The Oil and Gas Sectors, Renewable Energy, and Environmental Performance in the Arab World

As most Arab countries produce and export a large share of oil and gas to world markets, it is important to focus in this chapter on these sectors to find out about the economic effects on these economies. In addition, with the development of non-renewable energies and with the major debates and actions undertaken to promote greener economies, this chapter aims to characterize the main trends affecting both renewable and non-renewable energy in Arab countries. The question related to the promotion of greener activities in this part of the world is tackled through the use of Environmental Performance Index in relation to the use of energy. Promising results are attained based on descriptive statistics, trends, and regression analyses. They show that Arab countries need to further account for the knowledge economy to diversify their use of energy and promote better environmental performance.

Production, Trade, Knowledge Economy, and ICTs in Arab Countries

This chapter introduces, respectively, the issues related to production, trade with a focus on the degrees of concentration and diversification besides the relationships to innovation, and knowledge with a focus of information and communication technologies (ICTs). The link between innovation and the value added in diverse sectors of the overall Arab economies is then addressed and discussed. Links between ICTs and other sectors are also discussed for the development of Arab economies.

The Situation of Knowledge Economy in the Arab and EEE Regions

This chapter introduces different knowledge components and indices and attempts to show their impacts on different economic and development indicators with focus on EEE and Arab economies. It uses mainly descriptive statistics and regression analysis to globally assess these performances. The sets of data used for EEE show already the data limitations faced by Arab economies.

School Attainment, Knowledge Economy in Arab Countries, and Comparisons with EEE Economies

The most important avenues emphasized in this chapter relate to the progress in school attainment as an important indicator of the knowledge position of a country. The descriptive statistical analyses besides other assessments are devoted to show the pertinence and the importance of education attainment. Barro and Lee 1950-2010 data are used in this chapter. The opportunities lost with the low level of school attainment are introduced and discussed. The relatively slow speed of recovery in schooling is already expressed by the lowest knowledge performances achieved between the economies of North Africa, Sudan, Yemen, and the Gulf countries. In addition, the description has shown a higher attainment in schooling of EEE economies in comparison to Arab countries.

Policy Outcomes and What Can be Learned by Arab Countries from EEE Economies

This chapter starts with a short literature review about the opportunities and challenges facing Arab countries. The lessons learnt from EEE countries are then discussed. A synthesis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to the Arab region is also introduced. Based on the conclusions from previous chapters, major inclusive economic policies are developed for the Arab economies. Furthermore, the present chapter devotes a large part to the overall economic and social policies that might be useful in generating additional insights to further the knowledge economy, social inclusion, enterprise creation, and a new environment for better well-being of the population. This could be used by policy makers to formulate coherent reforms for the sustainable development of the region based on knowledge economy principles and according to the particularities of each country and to the previous experiences of other developing countries.

Knowledge Governance and Economic Growth in Arab Countries

The present chapter deals with three interdependent components related to knowledge governance. The first one examines the effect of knowledge governance on medium term growth. Using the software industry as benchmark, the authors’ findings suggest that poor knowledge governance reduces economic growth over the medium term, but the relationship is non-linear. The second one analyzes the impact of formal institutions on economic knowledge and its related variables. In particular, the role of various governance indicators is examined. The results show that institutional quality plays an important role in the relative performance of MENA and African countries in building up the knowledge economy. The last aspect analyzed in this chapter is to establish the status of Arab economies in terms of their transformation to knowledge economies and empirically examine the impact of knowledge and its related variables on economic performance. Policy implications are also discussed.