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Business and Economics > Production and Operations Management

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Cover IMF Working Papers
SME Financial Inclusion for Sustained Growth in the Middle East and Central Asia
Mishel Ghassibe
,
Maximiliano Appendino
, and
Samir Elsadek Mahmoudi
This paper offers empirical evidence that greater financial inclusion of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can promote higher economic growth and employment, especially in the Middle East and Central Asia regions. First, we show that countries with higher SME financial inclusion exhibit more effective monetary policy transmission and tax collection. Second, we find substantial employment and labor productivity growth gains at the firm level from access to credit, gains that are higher for SMEs. We also obtain evidence of a substantial positive impact on SME employment and labor productivity growth from improved credit bureau coverage and insolvency regimes. Finally, cross-country aggregate evidence confirms the employment and growth gains from SME financial inclusion, which appear larger in the Middle East and Central Asia than in other regions.
Keywords:
WP; SME financial inclusion; Small and Medium Sized Enterprises; Financial Inclusion; Economic Growth; monetary policy transmission; growth gain; output gap; SME Financial inclusion index; labor productivity gain; SME employment; employment growth; Small and medium enterprises; Labor productivity; Productivity; Employment; Middle East and Central Asia
Cover IMF Working Papers
Private Sector Job Creation in MENA: Prioritizing the Reform Agenda
Mr. Benedicte Baduel
,
Carolin Geginat
, and
Ms. Gaelle Pierre
This paper examines the extent to which firms in selected MENA countries reported being constrained by the business environment around the time of the Arab Spring and the extent to which these constraints affected their employment performance. The results suggest that small firms in MENA faced more structural constraints than similar firms in other regions. We also find that MENA firms’ weaker job creation can be explained in great part by the macroeconomic environment and structural constraints. Low GDP growth, falling external competitiveness, corruption, lack of access to finance and poor access to electricity are found to explain a significant part of the lack of employment growth in MENA firms compared to their peers.
Keywords:
WP; employment growth; World Bank enterprises survey; enterprise survey; firms' characteristic; credit constraint; employment performance; firm exit; firms in Mena; medium-sized firm; SMEs; MENA; Arab Countries in Transition; private sector; employment; employment creation; World Bank enterprise survey; micro firm; Job creation; Business environment; Labor productivity; Electricity; Central and Eastern Europe
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Saudi Arabia: Selected Issues
International Monetary Fund. Middle East and Central Asia Dept.
This chapter reviews developments in GDP over the past several decades. The analysis shows that accumulation of labor and capital explains the bulk of overall output growth since 1990, with changes in total factor productivity playing only a minor role. Moreover, while increases in total factor productivity (TFP) during 1990-2009 have been close to the worldwide average, the pace of TFP growth fell during the 2000s. This suggests scope for increasing the efficiency of factor markets and highlights the importance of recent reforms to promote knowledge-based activity.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; price; TFP growth; oil price; oil GDP; private-sector employment; Dutch disease; Oil prices; Total factor productivity; Employment; Oil; gas and mining taxes; Global; Asia and Pacific; Middle East; business cycle correlation; one-standard error GDP Shock; C. fiscal policy; impulse response; cyclical GDP; D. labor market initiative; Caribbean
Cover IMF Working Papers
Recoveries in the Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan: Have Macroeconomic Policies Been Effective?
Mr. Francesco Grigoli
and
Ms. Dalia S Hakura
This paper identifies and documents the properties of output gap recessions and recoveries in the Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan (MENAP) during the 1980 to 2008 period. It goes on to investigate the key determinants of the recoveries. The duration of MENAP countries’ recessions and recoveries has increased from the 1990s to the 2000s. MENAP hydrocarbon exporting countries’ recessions were on average more pronounced in the 2000s, and hydrocarbon importing countries’ recessions milder. Fiscal policy is found to have played a key role during the recoveries to potential output, although with weaker effects for MENAP countries that are more open to trade. Monetary policy is found to have been less effective. This is likely to be related to the fact that many of the MENAP countries have fixed exchange rate regimes and hence have limited room for active monetary policy.
Keywords:
WP; MENAP country; GDP; country; recession
Cover IMF Working Papers
Constraintson Growth in the MENA Region
Ms. Rina Bhattacharya
and
Hirut Wolde
In this paper we contribute to the empirical literature on growth in the MENA region by attempting to quantify the impact of the various constraints faced by local businesses highlighted by the World Bank’s Business Enterprise surveys. To the best of our knowledge this dataset has not been used in any empirical analysis looking at the main constraints on growth in the MENA region. Our empirical results suggest that the key direct constraints to growth in the MENA region are difficulties in access to finance, labor skill mismatches and shortages, and electricity constraints.
Keywords:
WP; country; MENA region; Algeria; Lebanon; Growth; Physical infrastructure; Labor skill shortages; Financial constraints; countries in the MENA; MENA country; growth performance of the Middle East and North Africa; MENA economy; MENA average; growth in the MENA; business manager; Labor shortages; Electricity; Business enterprises; Total factor productivity; Central and Eastern Europe; Sub-Saharan Africa