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Middle East and Central Asia > Mauritania, Islamic Republic of

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Cover IMF Working Papers
Informality, Labor Market Dynamics, and Business Cycles in North Africa
Olivier Bizimana
and
Shant Arzoumanian
Employment informality is widespread across North Africa. This paper aims to shed light on the role played by the informal sector in labor market adjustments over the business cycle. It finds that the response of labor markets to output fluctuations is more muted in countries with higher informality levels, like the North African economies. The analysis also confirms that informal employment is countercyclical and acts as a buffer during economic downturns in countries with relatively higher informality. However, contrary to what took place in past recessions, informal employment contracted sharply during the 2020 pandemic recession in high informality economies, suggesting that it did not play its traditional countercyclical role. By contrast, employment informality tends to fall modestly or increase during economic upturns, including the post-pandemic recovery. This finding presages the persistence of a large informal sector in the post-covid era in medium- and high-informality countries.
Keywords:
Informality; Labor Markets; Business cycles; Okun’s Law; employment informality; labor market dynamics; business cycles in North Africa; informality economy; law coefficients from panel regression; product market rigidity; Informal employment; Employment; Economic recession; Labor force participation; North Africa
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Islamic Republic of Mauritania: Economic Development Documents
International Monetary Fund. Middle East and Central Asia Dept.
This Economic Development Document summarizes Mauritania’s Strategy for Accelerated Growth and Shared Prosperity (SCAPP) for 2016–30. The first five-year phase of the SCAPP will complete projects underway and lay the foundation for a new, politically more peaceful Mauritania, with infrastructure to support growth and encourage development of the country’s natural resources. Steps will be taken to complete the reforms needed to improve the business climate and promote the private sector. In the second five-year period, the economy will be more diversified and competitive, with the real rate of growth averaging about 10 percent a year. The third five-year phase will consolidate Mauritania’s “new look,” and economic growth will exceed 12 percent a year.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; border
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Islamic Republic of Mauritania: Economic Development Documents
International Monetary Fund. Middle East and Central Asia Dept.
This Economic Development Document summarizes Mauritania’s Strategy for Accelerated Growth and Shared Prosperity (SCAPP) for 2016–30. The first five-year phase of the SCAPP will complete projects under way and lay the foundations for a new, politically more peaceful Mauritania, with infrastructure put in place to support growth and encourage development of the country's natural resources. Steps will be taken to complete the reforms needed to improve the business climate and promote the private sector. In the second five-year period, the economy will be more diversified and competitive, with the real rate of growth averaging at about 10 percent a year. The third five-year phase will consolidate Mauritania's “new look” and the economic growth will exceed 12 percent a year.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; border; private sector development strategy; public finance; Islamic Republic of Mauritania honor; natural resources; poverty rate; shared prosperity; Inclusive growth; Public investment and public-private partnerships (PPP); Human capital; Business environment; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Gender Equality and Economic Diversification
Romina Kazandjian
,
Ms. Lisa L Kolovich
,
Ms. Kalpana Kochhar
, and
Ms. Monique Newiak
We show that gender inequality decreases the variety of goods countries produce and export, in particular in low-income and developing countries. We argue that this happens through at least two channels: first, gender gaps in opportunity, such as lower educational enrollment rates for girls than for boys, harm diversification by constraining the potential pool of human capital available in an economy. Second, gender gaps in the labor market impede the development of new ideas by decreasing the efficiency of the labor force. Our empirical estimates support these hypotheses, providing evidence that gender-friendly policies could help countries diversify their economies.
Keywords:
WP; output diversification; Gender inequality; female labor force participation; economic diversification; economic growth; human capital; low-income and developing countries; export diversification; export product diversification; Theil index; globalization Index; Export diversification; Gender diversity; Women
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine (UEMOA): Questions générales
International Monetary Fund. African Dept.
Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine : questions générales
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; Waemu; investment efficiency; investment; WAEMU country
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU): Selected Issues
International Monetary Fund. African Dept.
This paper presents stylized facts on the quantitative and qualitative infrastructure gap in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), estimates the efficiency of public investment, and recommends how to improve it. The WAEMU countries face an important common challenge of creating sufficient fiscal space to finance ambitious growth, development, and poverty-reduction programs in individual countries. This paper also provides comparative evidence of the situation of WAEMU in several areas of financial development relative to groups of benchmark countries. The state of inclusion in the WAEMU along three dimensions—poverty, income inequality, and gender inequality—is also examined in this paper.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; Waemu; investment efficiency; investment; WAEMU country; WAEMU member; extent income; WAEMU growth; Public investment spending; Public investment and public-private partnerships (PPP); Financial sector development; Gender inequality; Sub-Saharan Africa; West Africa; Global
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Islamic Republic of Mauritania: Selected Issues Paper
International Monetary Fund. Middle East and Central Asia Dept.
This Selected Issues paper analyzes various aspects of fiscal framework in the Republic of Mauritania. Mauritania needs to avoid pro-cyclical fiscal policies and adopt rules that guide medium-term fiscal sustainability. Fiscal policy has been responsible and focused on fiscal consolidation, but important challenges lie ahead linked to price volatility, exhaustibility of resources, and effective use of resources. Mauritania has important natural resource wealth, and its fiscal policy is shaped by considerations resulting from its reliance on resource revenues. Prospects for price shocks in the short term and significant mining expansion in the long term could pose significant challenges to fiscal policy management. The analysis of fiscal framework options reveals that a fiscal rule which targets a nonresource primary balance for long-term sustainability, designed to allow some frontloading of public spending on productive investment, would be appropriate for Mauritania under the assumption of a finite resource horizon. A fiscal rule targeting a structural resource balance would be appropriate in the scenario of long-lasting resources, possible under the assumption of favorable developments in the global commodity markets.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; investment; Mauritania; price; resource; investment path; banking sector reform; resource revenue; export diversification; investment plan; labor force; Public investment spending; Productivity; Fiscal governance; Global; North Africa
Cover IMF Working Papers
Institutional Transformations, Polity and Economic Outcomes: Testing the North-Wallis-Weingast Doorsteps Framework
Mr. Marc G Quintyn
and
Sophia Gollwitzer
This paper tests the theoretical framework developed by North, Wallis and Weingast (2009) on the transition from closed to open access societies. They posit that societies need to go through three doorsteps: (i) the establishment of rule of law among elites; (ii) the adoption of perpetually existing organizations; and (iii) the political control of the military. We identify indicators reflecting these doorsteps and graphically test the correlation between them and a set of political and economic variables. Finally, through Identification through Heteroskedasticity we test these relationships econometrically. The paper broadly confirms the logic behind the doorsteps as necessary steps in the transition to open access societies. The doorsteps influence economic and political processes, as well as each other, with varying intensity. We also identify income inequality as a potentially important force leading to social change.
Keywords:
WP; open access order; government expenditure; political system; Gini coefficient; NWW transition framework; institutions; economic performance; political performance; transition; income inequality; open access society; Income inequality; Personal income; Corruption; Europe; Asia and Pacific
Cover Policy Papers
Implementation of the Joint Management Action Plan on Bank-Fund Collaboration
International Monetary Fund
In light of the multilateral effort to ensure the adequacy of the financial resources available to the International Monetary Fund (the “Fund”), and with a view to supporting the Fund’s ability to provide timely and effective balance of payments assistance to its members, the Swedish Riksbank (“Riksbank”) agrees to lend to the Fund an SDRdenominated amount up to the equivalent of EUR 2.47 billion, on the terms and conditions set out in this paper.
Keywords:
PP; bank; staff; Fund staff; Bank-Fund collaboration; JMAP; Fund management; Fund team; Fund respondent; Fund mandates overlap; a number of World Bank; Fund shareholder; Bank-Fund program; Fund financial support; area department; lead economist; Government debt management; Global financial crisis of 2008-2009; Debt sustainability analysis; Human capital; Global
Cover Policy Papers
Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism - Observations from the Work Program and Implications Going Forward
International Monetary Fund
This paper provides a summary of the IMF and the World Bank work programs on anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism following the Fund and Bank Boards' decisions in March 2004 to endorse the revised FATF standard (2003 version) and methodology for the purposes of preparing ROSCs and to expand the areas of Bank/Fund responsibility to cover the revised FATF standard comprehensively. It draws lessons on what has worked well and the challenges and discusses the work program going forward.
Keywords:
PP; CFT regime; work program; CFT assessment; CFT measure; CFT system; assessment process; Anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT); Terrorism financing; Development policy; Remittances; Money laundering; Global