Table 7 - uploaded by Djavad Salehi-Isfahani
Content may be subject to copyright.
Source publication
Middle East and North African countries (MENA) have achieved much to be proud of in human development. Falling child mortality and fertility have transformed family structures in most MENA countries. Despite important advances in health, education, and income, there are certain aspects human development in which MENA countries have not progressed a...
Context in source publication
Context 1
... members of a large demographic group, they suffer from similar labor market pressures caused by increase in supply of workers of all skill levels as well as imbalances in the marriage and housing markets. 4 Table 7 shows the share of youth in total MENA population by country and how it has increased over time; in 2005 it was higher than any other developing regions. In 1970, the proportion of youth (15-29 years old) in total population in MENA was in the range of other developing regions. ...
Similar publications
http://www.prb.org/Publications/Reports/2014/middle-east-hiv-aids.aspx
The Population Reference Bureau INFORMS people around the world about population, health, and the environment, and EMPOWERS them to use that information to ADVANCE the well-being of current and future generations. PRB's Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Program, initiated in 2...
How do differences in country-level governance and enforcement mechanisms affect firms? Using a large dataset from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, we document that differences in legal traditions translate into differences in cost of debt. Our results show that firms headquartered in the common law countries have lower cost of debt...
The study attempts to understand what attracts online audiences to the social media outlets of celebrity journalists in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region by examining the most replied-to tweets and the most commented-on Facebook posts in order to understand what audiences find appealing and interesting. The focus of the study is relate...
Recent decades have witnessed a rising interest in the measurement of inequality from a multidimensional perspective. This literature has however remained largely theoretical. This chapter presents an empirical application of a recent methodology and in doing so offers practical insights on how multidimensional inequality can be measured over two a...
MOOCs) have become the most remarkable well-built environment for
teaching and learning. Until recently the various types of online courses have
been an optional and supplementary source of gaining knowledge and skills to
compensate the learning lose in formal education. COVID-19 brought unprecedented
disruption to the education industry. Work inte...
Citations
... Government employment arrangements not only influence contemporaneous private sector labour markets, but also play a large role in influencing education and labour market choices of the next generation, children of both public and private sector employees. Children who grow up in households where parents work in the public sector tend to aspire to follow in their parents' footstep, in particular when the public sector offers highly competitive remuneration and job comfort and stability (Glaeser, Kerr and Kerr 2012;Guiso, Pistaferri, and Schivardi 2015;Salehi-Isfahani 2010). ...
This paper draws on interdisciplinary research to offer recommendations to improve employment and income growth opportunities. Though most of the recommendations are universally applicable, some are more relevant for oil and gas exporting countries.
... Interestingly, enacting nationalization policies has had a benefit for women in increasing their participation in the labor force (Buttorff et al., 2018a(Buttorff et al., , 2018b. Higher rates of growth in females' labor force participation rates, which have increased from 3.8% in 2000 to 20.0% in 2020 (Salehi-Isfahani, 2018), are encouraging signs as it could also improve their capacity to demand greater equal rights and fuel their engagement in politics, decisionmaking roles, and civil society. ...
Purpose
In patriarchal settings, cultural barriers continue to influence women’s participation in positions of leadership and political authority. This paper aims to explore these findings in light of the theoretical concepts of “hegemonic masculinity” and “patriarchy,” which explain gender disparities in the occupancy of political power and leadership positions in Qatar.
Design/methodology/approach
Data from original face-to-face national surveys conducted among subjects in Qatar were used, including 1,611 completed household interviews.
Findings
The findings were consistent with the prevailing patriarchal beliefs present in Qatari society and Arab Gulf States. The analysis showed that there was greater significant support for men holding key leadership and authority positions than women. Individual-level factors were found to have a significant association with attitudes favoring women. Compared to respondents who had never attended school, those who had completed secondary school and those who had partaken in higher education favored having women in leadership roles.
Practical implications
As a means to fix the gender imbalance within the occupancy of positions of political power in Qatar, this study recommends putting substantial efforts into increasing the number of interventions underpinning gender equality through social awareness programs that may improve the public’s perceptions. Furthermore, gender-equitable affirmative actions are needed to promote the inclusion of women in power and increase their presence in leadership roles.
Originality/value
This study is among the very few that have theoretically and empirically addressed the issue of women’s authority and involvement in key leadership roles in the context of Qatar.
... Additionally, employers, unable to properly screen job candidates, may use diplomas for their alleged signaling effect. The practice can produce inefficient matches and reduce career development (Arrow 1973;Salehi-Isfahani 2010). ...
Developing countries are working to improve the human capital of their populations to facilitate productivity growth and economic, social, and environmental development. In this policy brief, we emphasize the role of national policy capacity in the context of promoting sustainable development. We discuss an effective model for building national policymaking capacity and provide an approach to developing and understanding how policies inside and outside the education sector can promote or obstruct individual and group incentives to invest—both time and money—in lifelong education.
... An academic degree does not necessarily help much in encouraging private sector employment among graduates. Salehi-Isfahani (2010) notes that children of public sector employees in the Middle East aspire to a university degree with the sole purpose of joining the public sector. ...
Policymakers and mainstream media routinely blame the lack of access to financing as the primary obstacle faced by small and midsize businesses. Yet a review of literature on the issue points to the dearth of 'managerial capital' as the single most important factor in restricting business access to financial capital. Therefore, policymakers should seek measures to relax constraints on the availability of managerial capital as their main policy tool in efforts to ease access to financial capital. We suggest specific solutions for attracting foreign and developing domestic managerial capital for policymakers' consideration.
... However, the remaining fact has always been the weak developmental reforms for society and women in particular. National and international indexes of development annually indicate the extent to which corruption and lack of good governance still impact people's conditions and evidently women's quality of life (Djavad, 2016). Although it is hard to homogenize the MENA region's situation in terms of human development indicators (HDI), there is still enough proof that the majority of MENA countries continue to score low in comparison with developed countries when it comes to enhancing people's health care services, access to education (especially among women), and the income per capita. ...
In contemporary Muslim postcolonial countries, the term gender equality resonates as an appealing international principle for many politicians. However, for many Islamist and conservative forces, the term triggers suspicion and hostility on the ground that it serves as a western product that infringes cultural specificities and threatens the gendered parameters of the Muslim family. This chapter seeks to examine the different ways gender equality is perceived in CEDAW and in the Islamic Sharia as two distinct paradigms that inform feminist activism in the MENA region, and how they shape trajectories of women’s empowerment and/or marginalization. The chapter argues that while many ideo-political, developmental and legislatives situations in the region overlap to constitute ambivalent states for women’s rights, authors and theologians have managed to push the boundaries of Islam and feminism towards possibilities of Islamizing feminism and feminizing Islam. Given the assorted experiences of MENA region countries, this chapter draws on a number of attitudes expressed by feminist activists who manifest the philosophical, political and ideological grounds that underpin the meaning of equality in their contexts.
... For this new study, we sought to add to our past findings by exploring intelligence with human development and gross domestic product (GDP) to reflect MEP. We studied the UN's Middle East North Africa (MENA) countries based on its Human development report [46]. 2 Adding Israel to the MENA data with the UN's Human Development Index (HDI) data and the mean years of schooling for citizens, 3 we found a significant correlation (r = .90, p < .001, ...
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) impact the communities in which we live and the way individuals, business, government and civil society interact and develop. Simultaneously, all sectors have shown increased interest in the concept of social capital and the role it could play in building stronger communities, increasing economic productivity and contributing to regional rejuvenation. Thus, ICTs and social capital concept interlink with each other in a variety of ways. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between ICTs and social capital through the study of the relative’s disparities among Italian regions. This paper provides an operational definition of the concepts of ICT and social capital and presents consistent evidence on the geography of this relationship in Italy. The statistical and geographical analysis, based on non-linear clustering with self-organizing map (SOM) neural networks, are performed to analyse the performance of Italian regions in the period 2006–2013. The results show the isolation of Southern Italian regions. In particular, we found that ICTs may not promote social capital, that is, ICTs could not play a decisive role in creating and developing social capital. These results prompt the formulation of new policies for Italian regions.
... Alami, 2015;Jabbour, 2013;WHO, 2010). That these systems have had to serve larger populations on the back of limited or shrinking resources is well documented, as is the consequent deterioration of quality and availability, which fuelled public mistrust, further encouraging people to exit public systems (El Laithy, 2011;Kronfol, 2012a;Salehi-Isfahani, 2010). 21 Karshenas et al. (2014) add that government health spending, be it in relation to GDP, total health or total government spending, tended to be below the norm for middle-income countries, and below the level required to meet health needs. ...
This article provides an overview of health financing structures in Arab countries in the context of their preparedness for universal health coverage. Current arrangements have left large swathes of the population shouldering high financial burdens and facing hardships when using healthcare, with significant impoverishing and deterrent effects. Health protection schemes are most comprehensive for those who can afford healthcare; they are mainly based on contributions and formal employment and thus fail to cater for the poor and the rural and informal sectors. Financing systems also lack the operational bases and institutional prerequisites for effective resource pooling and risk sharing, with segmentation and fragmentation worsening horizontal and vertical inequities. The neglect of public health systems has reinforced inequities by widening the gap between needs and provision, and by emphasizing the ability to pay as a basis for accessing quality care. In a context of informality and poverty, focusing reforms on health insurance is not a panacea. Rather, moving towards universal health coverage and reducing health inequities will require changes in the level of political tolerance for social injustice, and a paradigm shift to a more equity-based political economy which views health as an investment and an entitlement.
... Unemployment, particularly among educated youth, is higher in MENA than any other global region (ILO 2010). In the face of the global recession and structural features of their economies, virtually none of the countries in MENA seem able to generate sufficient growth rates to absorb unemployment in the short to medium term (World Bank 2003b;Salehi-Isfahani 2010). As a result, the MENA region essentially forfeited the opportunity to take advantage of the "demographic gift" of a young population (Karshenas and Moghadam 2006, pp. ...
This book brings together essays that tackle the political aspects of development. It offers various explanations for variations in the pace and pattern of economic development across both time and space, focusing on a particular variable or set of variables such as civil conflict, natural resources, and regime type. The book traces the trajectory of scholarship in the field of political development, beginning with the rise of what became known as “modernization theory” in the 1960s. It also examines how development intersects with ethnicity, democracy, and taxation; the synergies and disconnects among religion, politics, and economic development; the politics of the so-called resource curse; and the impact of foreign aid on democratization in developing countries. Furthermore, the book looks at the experiences of countries and regions such as Africa, India, Latin America, South Korea, China, and East Asia.
... The region compared poorly to other emerging and developing countries in terms of governance and political stability (Fig. 4 ). As regards human development, MENA is characterized by high growth of the young population, low youth and female employment rates, and low productivity of education (Salehi-Isfahani, 2010). Significant variation was observed across the MENA region in terms of political stability. ...
• We investigate the different channels by which political instability impacts capital accumulation using a unique data of firms from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), a region that has long suffered from political unrest. The analysis builds on a unique data set of firms in MENA, and a novel two-step econometric approach.
... Despite disparities in income and literacy level, the region enjoys a fair degree of homogeneity in other respects and is well integrated historically and culturally. A common language (Arabic) and religion (Islam) connect the vast majority of the region's population (Salehi-Isfahani, 2010). ...
This article analyzes the educational systems in the Middle East and North Africa and highlights the similarities and specificities of countries in the region. The first part describes the structures of the educational systems. The second part identifies the characteristics of the educational systems in four distinct groups of countries in the region with common challenges. The third part analyzes the development of access to different levels of education in the region and discusses the development of mass schooling and higher education. The fourth part deals with the impact of education on societies in the region, analyzing the high rate of youth unemployment and the persistence of illiteracy. The place of religion and cultural diversity in the educational systems of countries in the region are addressed.
