Kiel Working Papers, Kiel Institute for World Economics
No 1183:
Economic Policy, Institutional Development, and Income Growth: How Arab Countries Compare with Other Developing Countries
Peter Nunnenkamp
Abstract: Similar to most other developing countries, almost all
Arab countries failed to catch up economically with advanced industrial
countries. This paper discusses three possible explanations of the
disappointing growth performance: (i) an insufficient reformmindedness of
developing country governments, (ii) counterproductive policy recipes of
the Washington Consensus and (iii) more deeply rooted barriers to growth
related to institutional deficiencies prevailing in various developing
countries. The empirical evidence for Arab countries and other developing
countries provides little support to the first two hypotheses. By contrast,
institutional development is shown to have a significant impact on
policy-related variables and the growth performance of developing
countries. For Arab countries as a group, institutional development is more
advanced than for the control group of other developing countries. Yet,
serious institutional deficiencies tend to constrain future growth in
several Arab countries. These findings have important implications for
national policymakers and the international community.
Keywords: Washington Consensus, implementation deficits, effectiveness of reforms, institutional growth determinants; (follow links to similar papers)
JEL-Codes: O10,; O57; (follow links to similar papers)
38 pages, September 2003
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