Economic Policies, Structural Change and the Roots of the “Arab Spring” in Egypt

Abstract

This paper analyses the economic challenges facing Egypt in the post-Mubarak period, demonstrating the ways in which economic policy choices over the 2000s have contributed to the economic and social outcomes witnessed in the run up to the 2011 uprisings. The article investigates three specific policy areas and demonstrates their role in reducing employment opportunities, eroding wages and facilitating the creation of an increasingly unequal economic and social structure in Egypt. The three policy areas addressed by the article are (i) the general misplaced fiscal focus on expenditure-reduction rather than revenue-enhancement and the lack of progressive revenue growth; (ii) the manipulation and use of subsidies in Egypt to appease the populous instead of fostering employment generation; (iii) the failure to adequately promote employment-intensive investment.

Did the Arab Spring lead to economic, institutional and sociopolitical changes? An empirical analysis through the perceptions of Egyptian youth

“…There remain significant economic, political and social challenges in the post-AS Egypt (Bargawi, 2014; Shalaby, 2016; Silver et al , 2017; Ali, 2019; Echevarría and García-Enríquez, 2019), and the outcomes from the AS-related changes could take many years to prevail. Nevertheless, our novel findings underscore the importance of comprehending the perceptions about the AS, and they signal that the AS has set a path toward significant transformations in the Egyptian society.…”

Economic Growth, Youth Unemployment and Political and Social Instability: A Study of Policies and Outcomes in Post-Arab Spring Egypt, Morocco, Jordan and Tunisia

“…However, we found that this has not been the case. In her article that analyses the economic policy in post-Arab Spring Egypt, Bargawi (2014) reported that IFI-initiated economic policies adopted by the Mubarak regime contributed to high levels of youth unemployment. Similarly, Hanieh (2014:123) cited recommendations from the World Bank that Tunisia would need "to engage in a series of comprehensive and politically sensitive reforms," which included terminating some ALMPs such as AMAL (see description in the Tunisia case study below) due to the supposed burden it imposed on the national budget.…”