The Economic Impact of IMF and World Bank Programs in the Middle East and North Africa: A Case Study of Jordan, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, 1983 - 2004

Abstract

This paper examines whether the economic reforms attached to IMF and World Bank policybased lending in the Middle East and North Africa have stimulated sustained economic growth. In order to investigate this, we chose four countries to study in depth: Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco. These were chosen as they have been put forward by both the IMF and the World Bank as successful reformers who, for prolonged periods, carried out World Bank and IMF guided economic reform programs. We examine the sources of growth during the reform period in these four countries, looking at intensive versus extensive growth, growth in the tradables sector versus the non-tradables sector and growth caused by the reforms versus growth caused by exogenous factors. We discovered that the reform programs in all four countries were associated with spurts of economic growth, but that, apart from Tunisia, this was not sustained, with intensive growth in the tradables sector stimulated by the reform program.

Comparative political economy of the IMF arrangements after the Arab uprisings: Egypt and Tunisia

“…Moreover, it was in fact the large amount of debt relief provided to Egypt by creditor countries during the Gulf War that contributed to Egyptian commitment to the reform process and later success (Harrigan and El-Said 2010, 5) as opposed to its own dynamics. On the other hand, considering its embrace of a straight and whole-hearted reform process, Tunisia seems to be relatively more successful in its relations with the IMF (Richards and Waterbury 2008, 242;Harrigan and El-Said 2010). In this sense, while Tunisian IMF engagement featured a more complete reform process, the Egyptian case remained incomplete and erratic.…”

Political and Socio-Economic Change in the Middle East and North Africa

“…The domestic capitalist class was not as well organized as in Egypt and could not command the kind of attention and respect that the export sector enjoyed (Cammett 2007: chapters 3 and 5). To the extent that the Tunisian model worked to promote investment, growth, and employment, it was based on an East Asian state-led pattern, overlaid with a belated, gradual, and controlled set of neoliberal reforms (Harrigan and El-Said 2010).…”

Neoliberal Transformation and the Uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt

“…The domestic capitalist class was not as well organized as in Egypt and could not command the kind of attention and respect that the export sector enjoyed (Cammett 2007: chapters 3 and 5). To the extent that the Tunisia model worked to promote investment, growth and employment, it was based on an East-Asian state-led pattern, overlaid with a belated, gradual and controlled set of neoliberal reforms (Harrigan and El Said 2010).…”