This is the first book dealing with competition and efficiency issues in the Arab world. Combining quantitative analysis and field surveys to assess the degree of competition, the degree of efficiency and their relationships in the manufacturing sector, this book provides a unique insight into Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia.

To what degree are trade liberalization, productivity, and economic growth correlated? Can economic policies designed to encourage competition and curtail industry protection result in large-scale improvements, such as increased innovation and reduced unemployment?

After 20 years of economic reform in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), economic performance is still lagging behind many regions of the world. Even in those countries that are the most advanced in implementing reforms, including Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia, industries with low productivity growth and high market power continue to dominate. Moreover, the termination of the Multi-Fiber Agreement and the negotiations concerning further liberalization of trade in agricultural products (under the framework of the World Trade Organization) put these and other countries under pressure of fierce competition from emerging nations.

Recent empirical evidence on the impact of reforms in a number of developing countries shows that such persistence of inefficiency and market power is specific to MENA. Showcasing in-depth analyses from Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, and Turkey (with comparative data from Asia and Latin America), this book focuses on the dynamics of firm entry and exit to help explain the low productivity of the region. The results suggest a number of policy recommendations designed to foster competition, which, in turn, would contribute to innovation, productivity growth, and improved return on capital investments. The book not only reveals important correlations among policy and market factors in MENA, but suggests fruitful areas of research in other developing regions of the world.

This book explores how corruption is now widely recognized as a major "disease" which threatens not only economic development but also the foundations of societies. As well as examining the causes and consequences of corruption, this book also offers a deep analysis of possible cures. It discusses the solutions that have been adopted in different countries and at the international level in order to curb corruption. Previous analyses have focused mainly on the causes and consequences of corruption but by analysing the different solutions that have been adopted around the world, and the reason of their successes or failures, this book seeks to help national and international policy makers in setting an effective anti-corruption strategy. The book will be of particular interest to researchers, students, scholars and practitioners working on corruption.

In the last 25 years, Europe has experienced a reduction in growth and an explosion in unemployment. At a time when this and the continuing existence of the welfare state are top of the European agenda, it has become increasingly popular to blame the globalization of the world economy for current problems. This book provides the first comprehensive set of studies on the impact of trade with developing countries on the European labour market. It argues that the evidence does not point to trade with developing countries as a major cause of European unemployment. Instead, technological change and domestic policy choices are the main causal factors. As a result, the contributors argue against protectionist trade polices, whose benefits to employment would be limited at best, but whose risk to world growth due to trade wars is immense. The next ten years are a critical period for European integration and expansion: Trade and Jobs in Europe will be of crucial importance to all those at the heart of the current debate: advisers, policy-makers, and researchers alike.