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Conflict

Paper Session

Sunday, Jan. 3, 2021 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM (EST)

Hosted By: Middle East Economic Association
  • Chair: Marcus Marktanner, Kennesaw State University

Conflict and Entrepreneurship in the MENA: Five Issues

Frank Gunter
,
Lehigh University

Abstract

Many MENA countries including Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Syria, Palestine (West Bank and Gaza), and Yemen have recently experienced severe conflict. Top-down attempts to both encourage economic growth and reduce political instability in such conflict states have generally failed. This has resulted in increased interest in bottom-up economic development strategies sometimes referred to as expeditionary economics. However, there is little evidence that these entrepreneurial efforts have been any more successful. This paper argues that there are five questions that must be answered before the success or failure of efforts to encourage entrepreneurship in conflict or post-conflict MENA states can be accurately evaluated. Are MENA conflicts driven primarily by greed or grievance? Are government jobs, “real” jobs? What is the specific relationship between economic development and political stability? What type of entrepreneurship is most needed in MENA states? And lastly, what are the effects of corruption on entrepreneurship? Based on recent political, social, and economic data for the conflict and post-conflict MENA states, it is argued that failures in analyzing political and economic trends may be a result of asking the wrong questions while using inappropriate proxies. Study ends with a discussion of the challenges involved in developing effective policies to encourage entrepreneurship driven economic development polices in countries that are suffering simultaneously from political instability, ossified institutions, and corruption.

Palestinian Firms’ Status and Employment under the Israeli Security Regime: Evidence from Establishment Censuses

Shireen Alazzawi
,
Santa Clara University
Vladimir Hlasny
,
United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia

Abstract

The Israeli occupation of Palestine has been accompanied by violence and a repressive security regime affecting the mobility of Palestinian workers and capital. We explore how the violence and security measures have affected firms during 1997–2017, between regions and years facing highly versus loosely repressive regimes. We use alternative indicators of the security regime in individual governorates and years from OCHA-oPt, B’Tselem, and World Bank databases. Implications for establishments’ operating status, economic activity, and female and total employment are assessed. Our data – the entire population of some 500,000 establishment-year observations – come from five waves of the Palestinian Establishment Census.
Regressions with governorate fixed effects show that establishments facing tighter security regimes – mobility restrictions, physical violence and building demolitions in their governorate – are more likely to suspend their operations or engage in restructuring through preparatory or ancillary activities, rather than continue active operation. Repressive regimes are also associated with falling employment levels and, according to some evidence, falling female shares of employment. Repressive regimes are thus damaging to employment in Palestine through several channels. Some firms do not survive, or enter hibernation. Surviving firms retain fewer workers. Female workers may be the first to be fired. We find no evidence that establishments try to escape a security regime in one governorate for another governorate, which validates our governorate-level analysis of the perseverance and employment-growth of firms.

Religions and Piety Levels: Experiments with Arabs and Europeans on the Prospects of Conflict and Co-operation

Mohamed El Komi
,
American University-Cairo

Abstract

We posit that discrimination persists due to stereotype bias. Individuals within organizations formulate biased expectations of performance, basing them on common priors. These biased expectations are subsequently used in subjective assessments of social interactions and workplace. As a result, targets of stereotype bias (disadvantaged groups) are evaluated differently from others (e.g. deprived access to certain economic opportunities and subjected to social stigmas). We adopt an experimental economic methodology, in which we recreate a work-setting by providing student subjects with an effort task: the trivia task. Subjects vary in their gender, religiosity, and ability (GPA). The experiment varies the observability of gender, religiosity, and competence. It measures the extent of bias among the subjects using trust games and public good (PG) games, in which we vary treatments of random selection of group members and choice of these members. Subjects make decisions based on information that indicate religious groups and religious stringency type. Our preliminary results show that more religious participants contribute significantly more in a PG game when they are in above average religiosity groups than when they are in a below average religiosity groups.
This paper investigates the underlying factors of inter-religious and inter-stringency behavioral interaction, broken down into: 1) trust (trusting the other to work and cooperate with); and 2) comfort (feeling comfortable to socialize and interact with the other). Hence, it will help revealing the causes of conflict and co-operation between and within religious groups, which could lead to better designs of policies and programs in the region.

Dying for Sex? – Exploring the Relationship between Male Youth Unemployment, Unmarriedness, and Foreign Fighters

Marcus Marktanner
,
Kennesaw State University
Moamen Gouda
,
Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
Shimaa Hanafy
,
Hankuk University of Foreign Studies

Abstract

This paper examines the hypothesis that sexual frustration drives expat jihadism. Our main sexual frustration indicator is the interaction of male youth unemployment and male unmarriedness (age 20-29). This interaction is a “normal bad” that is highly positively correlated with, and statistically dominated by, income per capita. Principal component analysis of these three variables suggests one principal component. We suggest using the predicted value of the interaction term of youth unemployment and male unmarriedness when regressed on income per capita as a principal component. This variable can be interpreted as a development-induced sexual frustration level, rids the regression analysis of multicollinearity problems, and is highly significant. A policy implication of our finding is that, for example, active labor market programs should be prioritized to passive ones to reduce sexual frustration.
Discussant(s)
Khusrav Gaibulloev
,
American University-Sharjah
JEL Classifications
  • H0 - General