Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Foreword -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Glossary of Terms -- Abbreviations -- Overview -- What Is This Report About? -- Is the Private Sector Able to Play the Role of a Growth Engine? -- How Has the Private Sector Performed So Far? -- Is It about Missing Reforms? -- Is It about the Way Rules Are Implemented? -- Why Is It Difficult to Improve the Business Environment in the Region? -- Weak Demand for Reform: A Private Sector That Has Yet to Become an Agent of Change -- Weak "Supply" of Reforms: Policy-Making Institutions That Lack Credibility -- What Should Be Done Differently? Where Should Each Country Start? -- Getting Specific: A Roadmap for Credible Private-Led Growth Strategies in MENA -- Looking Forward -- 1. Voices of Entrepreneurs-Stories of Success, Hope, and Challenge -- Listening to Entrepreneurs -- Government Successes and Pitfalls in Supporting the Private Sector -- Challenges Facing Entrepreneurs-From Regulatory Barriers to Conflict and War -- Privileges, Unlevel Playing Fields, and the Credibility of the Reforms -- Hope and Enthusiasm for the Future -- Part I Private Sector Performance in the MENA Region: Explaining the Untapped Potential -- 2. Searching for Signs of Sustained Private-Led Growth in MENA -- The Growth of MENA Economies -- An Economy-Wide Perspective -- Firm-Level Productivity -- Summing Up -- 3. Explaining the Private Sector's Weak Performance-An Organizing Framework -- The Need for Humility in Prescribing the Keys to Private-Led Growth -- Policies, Institutions That Implement Them, and Expectations about the Future -- Measuring Rules, How They Are Applied, and Expectations about the Future -- 4. Policy Reforms in MENA, Their Credibility, and Their Implementation -- Is the Problem with Missing Reforms?.

The Problem Is the Insufficient Private Sector Response to Reforms -- Is It about the Way Rules and Policies Are Implemented? -- Symptoms of a Business Environment That Is Not the Same for All -- Summing Up -- Part II Policies and How They Are Applied: State Intervention and Discretion in Credit, Land, and Industrial Policy -- 5. Access to Credit in MENA: Toward Better Supervision and Less Interference -- Credit Markets and Banking Systems in MENA -- Business Manager Perceptions of Credit Constraints -- Beyond Perceptions and Complaints: How Many Firms Are Really Credit Constrained? -- What Can Governments Do to Increase Access to Credit? -- 6. Reassessing the State's Role in Industrial Land Markets -- The Low Access to Land in MENA Countries -- Sources of Inefficiencies in Land Markets -- Getting the Incentives Right in Enclaves -- Power and Rent Seeking in Public Land Allocation and Regulation -- The Way Forward -- 7. New Industrial Policies: Opportunities and Perils of Selective Interventions -- A Tradition of Subsidies and Selective State Interventions -- A Framework to Clarify a Controversial Debate -- Private Sector Policies in MENA-A Legacy of Disproportionate Interventionism -- Assessing Risks of Industrial Policy Interventions -- Should Oil-Rich Countries Intervene? Yes, but the Risks of Failure Are Higher -- A Final Cautionary Note: Industrial Policies Could Succeed if the Right Conditions and Processes Are in Place -- Part III Designing Credible Private Sector Reforms Informed by Political Economy Realities -- 8. Institutions and State-Business Alliances Constraining Reforms and Credibility -- Weak Supply of Reforms: Policy-Making Institutions That Lack Commitment and Credibility -- Weak Demand for Reform: A Private Sector That Has Yet to Become an Agent of Change -- What Can Reformers Do to Change the Political Economy Status Quo?.

9. Rethinking Private Sector Policy Making in MENA -- What Should Be Done Differently to Realign Investor Expectations? -- Looking Forward: Unlocking the Region's Private Sector Potential -- References -- Index -- Back Cover.

The future prosperity of most people of the Middle-East and North Africa-and the social cohesion of their countries-rests in great part on the ability of governments to enable the private sector to respond to this job creation challenge. This is what this report is about. It is about enabling the new generations of entrepreneurs that have emerged over the past years all across the region to play a bigger role in the growth of their countries. It is also about encouraging more investors to believe in the prospects of the region and trusting that business-friendly policy reforms will benefit them and not only a minority of privileged entrepreneurs. From privilege to competition: unlocking private-led growth in the Middle-East and North Africa complements previous regional flagship reports published by the World Bank. In particular, the 2004 flagship report on trade and investment in the MENA region and the 2008 report on education touched upon other fundamental ingredients of economic competitiveness and private sector development. By focusing on market institutions, the quality of implementation of economic policies and the credibility of reforms from the private sector perspective, this report offers a new angle to the growth and employment challenge of the MENA region.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2018. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.