Cover -- Half Title Page -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- Chapter 1: Overview -- The Political Demand: Spatial Equity with Productivity -- Spatial Disparities in Living Standards: Uncovering the Truth -- Policy Package 1. Level the Playing Field and the Opportunity for Human Development in Poor Places -- Policy Package 2. Connect Poor Places to the Poles of Development -- Policy Package 3. Underpin Private Sector Interest in Nonleading Areas -- Proximity for All: Public Institutions for Spatial Policies -- Endnote -- References -- Chapter 2: The Political Demand: Spatial Equity without Compromising Productivity -- MENA's Spatial Disparities in Living Standards: Six Facts -- Politics Makes Geography Important -- MENA Needs Economic Agglomeration -- Spatial Disparities Create Political Stresses -- Women and Men Experience Spatial Inequalities Differently -- Spatial Equity with Spatial Efficiency -- Matching Policy Packages to Lagging Areas: A Three-Way Framework -- Endnotes -- References -- Chapter 3: Diagnose to Prescribe: Uncovering the Truth about Spatial Disparities -- What Kind of Spatial Inequality Does the Country Have? -- Is the Lagging Area a Fringe, Belt, or Pocket? -- Endnotes -- References -- Chapter 4: Policy Package 1. Level the Playing Field and the Opportunity for Human Development in Lagging Areas -- Apply in All Circumstances: The Only Package for "Fringe" Areas -- How Governance Affects Urbanization-Some Numbers and an Explanation -- How Differences in the Subnational Investment Climate Can Handicap Lagging Areas -- How to Manage the Spatial Dimension of Public Expenditure -- How to Correct Spatial Disparities in Public Education Systems -- Reducing Gender Disparities in Education in Lagging Areas -- Health: Correcting Spatial Disparities in Access to Care.

Smoothing the Path for City Growth -- Endnotes -- References -- Chapter 5: Policy Package 2. Connecting Poor Places to the Poles of Development -- The Power of Spillovers -- Road Transport: An Extensive Long-Distance Network but an Underdeveloped Short-Distance Connectivity -- Regional Trade Facilitation Matters Crucially for Lagging Areas -- Priorities for Improving Spillover Connectivity -- Electronic Proximity: New Tool for the Integration of Lagging Areas -- Endnotes -- References -- Chapter 6: Policy Package 3. Underpin Private Sector Interest in Nonleading Areas -- Difficulty and Expense of Using Public Money to Lure Development to Lagging Areas -- MENA's Focus on Using Public Resources to Override Economies of Agglomeration -- Financial Incentives to Steer the Spatial Pattern of Development Have Not Been Successful -- New Paradigm of Regional Economic Development Policy -- Realizing Agricultural Potential through Clusters -- Conclusion -- Endnotes -- References -- Chapter 7: Proximity for All: Public Institutions for Spatial Policies -- Spatial Disparities: A Big Task for the State -- How States Organize and Mobilize to Address the Spatial Dimension of Policy -- Conclusion: Keeping Spatial Development Simple -- Endnotes -- References -- Appendix: MENA Region -- Index -- Eco -- Back Cover.

Geographical differences in living standards are a pressing concern for policymakers in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Economies of agglomeration mean that production is most efficient when concentrated in leading areas. So how can the region reduce spatial disparities in well-being without compromising growth? The solution to spatial disparities lies in matching the policy package to a lagging area?s specific characteristics. Key questions include: is the lagging area problem really as serious as one thinks; is it a problem of low economic opportunity or of poor human development; are lagging area populations close enough to agglomerations to benefit from spillovers; and is there manifest private investor interest? Drawing on the World Bank?s 2009 World Development Report, Reshaping Economic Geography, the book proposes 3 policy packages.First, all lagging areas can benefit from a ?level playing-field for development? and investment in people. Geographic disparities in the policy environment are a legacy of MENA?s history, and gaps in human development are a major component of spatial disparities. Smart policies for the investment environment, health, education, social transfers and urban development can therefore close spatial gaps in living standards.Second, lagging areas that are close to economic agglomeration can benefit from spillovers - provided that they are connected. MENA?s expenditure priority is not necessarily long-distance primary connections, but infrastructure maintenance and short-distance connections such as rural roads and peri-urban networks. Public-private partnerships can also bring electronic connectivity to lagging areas.Third, shifting regional development policy away from spatial subsidies towards the facilitation of cluster-based growth will increase the chance of cost-effective impacts.The final chapter of

the book examines the institutional prerequisites for effective spatial policy. It argues that MENA?s centralized/sectoral structures are not always adapted to governments? spatial development agendas, and describes alternative institutional options.

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