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Fifty Years of Fiscal Policy in the Arab Region

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  • Ishac Diwan

    (Harvard University)

  • Tarik Akin

Abstract

The paper looks at the evolution of public finance in a select number of MENA countries over the past 50 years. The review covers the size of government, how it is financed, and the composition of expenditures and revenue. The size of government expenditures has swung dramatically over time, moving from an average in the region of over 50% of GDP in the 1980s to about 25% of GDP in the 2000s. We evaluates how such changes were implemented over time and assess the current fiscal situation in light of the inheritance of the past. We also evaluate the extent to which these trends correspond to the various political economy stories used to characterize the past and the lead-up to the uprisings of 2011.

Suggested Citation

  • Ishac Diwan & Tarik Akin, 2015. "Fifty Years of Fiscal Policy in the Arab Region," Working Papers 914, Economic Research Forum, revised May 2015.
    • Handle: RePEc:erg:wpaper:914
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Zeineb Gouasmi & Houda Haffoudhi, 2020. "Analysis of Sustainability of Fiscal Policy and Democratic Transition: Case of Tunisia," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 11(2), pages 512-529, June.
    2. Hertog, Steffen, 2020. "Segmented market economies in the Arab world: the political economy of insider-outsider divisions," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 103677, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

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