IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/glh/wpfacu/172.html

Understanding Saudi Private Sector Employment And Unemployment

Author

Listed:
  • Farah Hani

    (Center for International Development at Harvard University)

  • Michael Lopesciolo

    (Center for International Development at Harvard University)

Abstract

This paper analyzes the changes in Saudi employment and unemployment between 2009 and 2018 and argues that a supply-demand skill mismatch exacerbated by insufficient job creation, and prevalent Saudi preferences and beliefs about employment underpin the high unemployment problem that coexists with low Saudi employment in the private sector in the country.

Suggested Citation

  • Farah Hani & Michael Lopesciolo, 2021. "Understanding Saudi Private Sector Employment And Unemployment," Growth Lab Working Papers 172, Harvard's Growth Lab.
    • Handle: RePEc:glh:wpfacu:172
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://growthlab.cid.harvard.edu/files/growthlab/files/2021-03-cid-fellows-wp-131-saudi-employment.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Doruk Cengiz & Arindrajit Dube & Attila Lindner & Ben Zipperer, 2019. "The Effect of Minimum Wages on Low-Wage Jobs," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(3), pages 1405-1454.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Abu Elnasr E. Sobaih, 2023. "Challenges in Effective Implementation of Saudization Policy in the Restaurant Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-17, May.
    2. Durand-Lasserve, Olivier, 2022. "Nationalization of the private sector labor force, quotas, matching and public jobs, an illustration with Saudi Arabia," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 98-117.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bas Scheer & Wiljan van den Berge & Maarten Goos & Alan Manning & Anna Salomons, 2022. "Alternative Work Arrangements and Worker Outcomes: Evidence from Payrolling," CPB Discussion Paper 435, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    2. Juan Pablo Atal & José Ignacio Cuesta & Felipe González & Cristóbal Otero, 2024. "The Economics of the Public Option: Evidence from Local Pharmaceutical Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 114(3), pages 615-644, March.
    3. Patrick Mellacher, 2021. "Growth, Inequality and Declining Business Dynamism in a Unified Schumpeter Mark I + II Model," Papers 2111.09407, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2023.
    4. Brady, David, 2023. "Poverty, not the poor," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 9(34), pages 1-17.
    5. Peter Harasztosi & Attila Lindner, 2019. "Who Pays for the Minimum Wage?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(8), pages 2693-2727, August.
    6. Todd Morris & Benoit Dostie, 2023. "Graying and staying on the job: The welfare implications of employment protection for older workers," Cahiers de recherche / Working Papers 15, Institut sur la retraite et l'épargne / Retirement and Savings Institute.
    7. Qian, Yuan, 2025. "Supply chain spillover effects of corporate voluntary green behavior: A quasi-natural experiment from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    8. Guignet, Dennis & Jenkins, Robin R. & Belke, James & Mason, Henry, 2023. "The property value impacts of industrial chemical accidents," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    9. Lin, Ling & Xiao, Min & Yao, Rongrong & Zhang, Xiaoying, 2024. "Product market liberalization and corporate cash holdings: Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    10. Rik Chakraborti & Gavin Roberts, 2023. "How price-gouging regulation undermined COVID-19 mitigation: county-level evidence of unintended consequences," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 196(1), pages 51-83, July.
    11. Kudlyak, Marianna & Tasci, Murat & Tüzemen, Didem, 2025. "Minimum wage increases and vacancies," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    12. Ma, Shuang & Li, Xuan & Wu, Xi, 2024. "Minimum wage and internal labor migration: Evidence from China," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 226(C).
    13. Tuo, Ling & Rezaee, Zabihollah & Gao, Lei, 2024. "Is there a tradeoff between management earnings forecasts and sustainability reporting?," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    14. Xu, Guangyu & Chen, Huang, 2025. "Inclusive growth dilemma: Weighing the pros and cons of land market reform," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    15. Ersahin, Nuri & Giannetti, Mariassunta & Huang, Ruidi, 2024. "Trade credit and the stability of supply chains," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    16. Julius Koschnick, 2025. "Teacher-directed scientific change:The case of the English Scientific Revolution," Working Papers 0274, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    17. Blesse, Sebastian & Diegmann, André, 2022. "The place-based effects of police stations on crime: Evidence from station closures," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    18. Lu Dai & Yuhan He & Shougui Luo, 2025. "Does the innovative city pilot policy improve university–industry collaborations in China?," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 50(1), pages 375-398, February.
    19. Ihsaan Bassier & Joshua Budlender, 2025. "When do employers share? Rent sharing, monopsony and minimum wages," CEP Discussion Papers dp2134, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    20. Xu, Kefan & Yuan, Peng & Yu, Renjie, 2025. "The effects of mixed ownership reforms on Chinese firms’ emissions," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 191-209.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:glh:wpfacu:172. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chuck McKenney (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.