Books on Saudi Arabian Economics

by Christian Huxley
published in MER140

Michael Field, The Merchants (London: John Murray, 1984).

John R. Presley, A Guide to the Saudi Arabian Economy (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1984).

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Books on Arab Economies

by Sharif Elmusa
published in MER140

Samir Amin, The Arab Economy Today (London: Zed Press, 1982).

Ismail-Sabri Abdalla et al, eds., Images of the Arab Future (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1983). (Translated from Arabic)

Adda Guecioueur, ed., The Problems of Arab Economic Development and Integration (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1984).

Robert Aliboni, ed., Arab Industrialization and Economic Integration (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1979).

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ESCWA, Economic Integration in Western Asia

by Danny Reachard
published in MER142

ESCWA, Economic Integration in Western Asia (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985).

This collection of papers from ECWA’s December 1981 Expert Group Meeting on Feasible Forms of Economic Cooperation and Integration in Western Asia includes a useful review of various schemes for Arab economic integration -- the Arab Common Market, the Arab Trade Convention and so on -- and chapters on inter-Arab trade, labor migration and financial flows.

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Aspiration and Reality in Iraq's Post-Sanctions Economy

by Bassam Yousif
published in MER266

From 1990 to 2003, Iraq languished under comprehensive UN sanctions that prohibited foreign trade. When sanctions were finally lifted, many economists and pundits, as well as Iraqis themselves, hoped for a rapidly expanding economy, brisk reconstruction and a return to prosperity. They have been sorely disappointed.

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The Cost of Living Crisis in the West Bank

by Nu'man Kanafani
published in MER265

In September 2012, declining living standards ignited a firestorm of street protests and strikes in the West Bank. The immediate spark was a sharp increase in fuel prices, alongside an increase in the value-added tax (VAT) rate. It seems that the protesters had a message for Palestinian Authority (PA) policymakers: It is no longer acceptable to blame all of Palestine’s economic woes on Israeli occupation. Demonstrators were demanding that the PA manage the economy better, the occupation notwithstanding.

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"We are willing to pay for settlements but not for health care"

Gidon Eshet on the Economic Crisis

by Joel Beinin
published in MER157

One key to understanding how the Israeli economy (malfunctions is that the Histadrut (The General Federation of Workers in Israel; up to 1965 the “Jewish Workers in Israel”) was never simply a trade union.

Change and Stasis in Syria

One Step Forward…

by Bassam Haddad
published in MER213

Gulf Juggernaut

by Karen Pfeifer
published in MER263

Adam Hanieh, Capitalism and Class in the Gulf Arab States (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).

Economic Impact of the Crisis in Egypt

by Marsha Pripstein Posusney
published in MER168

Egypt was facing a severe foreign exchange shortage when the Gulf crisis broke out. Its debt arrears were piling up and it was finding it more and more difficult to obtain new loans. The Gulf crisis threatens to make this situation even worse. Here’s how:

Remittances sent home by some 1 million Egyptian workers in the Gulf amounted to at least $4.25 billion in 1989. About half of these workers have returned home, causing an estimated annual loss of $2.4 billion.

Suez Canal tolls were $1.38 billion in 1989. The government expects a 10-20 percent drop over a year due to the loss of Iraqi and Kuwaiti oil tanker traffic and the decline in shipments of goods to those two countries.

Iraq Since 1986: The Strengthening of Saddam

by Marion Farouk-Sluglett , Peter Sluglett
published in MER167

In June 1986, we wrote that the situation in which Iraq found itself “underlines the vital need for the establishment of democracy...however broadly this may be defined.” Four years later, this plea has become more urgent; the regime has become even more powerful and repressive and has now extended its rule to Kuwait, initiating a crisis whose possible consequences for the region, if not the world, are fearful to contemplate.