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Economic developments in the West Bank and Gaza since OSLO
Abstract
The performance of the Palestinian economy in 1994-2000 was uneven, but for the period as a whole, real per capita income declined despite the mobilisation of substantial amounts of foreign aid and despite considerable progress in establishing a basic institutional framework. This paper argues that economic growth and private investment, in particular, have been adversely affected by closures, by uncertainties about political developments and the direction of policies and policy reforms, by problems of governance, and by the excessive transportation and transaction costs related to the intensification of the permits system.
... Also, because of weak financial performance, many companies in Palestine borrow continuously from banks. In the absence of other financing alternatives such as securities and bonds, financial fraud takes place among Palestinian people who are then poisoned in Israeli jails (Fischer, Alonso-Gamo, & Von Allmen, 2001). This raises questions concerning corruption in the country, which prompted the National Authority officials to launch an investigation on how such activities could have started in the financial sector (Fischer et al., 2001). ...
... In the absence of other financing alternatives such as securities and bonds, financial fraud takes place among Palestinian people who are then poisoned in Israeli jails (Fischer, Alonso-Gamo, & Von Allmen, 2001). This raises questions concerning corruption in the country, which prompted the National Authority officials to launch an investigation on how such activities could have started in the financial sector (Fischer et al., 2001). Furthermore, the Palestinian banking sector is currently being hampered by the Israeli occupation of Palestine (Fjeldstad & Isaksen, 2008). ...
... Other problems are related to the weaknesses in the economy and its structure, or market imbalances and credit concentration. The weakness in financial performance of companies in Palestine generates a continuous need to borrow from banks, especially in the absence of other financing alternatives such as securities and bonds to the point where disclosure on financial fraud investigations took place among Palestinian people who were then poisoned in Israeli jails (Fischer et al., 2001). This raises questions concerning corruption in the country and how it opened the door to the National Authority officials to launch an investigation on how such activities could have been started in the financial sector (Fischer et al.,2001). ...
... In the absence of other financing alternatives such as securities and bonds, financial fraud takes place among Palestinian people who are then poisoned in Israeli jails (Fischer, Alonso-Gamo, & Von Allmen, 2001). This raises questions concerning corruption in the country, which prompted the National Authority officials to launch an investigation on how such activities could have started in the financial sector (Fischer et al., 2001). Furthermore, the Palestinian banking sector is currently being hampered by the Israeli occupation of Palestine (Fjeldstad & Isaksen, 2008). ...
... Some scholars view information and data in a similar light (Gwartney, Lawson, & Norton, 2008). An appropriate alternative definition of information that can be used is provided by English (2005) who stated that information is not a by-product, nor documentation, but rather information is a direct product of process used to capture knowledge about the persons, places, things, and events discovered while conducting business transactions. When managers have the necessary information, they can make good decisions as information can be tabulated into diagrams which managers can interpret. ...
... According to English (2005), there is an indication to support the perception that good information can help lead an organization towards effective decision making. However, it is hard to make right decisions without processed data or information in each activity and phase of the decision making. ...
This study investigated the relationship of information quality on decision-making effectiveness among Palestinian bank managers. Previous studies reported on the importance of information quality on decision-making effectiveness in different fields of management. Organisational structure was reported to moderate information quality and decision-making effectiveness in different fields of management. However, the moderating effect of organisational structure on the relationship between information qualities on decision-making effectiveness had not been addressed in the banking sector in Palestine. This cross-sectional quantitative study examined the relationship between information quality and decision-making effectiveness as being moderated by organisational structure. A total of 146 managers were surveyed in which they were required to respond to 55 items that elicited the three variables. Information quality was represented by six dimensions, organisational structure three dimensions, and decision making effectiveness three dimensions. The data were analysed by SPSS and PLS-SEM. The findings indicated that relevance and importance of information quality dimensions to decision making effectiveness in the banking sector of Palestine. The result revealed that four dimensions of information quality; namely, accuracy, completeness, relevancy and interpretability had a significant relationship with decision making effectiveness. dimensions of organisational structure, namely centralization, significantly moderated the relationship between information quality and decision making effectiveness while complexity did not show a moderating effect. Overall, this study extends the understanding of the decision-making effectiveness. It contributes to building the model of the relationship between information quality and decision making effectiveness in the banking industry. These findings will benefit bank managers in Palestine to better understand the role of information quality and utilise it towards developing sustainable banking services in Palestine.
... Regulatory intrusion into enterprise activities may be manifested in a variety of forms: permits and licenses, arbitrary taxation, and superfluous statutes (see for example, Safavian et al., 2001). Fischer et al. (2001) in their assessment of the Palestinian economy over the period 1994 to 2000 show that excessive red tape, bureaucratic inefficiency, and perceptions of poor governance and financial mismanagement deterred domestic and foreign investors. Gausch & Hahn (1997) note that, 'the overall lesson is not that regulation is generally undesirable, but that it often has undesirable economic consequences'. ...
... Hence, rational people are more likely to engage in productive activity than theft. In their assessment of the Palestinian economy, Fischer et al. (2001) contended that laws, once prepared, needed to be adopted more quickly; and once approved, they should be implemented forcefully to ensure a level playing-field, protect property rights and encourage competition. ...
... Regulations that are costly to firms or people can induce bribes or other lobbying activities to bring about changes or, at least, waivers of the regulations in question. Regulatory intrusion is notable for its various negative effects including less democratic government, corruption, and development of informal activity (Djankov et al., 2002); deterrence of domestic and foreign investors (Fischer et al., 2001); and overall undesirable economic consequences (Gausch & Hahn, 1997). ...
This paper reports on the construction of a governance index for Fiji Islands for the period 1985 to 2003. The governance index has three core dimensions, each a composite of several indicators. Time series for each of the three dimensions of governance, as well as for the overall governance index, are presented in a range from zero (poorest achievement) to 1.0 (best achievement). The indices indicate that Fiji's governance performance was very adversely affected by the coups of 1987 and 2000, with the Rule of Law dimension being the most adversely affected. The index constructed provides a basis from which to monitor future governance performance.
... A third group of studies (e.g. Fischer et al., 2001) suggested that the future Palestinian economy should adopt a liberal and non-discriminatory trade regime. ...
... By contrast, a more restrictive trade policy, imposing new tariffs on trade with Israel (MFN scenario), leads the economy to shrink by 8.42%. These results are in line with the predictions by Fischer et al. (2001) and Astrup and Dessus (2005) that a liberal and non-discriminatory trade regime is the most suitable for a sovereign Palestinian state. ...
This paper quantifies the economy‐wide effects of different trade policies on the Palestinian economy, using a detailed database and a general equilibrium model adjusted to the particularities of the Palestinian economy. The findings show that a liberal and non‐discriminatory trade regime provides the highest benefits for the Palestinian economy, in terms of welfare effects, GDP growth and job creation. The choice of an exchange rate regime has a considerable influence on the effects of trade policy. Accordingly, a full control over trade and monetary policy instruments could improve the capacity of the Palestinian National Authority to address the prevailing high unemployment and sluggish economic growth.
... A third group of studies (e.g. Fischer et al., 2001) suggested that the future Palestinian economy should adopt a liberal and non-discriminatory trade regime. ...
... By contrast, a more restrictive trade policy, imposing new tariffs on trade with Israel (MFN scenario) leads the economy to shrink by 8.42%. These results are in line with the predictions by Fischer et al. (2001) and Astrup and Dessus (2005) that a liberal and non-discriminatory trade regime is the most suitable for a sovereign Palestinian state. ...
Economic development and trade performance in Palestine are strongly affected by the unusual links between the Palestinian and Israeli economies. After years of occupation and sluggish economic growth, the signature of the Paris Protocol was expected to achieve a rapid growth of the Palestinian economy and healthier economic relations with Israel. However, due to the asymmetry of power between the negotiating parties and the incomplete implementation of the Protocol provisions, the Palestinian economic and trade performances remain low. Both economic and security conditions call for a re-negotiation of the terms of the Protocol. There is a wide consensus that a final solution to the conflict should provide for a Palestinian state with unambiguous borders, and full control over economic policies. In line with such a solution, this paper provides an assessment of the impact of different trade policies and exchange rate regimes, using a general equilibrium model that allows for a quantification of the outcomes. The model is modified to consider a multi-trade-partners set-up, a differentiated treatment for large and small trade shares, and tariff rate quotas. The paper also addresses the unemployment problem in Palestine and assesses its connections with trade policy. The results show that a liberal and non-discriminatory trade regime provides the highest benefits for the Palestinian economy, in terms of welfare effects, GDP growth and job creation. The results also show the impact the exchange rate regime has on the outcomes of trade policies. Subsequently, a full control over trade and monetary policy instruments will improve the capacity of the Palestinian authorities to address the prevailing unemployment and sluggish economic growth.
... The Palestinians used tactics such as throwing stones and Molotov Cocktails at Israeli forces. In response, the Israeli military enforced curfews and other forms of control upon the Palestinians (Fischer et al 2001). It was only until the signing of the Oslo peace accords in 1993 that the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) agreed to recognize the State of Israel in exchange for Israeli recognition of the PLO as the representative of the Palestinians (Roy 2001). ...
... While some Palestinians blame it on Ariel Sharon's (Israel's late and former Prime Minister) visit to the Temple Mount, others say that it was a result of failed negotiations at the Camp David Summit in July 2000; which were directed at ending the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. An agreement was never reached between former U.S. President Bill Clinton, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and the late Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, further distancing any peace movements between the two parties (Fischer 2001). ...
In the past two decades, suicide terrorism in its different forms has become a popular topic of research and debate. It has contributed to a different sense of normalcy and regularity in various societies across the world given that suicide bombings are relatively inexpensive and effective, compared with other kinds of terrorist methods. This study primarily focuses on suicide bombings in the Palestinian/Israeli territories, an area that has experienced conflict and tension for over six decades. In doing so, the research study uses Durkheim’s typology of suicide as a theoretical framework to trace the history of suicide bombings in the Palestinian/Israeli territories, outline the characteristics of suicide bombers, their motivations, and how suicide bombings have been used as a form of resistance to occupation. The data collected cover suicide bombings that have occurred from April 1994 to February 2008. The research study uses logistic regression to examine the characteristics of the suicide bombers and their attacks. The results show, among other things, that the attacks possess elements of both altruistic and anomic types of suicide in the Durkheimian sense of the word.
... Social obligations and political intervention affected the work and the integrity of the tax officers besides the relationship between taxpayers and enforces (Fjeldstad et al 2002). This situation undermines the citizens' perception of good governance and their opinion about the regulatory capacity of the authority (Fisher et al 2001). Things slightly changed in 2000 when the PA took "important steps to make its own financial operations more transparent, including by bridging all tax revenues under the control of the Ministry of Finance and by having its commercial operations audited and the results from this audit made public" (Fisher et al, 2001: p. 271). ...
... Even though the lack of political independency is likely to represent a crucial obstacle for good governance (Fisher et al 2001), our findings might suggest that a consistent process of institutional transparency might help to increase tax morale. For instance, the variable of public spirit includes also the opinion that respondents have about the use of bribes at work. ...
The Palestinian context is missing in the tax morale literature. Hence, in this paper we consider public spirit and associational activity two major expressions of pro-social behavior and we estimate their impact on Palestinians’ t ax morale (intrinsic motivation to pay taxes).
The empirical analysis uses a unique dataset based on a survey conducted by the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute in 2007 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. By using a bivariate probit model, we find that tax morale increases with public spirit but it is lower among Palestinians involved in associational activities. Predicted conditional probabilities indicate that public spirit has more impact when the respondent has low confidence in the institutions
and in the rule of law. Finally, more public spirit is required for a self-employed worker in order to deal with tax compliance than for a worker in the public sector, unless the worker in the public sector has lower confidence in the institutions and in the rule of law than the self-employed worker.
... Past studies evaluated the effect of government effectiveness on growth. For example, Fischer et al. (2001) examined the efficiency of the Palestinian economy during 1994-2000. They found that excessive official procedure, inefficient bureaucracy, mismanagement of resources, and weak governance discouraged local and international investors and, hence, had a regressive effect on growth. ...
Institutional quality (InQ) plays an important role in shaping economic growth (ECG), influencing how economies develop and perform. The literature addresses the nexus between InQ and ECG and the link between health and ECG; findings are often contradictory, creating knowledge gaps. Importantly, research on the interplay between InQ, health, and ECG in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries is particularly limited. This study aims to address this gap by evaluating how health impacts ECG, with an emphasis on the mediating role of InQ in the health–growth nexus in SSA. This study examines these interplays across 35 SSA countries from 2012 to 2022. The life expectancy at birth (LEX) and real gross domestic product per capita (GDP) are used as proxies for health outcomes and ECG, respectively. The system generalised method of moments estimator is employed to analyse data. Results show that the LEX has a strong positive effect on economic growth in SSA countries. Furthermore, the InQ indicators (such as control of corruption, government effectiveness, rule of law and political stability, and absence of violence) are positively correlated with ECG. When the LEX interacts with InQ indicators, InQ is identified as a key channel through which LEX influences ECG. The findings confirm that InQ plays a crucial role in the health–growth nexus, with the positive impact of LEX on ECG being more pronounced in countries with higher levels of InQ, while the effect is weaker in countries with lower levels of InQ. The findings of this study have crucial policy implications, highlighting the intricate link among institutional quality, health outcomes, and economic growth. This study’s findings provide essential insights for policymakers to design focused strategies that improve InQ and health outcomes to achieve sustained ECG in SSA.
... The government effectiveness dimension of governance can also matter in terms of controlling gas emissions. This dimension may include excessive red tape, bureaucratic inefficiency, and perceptions of poor governance and financial mismanagement within the public sector and, particularly, the government's environmental regulatory authority [82]. Thus, countries that maintain effective governments can gain confidence from voters and producers and equally enforce governmental rules and regulations relating to CO 2 emissions with greater strength [83]. ...
Environmental control remains a salient aspect of states’ policies in the present decade. To reduce emissions, governments and central banks tend to adopt various strategies. The present research quantifies the nexus between fiscal and monetary policy, institutions’ quality, central bank characteristics, and carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions. Data has been sourced from 95 countries during the period from 1998 to 2019. According to the empirical results, the main determinants of gas emissions in developing countries are economic growth, government expenses, and central bank independence, whereas, in developed countries, they are economic growth, government efficiency, and central bank transparency and independence. Economic growth is a significant deteriorating factor in the state of the environment. By contrast, institutional and bureaucratic quality, measured through government effectiveness and expansionary fiscal policies as well as central bank independence and transparency, are ameliorating factors, as they decrease emissions. To conclude, governments must first reduce control over central banks and target government spending on the energy transition.
... Government effectiveness is one of the dimensions of governance that has the potential of having an effect on the issue of controlling carbon productivity. This dimension is known to feature the excess red tapes like; inefficiency, bureaucracy, and the perception of poor governance and financial management as it relates to the public sector, with particular reference to the environmental regulatory author established by the government (Fischer et al. 2001;Rjoub et al. 2017a, b). In that case, countries that have effective governance (in the form of efficient public sector, minimal bureaucracy, better management of public resources, and financial integrity) can gain confidence from the producers as well as be able to enforce rules and regulations by the government that are geared towards managing carbon productivity (AlBassam 2013). ...
The attention of scholars and policymakers on the achievement of sustainable green economy has been on increase; however, the topic has not been exhaustively investigated. This study empirically investigates the implications of financial regulations on sustainable green economy in Turkey utilizing a time series data spanning from 1996 to 2019. This study employed Perron and Lee-Strazicich unit root test in the presence of structural break point for examining the stationarity properties of the series and FMOLS, CCR, and ARDL for estimating the long and short-run effect of the financial regulations on carbon productivity. Our study demonstrates that rule of law, economic freedom, and inflation have a significant long-run relationship with carbon productivity as confirmed by FMOLS and CCR, while rule of law, regulatory quality economic freedom, and inflation were confirmed by ARDL to have long-run causal relationship with carbon productivity. In addition, our study found that control of corruption, government effectiveness, rule of law, regulatory quality economic freedom, and inflation have a short-run causal effect on carbon productivity. Finally, this study concludes that financial regulations is significant for achieving sustainable green economy in Turkey and as such should be accorded adequate attention by the policy makers.
... For movements within the West Bank, permit requirements are lower than for movements between the West Bank and Gaza, and from the Palestinian territories into Israel and East Jerusalem. Requirements for the permits change frequently without prior notice according to Israeli political objectives and perceived security risks (Fischer et al., 2001). ...
This paper investigates the economy-wide effects of cross-border movements of Palestinian labor for employment in Israel. The integration of Palestinian and Israeli labor markets is unique, as it differs from international labor migration and associated remittances described in the literature. Especially, it departs from the cultural and social dimensions associated with international migration because there is no shift in residence. We find based on an economy-wide model calibrated to a newly developed database of the West Bank economy that increasing Palestinian labor demand in Israel negatively affects the West Bank economy by bidding up domestic wages, reallocating labor away from tradable activities and reducing competitiveness of the Palestinian export sector. However, increasing labor income from Israel has positive welfare effects for Palestinian households. Considering these results, the paper identifies policy options for the Palestinian National Authority.
... 62 The "general closure system" was in force in 1999. Under this system, the number of permits issued, and thus the number of Palestinians legally working in Israel, ebbed and flowed with the political and security situation in the region, though the total number of permits remained roughly stable (Akkaya et al., 2008;Fischer, Alonso-Gamo, and von Allmen, 2001). ...
... Regulatory institutions in the sampled countries are defunct organizations and their effective functioning is hampered by interference of central powers and bureau. Regulatory intrusion is noticeable for its various negative effects including deterrence of domestic and foreign investment (Fischer, Alonso-Gamo, & Von Allmen, 2001), Corruption, less democratic government and informal activities (Djankov, La Porta, Lopez-de-Silanes, & Shleifer, 2002). Table 5 represents the short run dynamics associated with ARDL. ...
This study explores the dynamics between disaggregated factors of governance and stock market development for the panel of selected South Asian countries (i.e., Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka). Using newly developed data for disaggregates of governance with annual frequency between 1996 and 2014, this study pioneers in South Asian context. Doing so, this study incorporates dynamic panel data technique pool mean group estimation for robust and policy oriented outcomes. The empirical results show that three indicators of governance (control of corruption, accountability and rule of law) have a positive and statistically significant impact on stock market development. The results of long‐run estimations are homogenous across the countries but, the short‐run estimates, and the speed of adjustment towards the long‐run equilibrium are found to be heterogeneous. It could be due to volatility effect of governance in each cross section country. From the policy perspective, the study concludes that the institutional quality and governance are the significant factors on market capitalization in the panel countries. The institutional factors (i.e., control of corruption, accountability and rule of law) support stock market development through high market capitalization, strengthens investor's confidence for long term investment in the countries.
... Instead of ushering in a period of cooperation and independence, movement within and between the West Bank and Gaza was heavily restricted, and expensive permits, frequent border closures, and a reduction of the number of Palestinians allowed to work in Israel turned the economy to recession (Fischer et al., 2001). The Palestinian economy has thus been described as in a position of not just stagnation, but "de-development," which encompasses dispossession of economic resources, economic externalisation, and deinstitutionalisation (Roy, 1999). ...
Food aid is a common response to the food insecurity brought by conflict and inadequate development. Yet the very well-intentioned actions that are meant to stave off immediate humanitarian crises may, in the long-term, serve as tools that promote dependence, decrease the likelihood of sustainable development, and make peace less possible. In this article, I examine food insecurity and food aid in the conflict-affected Palestinian territories. I will describe ways in which Palestinian efforts to localise food production and increase food security are actively hindered, as well as how the system of humanitarian food assistance meant to fill these gaps may in fact perpetuate them. Finally, I discuss policy recommendations for stakeholders in the conflict that can encourage Palestinian food sovereignty in a manner that increases prospects for long-term peace and development, while providing immediate benefits for Palestinian quality of life and well-being.
... The extent to which civilian central government staff is structured to design and implement government policy and deliver services effectively also has relationship with CO 2 emissions. According to Fischer et al. (2001), the government apparatus that is responsible for regulating and controlling the activities bothering on the environment and pollution could operate with unnecessary bureaucracy and long queuing times. The public thoughts about the organizational framework for environmental governance as poor and inefficient could mean that there is poor governance regarding CO 2 emissions. ...
This study empirically examined the relationship between CO2 emissions and good governance in oil- and non-oil-producing countries in the SSA region. The findings from this paper revealed very interesting results proving that good governance has a negative relationship with CO2 emissions. Oil-producing countries have good governance system to help control and reduce CO2 emissions as compared to non-oil-producing countries. Particularly, in oil-producing countries, business regulatory environment, budget and fiscal management, as well as fiscal policy have a significant negative relationship with CO2 emissions. But there is rather a positive relationship between these indicators and CO2 emissions in non-oil-producing countries as they do not have the required structures and arrangements to control CO2 emissions. Also, in oil-producing countries, property rights and rules have positive relationship with CO2 emissions but in the case of non-oil-producing countries, there is a negative relationship, meaning that non-oil-producing countries have good legal system and rule-based governance structures that is capable of protecting property rights. There is positive relationship between quality of government administration and CO2 emissions in oil-producing countries but negative for non-oil-producing countries. Trade liberalization and economic growth have positive relationship with CO2 emissions in both categories. But urbanization has a negative relationship with CO2 emissions in non-oil-producing countries but positive for oil-producing. The findings point that effective and efficient institutions is a vital element for SSA countries to help combat the increased emissions of CO2 to engender growth.
... Various aspects of governance can impose direct as well as indirect effects on the extent of CO2 emissions. For instance, bad governance including excessive red tape, bureaucratic inefficiency and financial mismanagement can have negative impacts on CO2 emission (Fischer et al., 2001). In their study, Pushak et al. (2007) found that there could be a higher growth payoff from macroeconomic stability and public expenditure in countries characterized by relatively better public sector governance. ...
Over the past few decades, good governance has become an important issue in public administration. One key reason behind this reality is the paramount role of government in promoting sustainable development and protecting the environment. Therefore, evaluating the impact of good governance on the quality of the environment could be taken into consideration by both the economic researchers and the policy makers. This paper dealt with the impact of good governance on the environmental pollution in Iran and its competitors in the 2025 vision document (i.e. southwest Asian countries, SWAC) over the period of 2002 to 2015. The results revealed that accountability, political stability government effectiveness, quality of law, rule of law and control of corruption (as representative indicators of good governance) has significant effects on the environmental pollution. The degree of the economic openness does indicate negative and significant relations with the environmental pollution as well. The paper suggests that economic growth and value added industry have a significant positive effect on environmental pollution in the countries studied. Therefore, improving good governance indices in selected countries including Iran could potentially reduce the pollution. JEL Classification: G34 Q53 O40
... In particular, it was the policy of closure and the disarticulation of Palestinian territory that it produced that was responsible for: (a) the inability of the economy to develop out of the malaise that 30 years of direct occupation had left it in; and (b) the manifest worsening of The fragmentation of Palestine 53 53 53 economic conditions -in other words, the reduction in productive economic activity -which had led to the increase in severity of conditions. However, since the adverse effect of closure has been accepted virtually universally and has been discussed above, and in great depth elsewhere (see, inter alia, Ishac and Radwan 1999;Fischer, Alonso-Gamo and Von Allmen 2001;Hilal andKhan 2004 Roy 2006;Gordon 2008;Khalidi and Taghdisi-Rad 2009), it is sufficient to state that the deleterious effect of closure has, in Roy's words: ...
The Palestinian national movement reached a dead end and came close to disintegration at the beginning of the present century. This critical analysis of internal Palestinian politics in the West Bank traces the re-emergence of the Palestinian Authority’s established elite in the aftermath of the failed unity government and examines the main security and economic agendas pursued by them during that period. Based on extensive field research interviews and participant observation undertaken across several sites in Nablus and the surrounding area, it provides a bottom-up interpretation of the Palestinian Authority’s agenda and challenges the popular interpretation that its governance represents the only realistic path to Palestinian independence. As the first major account of the Palestinian Authority’s political agenda since the collapse of the unity government this book offers a unique explanation for the failure to bring a Palestinian state into being and challenges assumptions within the existing literature by addressing the apparent incoherence between mainstream debates on Palestine and the reality of conditions there. This book is a key addition to students and scholars interested in Politics, Middle-Eastern Studies, and International Relations.
... On the one hand, according to Arnon and Weinblatt (2001) and others, Israel might have pursued economic policies that were not in the best interest of the Palestinian economy. Fischer et al (2001) noted that from 1967 through the early 1990s the Israeli government encouraged the development of daily commuting by Palestinians into Israel, mainly to work in construction and agriculture. At the same time, it took measures to restrict the development of Palestinian economic activities in the WBG through a strict system of licensing that affected the establishment of new businesses and the development of existing ones. ...
... The government effectiveness dimension of governance can also matter in terms of controlling CO 2 emissions. This dimension may include excessive red tape, bureaucratic inefficiency and perceptions of poor governance and financial mismanagement within the public sector and particularly government's environmental regulatory authority (Fischer et. al., 2001). In their study, Pushak, Tiongson and Varoudakis (2007) found that there could be a higher growth payoff from macroeconomic stability and public expenditure in countries characterized by relatively better public sector governance. Thus, countries that maintain effective governments (minimal bureaucracy, efficient public service, and wit ...
This paper examines the relationship between five dimensions of good governance (political stability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, and corruption) and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in a cross-section of developing countries. Two measures of CO2 emissions are utilized: CO2 emissions in kilograms per 2000 US dollars of gross domestic product (GDP) and in metric tons per capita. Robust results are obtained for a number of variables when the dependent variable is CO2 emissions in metric tons per capita. The results provide confirmation that political stability, the rule of law, and control of corruption are negatively and statistically significantly correlated with CO2 emissions per capita. The results also provide evidence in support of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) and that trade openness and the size of industrial sector as other strong correlates of CO2 emissions.
... The GDP of the oPt has only slightly decreased post Oslo, but increased again between 1997 and 2000. This increase was not sustained due to Israeli measures that followed the explosion of the second Palestinian Intifada in September of 2000; since then the GDP has substantially decreased and continued to decrease (Fischer et al., 2001). A big proportion of the oPt's economy is dependent on aid from the donor's community, which has also been unstable and dependant on the political environment. ...
This paper employs a Benefit Incidence Analysis (BIA) framework of health care financing in the occupied Palestinian territory to trace the distribution of public spending on health care, and to provide some elements of response that would complement, and integrate with, the findings from previous literature on the topic for the case of the occupied Palestinian territory. With this aim in mind, the present paper attempts to address the following objectives: (i) to assess the budget and financing structure of the different health care providers in the occupied Palestinian territory, as related to various socioeconomic, locality, and ailment groups of the population; (ii) to assess the health status of the Palestinian population and its distribution over different: demographic, geographic and socio-economic groups, using generic mortality and morbidity indicators; and (iii) to assess how benefits of public spending are distributed across different groups of the population. The occupied Palestinian territory is not a classical example of a developing country aiming to improve equity in the health system and thus such evaluation will take into consideration the political instability of the country and its influence on the financing of the health care system.
... From the 1993 Oslo Treaty on, Palestine has recorded disappointing economic results (Fischer et al., 2001;UNCTAD, 2009). In 2006, Palestinian GDP per capita was still far lower than its pre-Second Intifada 1999 level (UNCTAD, 2008;World Bank, 2006a). ...
The 60-year-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict has deeply influenced the evolution of the Palestinian economy. In the last two decades political instability and the Israeli closure policy have generated protracted economic stagnation and poor capital formation. The paper describes the consequences on the Palestinian economy of existing high transaction costs and market fragmentation. We propose a simple one-sector Post-Keynesian model that describes Palestine as a demand-driven economy. We show that high transaction costs and market fragmentation discourage investment by curtailing expected profitability, reducing the size of the market and depressing entrepreneurs' animal spirits. In the short run, these two factors induce low levels of capacity utilization and low rates of capital accumulation. The situation is even more worrying in the long run when entrepreneurs can revise their expectations. Depressed animal spirits and low levels of capacity use give rise to a low-growth trap from which Palestine can hardly escape. We also highlight the possible positive impact of the removal of high transaction costs and of market fragmentation, and the ensuing beneficial effects on the long-run equilibrium values of capital accumulation and capacity use. The conclusions place these analytical results into the historical situation of the Palestinian economy, and consider what is needed, politically and economically, in order to establish a sustained development process. The division of labour is limited by the extent of the market. (Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, Book I, chapter III)
... Egyes források szerint az 1990-es évek közepén 13 félhivatalos, fél-magán monopólium létezett, az amerikai külügyminisztérium szerint 25. Amerikai források szerint e vállalatok 1999-2000-ig évi 100-400 millió dollár bevételt realizáltak anélkül, hogy ennek nyoma lett volna a PH hivatalos költségvetésében, miközben a nemzetközi donorközösség éves átlagban 500 millió dollárral, humanitárius és fejlesztési segéllyel támogatta a békefolyamatot (Fischer et al. 2001). Az IMF szerint 1995 és 2000 között összesen közel 900 millió USD kerülte el a pénzügyminisztériumot (591 millió USD az el nem számolt importjárulékokból származó bevétel, illetve kb. ...
... From 1993 to 1997, the PA created more than 65,000 jobs. By 1998, 90,000 Palestinians, or 20 per cent of the labour force, had found employment with the PA [Roy, 1999;Fisher, Alonso-Gamo and von Allmen, 2001]. Thus, in the context of closures, the PA managed to establish itself as the central force in the Palestinian economy, securing the loyalty of wide parts of the population to the proto-state under Arafat's leadership through the creation of jobs. ...
This article explores the nature and impact of business co-operation between Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Territories. It argues that co-operation and increasing socioeconomic inequality are linked and have an impact on the peace process. Hence, the second Intifada is not only the result of the abortive political talks at Camp David in 2000, but also, and more crucially, the consequence of growing domestic and regional inequality. The uprising needs to be understood as a manifestation of the domestic and socio-economic failure of the Middle East peace process, which always remained an elitist phenomenon and alienated large segments of Palestinian society owing to the growing gap between rich and poor.
... From the Oslo Treaty on, Palestine has recorded disappointing economic results (Fischer et al. 2001;UNCTAD 2009) and in the last decade Palestinian per-capita income has decreased (World Bank 2006a;UNCTAD 2008). Potential output has been persistently higher than effective output, and the lack of effective demand for Palestinian goods has induced mass unemployment and protracted economic stagnation (World Bank 2004). ...
The sixty-year-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict has deeply influenced the evolution of the Palestinian economy. In the last two decades persisting political instability and the Israeli closure policy have been sources of protracted economic stagnation and poor capital formation. The paper describes the consequences on the Palestinian economy of two particular conditions: high transaction costs and market fragmentation. We use a simple one-sector model which describes Palestine as a demand-driven economy and Palestinian capital accumulation as linked to desired investments by Palestinian firms. Into this framework, we show that high transaction costs discourage capital formation by curtailing expected profitability. Market fragmentation further reduces domestic investments by reducing the size of the market and depressing entrepreneurs’ animal spirits. We show that in the short-run, where expectations are given, the two above facts induce low levels of capacity utilization and of capital accumulation. The situation is even more worrying in the long-run when entrepreneurs can adapt their expectations. Depressed animal spirits and low levels of capacity use feed back into each other and give rise to a low-growth trap from which Palestine can hardly escape. We also highlight the possible positive impact of the removal of high transaction cost and of market fragmentation and the ensuing benefits on the long run equilibrium values of both capital accumulation and capacity utilization. The conclusions try to set this analytical results into the historical situation of the Palestinian economy and to envisage the roles of economics and politics in order to establish a sustained process of development.
... One explanation for this disillusionment might be the economic challenges faced by the Palestinians during the Oslo period. Between 1993 and 1999, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita fell almost 8 %. (1) In 1994 and 1995, the Palestinian economy suffered sharply, with GDP per capita falling 4.9% and 9.6%, respectively. ...
هدف اصلی این پژوهش بررسی و شناسایی عوامل موثر بر هزینه مبادله بخش سنگ است. بدین منظور ابتدا
ضمن بررسی ادبیات موضوع عوامل موثر بر هزینه مبادله بخش سنگ در ایران احصاء شده و در ادامه با استفاده
از روش دلفی تاثیر عوامل احصاء شده مورد بررسی قرار گرفت. اعضای پانل دلفی شامل 11 نفر از فعالین و
صاحبنظران فعال در بخشخصوصی و دولتی بوده که دارای تخصص و تجربه کافی در حوزه سنگ بودند. در
مرحله نخست 13 مورد احصاء شده از ادبیات تجربی در چارچوب پرسشنامه طراحی شده در اختیار اعضای پانل
قرار گرفت و تحلیل نتایج پرسشنامهها در این مرحله بر حذف یکی از عوامل موجود و اضافه نمودن 4 عامل
جدید به پرسشنامه تاکید دارد.
Nghiên cứu này sử dụng phương pháp tác động cố định (Fixed Effect - FE) và áp dụng dữ liệu bảng (Panel data) để phân tích ảnh hưởng của tăng trưởng kinh tế, đầu tư trực tiếp nước ngoài, năng lượng tái tạo, quản trị nhà nước đến phát thải CO2 tại tác nước Đông Á trong giai đoạn 2000 - 2021. Kết quả nghiên cứu thực nghiệm cho thấy, tăng trưởng kinh tế và tuân thủ pháp luật có ảnh hưởng làm tăng phát thải CO2. Trong khi đó, đầu tư trực tiếp nước ngoài, năng lượng tái tạo và kiểm soát tham nhũng có ảnh hưởng làm giảm phát thải CO2 tại các quốc gia này. Trên cơ sở kết quả nghiên cứu, bài nghiên cứu đề xuất hàm ý chính sách nhằm giảm phát thải CO2 tại các quốc gia Đông Á nhằm giúp các quốc gia này thực hiện mục tiêu của COP26 - đạt mức phát thải ròng bằng 0 vào năm 2050.
In this article, I discuss how several documentaries and films by Amos Gitai provide primary oral and written sources to write a history from below of the Oslo Accords and of their demise. In the first part of the article, I discuss sources from a set of interconnected documentaries ( Give Peace a Chance and Arena of Murder ) filmed between 1994 and 1996; in the second, I focus on the movie Rabin, The Last Day (2015), and I explore sources from the so-called Gitai-Rabin archive deposited at the Bibliothèque National de France. Overall, this material brings us the voices of various groups within Israeli society and among Palestinians, revealing the complexity of the issues on the negotiating table, and the cultural, social, and political questions that the peace process unleashed.
Dünyanın başkenti olan Kudüs, dinlerin kökenlerinin doğduğu ve filizlendiği kadim
toprak olmanın yanı sıra Müslümanlar, Hristiyanlar ve Yahudiler için paha
biçilemeyecek dünyanın nadide topraklarına sahip bir kenttir. Müslümanlık için
“Mukaddes Ev” ve en kutsal üç mescitten biri olan Mescid-i Aksâ’nın, Hristiyan
inanışında Hazreti İsa’nın göğe yükseldiği ve mahşerdeki diriliş yeri, Yahudilerin
ilk mabedi olan Süleymaniye’nin bulunduğu Kudüs şehrinde 23-25 Mart 2018
tarihileri arasında Uluslararası Sosyal Bilimler Kongresi yapıldı. Bu kongrede
özet olarak sunulan Türkiye Filistin ve Türkiye İsrail Ticari İlişkilerinin Karşılaştırmalı
Değerlendirilmesi adlı çalışmadan yola çıkarak Türkiye’nin Filistin ve ayrıca
İsrail ticareti üzerinde bir değerlendirmesi olarak bu çalışma hazırlanmıştır.
Bu topraklara İsrail’in gelmesi ile birlikte tabir yerinde ise kangrenleşmeye
başlayan Filistin halkının yaşadıkları ve Filistin sorunu insanlığın vicdanında kocaman
bir yara olarak tedavi edilmeyi beklemektedir. İsrail ve Filistinlilerin yaşadığı
sorunlar zaman zaman savaşlara dahi neden olmuştur. İki halk arasında
yaşanan sorunları çözebilmek için barış müzakereleri yapılmıştır. Dünyanın kalbi
olan bu topraklarda huzur olunca tüm dünya huzuru bulacağını bilen pek çok
ülke barış süresince taraf olmuşlardır. Türkiye’de umut ışıklarını alevlendiren
barış sürecine katkılar sağlamaya çalışmakta ve üstüne düşen tüm görevleri yerine
getirmektedir. Türk devleti pek çok alanda destek sağlarken ekonomik ve
ticari ilişkiler alanlarında da geliştirici önlemler almak durumundadır. Ekonomik
anlamda güçlenen ve bağımsızlaşan ülkelerin dünyada söz sahibi olarak gürleşmesi kolaylaşmaktadır. Uluslararası ticaretin önemi ülkeler için yadsınamaz
bir gerçekliktir. Bu gerçeklikten yola çıkarak Türkiye’nin Filistin ve İsrail ile
yaptığı ticareti mercek altına alarak değerlendirmek önemli bir hal almaktadır.
Filistin ve İsrail barışının temel taşlarının birisi Filistin devletinin ekonomik
gücünün gelişmesi olduğu öngörülmektedir. Bu öngörü ile Türkiye’nin Filistin
ile olan ticaretinde; Türkiye’nin Filistin’in ekonomik yapısının güçlenmesine
katkı sağlayacak ticaretini geliştirebileceği çözümleri ve önerileri sunmak
çalışmada önemli olarak görülmektedir. Çalışma ile amaçlanan, Türkiye’nin iki
ülke ticareti ile ilgili tabloyu net olarak ortaya çıkarmak ve ayrıca bu doğrultuda
ticari ilişkileri iyileştirici geliştirici tedbir ve önlemleri belirlemektir. Çalışmanın
değerini yaratan unsurun, Filistin’in Türkiye ile olan ticaretinde sağlayacağı gelişmelerin
kapısını açmasının yanı sıra aynı yöntemleri Filistin, paralel ilişkilerinde
kullanarak tüm dünya ile olan ticari ilişkilerini artırmasını sağlamaktır.
Çalışma ile ayrıca 2018 yılının ilk yarısı dâhil Türkiye Filistin ve İsrail ticaretlerinin
değerlendirilerek, Türkiye’nin yapısal reformuna dış ticaret dengesi boyutuyla
değer yaratacak unsurlar belirlenmiştir. Filistin’in bağımsızlığının ve ülke
ekonomik menfaatlerinin kapısını açacak anahtarlardan biri olan ülkenin yaşadığı
ambargolar nedeni ile dünyaya açılamama nedenlerini ortadan kaldıracak
çözüm önerileri sunulmaktadır.
Ülkelerin ekonomik gelişimlerinde üretim ve bu yapılan üretimin pazarlanması
özelliklede dış pazarlara satılabilmesi önemlidir. Yapılan bu dış ticarette
ise dış ülkelere satılan mal oranının dış ülkelerden alınan mal oranından yüksek
olması ekonomik gücünü artıran ülkelerin temel ilkesini oluşturmaktadır.
Tarih boyunca ülkeler için ticaret çok önemli olagelmiştir. Yine insanlık tarihi
boyunca Ortadoğu da önemini hiç kaybetmemiştir. Tüm dünyanın gözü bu topraklarda
olmuştur. Medeniyetin beşiği olan Ortadoğu dünyanın diğer ucunda
olan ülkeler için dahi önemini her dönemde korumuştur. Bölgenin geneli ne
politik nede dini inanış benzerlikleri göstermektedir. Bu bölgenin en öncelikli
çözülmesi gereken problemi ise Filistin sorunudur. Bu sorunun temelini oluşturan
İsrail’dir ve İsrail’inde endişeleri derin kaygıları vardır.
Türkiye Cumhuriyeti 94 yıllık geçmişi ile tarih genç bir devlet olarak görülüyor
olmasına rağmen buz dağının altında kökleri derinlere giden kadim gelenekten
gelen bir devlettir. Bu kadim köklerin hafızasında Yahudilerle olan ilişkilerde
barınmaktadır. Buna bir örnek, 1942 yılında Osmanlı İmparatorluğu
sürgündeki Yahudilere kapılarını açmasıdır. Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Devleti,
İsrail’in kuruluşundan hemen ardından bir yıl içerisinde İsrail devletini tanıyan
ilk Müslüman ülke olmuştur. Üstelik bu kabul edişi tüm Arap ülkelerini karşısına
alma pahasına yapmıştır. Türkiye Cumhuriyeti kuruluş yıllarından itibaren
Batı medeniyeti ile paralel çizgide hareket etmiştir. İsrail ise Batın’ın bir parçasıdır.
İsrail Orta Doğuda kendine ortak bulabilme içgüdüsü ile hareket ederken
iki ülkenin benzerlikleri ekonomik ve siyasi ilişkilerde belirleyici olmuştur.
Bu nedenledir ki Türkiye Filistin sorununu çözümünde kilit rol oynayacak ülkelerin
başında gelmektedir.
İsrail ve Filistin’in de sürdürülebilen barışın sağlanmasının elbette siyasi unsurları
içinde barındıran çözüm önerileri konusu diğer bilimlerin çalışma alanı
içinde değerlendirilmektedir. Bu bölümde, Filistin’in ekonomik olarak sağlam
temeller üzerinde güçlenerek büyümesi değerlendirilmektedir. Bu tür bir büyümenin
yapı taşı ise uluslararası ticaretten geçmektedir.
This study intends to analyze the impact of governance (such as political, economic and institutional governance) on real output (GDP) and foreign direct investment (FDI) in 26 Asian countries during 1996 – 2019. Results of panel ARDL show the positive impact of capital, labor and trade openness on GDP and FDI. Institutional governance affects GDP and as well as FDI negatively and validates the notion that corruption greases the wheel of growth but when institutional governance is used with other indicators of governance in the model, it affects the FDI positively. Other dimensions of governance such as political and economic governance have a positive and significant impact on GDP and FDI in all model specifications. The results of the panel causality test that there is bi-directional causality from governance to GDP but evidence of bi-directional causality among governance indicators have also been found. The study emphasized on the policy making to improve the level of governance in Asian countries.
This article analyzes the effects on the West Bank economy of temporary Palestinian employment in Israel, using a new database and a computable general equilibrium model. The results show that Palestinian employment in Israel increases household incomes but distorts the operation of the West Bank labor market and increases domestic wages. Employment in Israel increases the real exchange rate of the West Bank leading to “Dutch disease” effects that inhibit the development of the West Bank economy. A decrease in the number of Palestinian workers in Israel reduces household welfare, and constraints on the West Bank economy restrict domestic absorption of the extra labor. Hence, the Palestinian National Authority may seek more labor exports to Israel. This article contributes to the broader discussion on the effects of migration policies on labor-sending economies by demonstrating the nontrivial benefits from labor migrations, but that these benefits come with costs. This article explores policy options for offsetting those costs.
This study sheds light on the extent to which innovation input influences CO2 emissions and how country-level governance factors may moderate this relationship. The sample for the study consists of CO2 emissions per capita from 29 emerging countries and 725 country-year observations. We find a negative relationship between innovation input and CO2 emissions, suggesting that countries that invest in innovation combat climate change by reducing CO2 emissions. By separating the sample into low and high innovative countries, the results show that reduction of CO2 emissions is more pronounced in countries with high innovation input. We further establish that country-level governance factors, including political stability, government effectiveness, regulation quality, rule of law and control of corruption all negatively moderate the effects of innovation input on CO2 emissions. Our findings shed new light on the theoretical and practical implications of innovation and country-level governance on climate change initiatives.
Keywords: Innovation input, country-level governance, CO2 emission, climate change, emerging countries
This chapter looks at factors constraining the efforts of the Palestinian quasi-state to raise revenues during the period 1994-2000. It is argued that in terms of its achievements, within its room for maneuver, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) raised significant domestic revenues subject to the constraint of consolidating and maintaining its power. The PNA used the tax system as a means of enhancing rents for industries and sectors which the leadership believed were important for development, and to grant generous tax exemptions to politically important stakeholders such as professionals. The PNA also made real progress, with generous external assistance, in establishing a functioning economic administration and in developing the physical and institutional infrastructure of the economy. This secured for a while widespread internal legitimacy among the Palestinian population, which also was reflected in the 1996 election that helped the PNA to consolidate and centralize power. However, a major problem for the PNA was that the limitations on political accountability meant that the delivery of these results could not be politically assessed by a broad range of representatives. As a result, the PNA leadership suffered criticisms for its lack of accountability to political representatives. The deteriorating security situation in the late 1990s and declining social welfare raised citizens' perceptions of exploitation from an unequal contract with the government. Perceptions of fairly extensive corruption contributed to undermine popular confidence in the PNA as a trustworthy force in the struggle against the Israeli occupation. Revenue in the form of general tax and incomes from monopolies dried up with the escalation of the conflict. From October 2000 Israel stopped transferring revenues collected on behalf of the PNA and the central state organs in Palestine became cash strapped.
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict witnessed a new development in the mid-90s with the introduction of the closure policy. This policy consisting in roadblocks, and fixed and mobile checkpoints restricts the movement of goods and labor between the Palestinian territories and Israel, between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and inside the West Bank. As a result of this policy the economic space of the West Bank is divided into small pieces and trade with the rest of the world is distorted. The impact of the closure policy on the West Bank’s economy is largely understudied. Taking advantage of this unique context, this study addresses the economy-wide effects of removing the closures. The study uses a SAM developed for the West Bank for the year 2011 with explicit representation of trade and transport margins. A variant of the STAGE suite of CGE models is used and extended to conform the unique feature of the West Bank economy. In this paper the removal of the closures is simulated through the reduction of the trade and transport margins by 30%, and the increase in efficiency in the transportation sector by 30%. The results suggest that removing the closure policy will induce a substantial growth of the West Bank’s economy by 2 to 7% and will have distributional effects among the household groups.
What economic interactions exist between Palestinians across the Green Line? Moving beyond existing literature that focuses on Palestinians’ subordinate economic relationship to the Israeli economy within Israel or between the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel, this article uses the concepts of dependency and de-development, as well as interviews with Palestinian business representatives, to assess cross-Green Line economic activity. It notes that despite relatively lower levels of violence since the second Intifada, current economic exchange between Palestinians is insufficient to realize economic self-determination because of: (1) ongoing political uncertainty; (2) the small scale nature of Palestinian capital and entrepreneurship; (3) the structural imbalance between a low cost Palestinian economy and high value Israeli economy; and (4) individual self-interest trumping national solidarity among Palestinian firms. The article concludes that for Palestinian economic self-determination to be realized, an alternative one-state political vision to replace the current two-state Oslo process may be required.
Israeli security measures, which were increased in response to the Intifada in 2000, have imposed a major cost on the economy of the West Bank and Gaza, and are heavily undercutting its current and future developmental capacity. The closures regime-the multifaceted system of restrictions on the movement of goods and people both within the West Bank and Gaza and through Israel to the rest of the world-along with construction of the 'Separation Barrier' have fragmented the West Bank's and Gaza's economic space, and have further reduced their productive potential. The aim of this chapter is to estimate the economic costs of the closures regime on the Palestinian economy. © United Nations University-World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), 2011. All rights reserved.
The Israeli regime is a paradox. Considered a democracy, it has no recognized borders and controls the majority of Palestinians by military rule, while the resistance of non-citizen Palestinians exerts major influence over politics and policies. Drawing on detailed academic research and a broad knowledge of Israeli politics and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, this book narrates and analyzes the political developments of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the conflict with Hezbollah and Hamas, explaining the dangers to future negotiations and how hopes for a settlement have been dashed by the ongoing violence. The author explores the internal Israel and Palestinian politics, showing how they influence the conflict and explaining the central role of military organizations in shaping the relations towards the other nation. With particular relevance to current events, he analyzes the Unilateral Disengagement from Gaza and the second Lebanon War, which account for the deterioration into the present violence and political crisis, explaining the need for international mediation in order to reach a peace agreement and suggesting a new innovative model for future Israeli-Palestinian relations.
Good governance is the significant issue of sustainable economic development among others. The concept of good governance has gained significant attention in the world and especially in Pakistan in the last decade. Since there are few theoretical studies on this issue in Pakistan, this paper analyzes the impact of some significant macroeconomic variables on good governance using time series data for empirical analysis. In this paper, democracy, economic openness, population size, peace years, unemployment, exchange rate, budget deficit, life expectancy and educational levels are considered the major macroeconomic determinants of good governance. We have employed the concept of stationarity to solve the by using Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) test. By conducting the time series regression analysis, we found that the stated variables are affecting the degree of good governance according to their levels.
Leila Farsakh provides the first comprehensive analysis of the rise and fall of Palestinian labour flows to Israel. Highlighting the interdependence between Israel's confiscation of Palestinian land and the use of Palestinian labour, she shows how migration has been the result of evolving dynamics of Israeli occupation and the reality of Palestinian labour force growth. This study analyzes the pattern of Palestinian labour supply, the role of Israel's territorial and economic policies in the Occupied Territories in releasing Palestinian labour from the land, and the nature of Israeli demand for Palestinian workers, especially in the construction sector where the majority of commuting labourers are concentrated. New light is shed on the growth of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which are being built by Palestinian workers. Palestinian Labour Migration to Israel is original in its analysis of the contrasting forces of separation and the integration between Israel and the Palestinian territories, showing that the changing patterns in labour flows reflect a process of redefinition of the 1967 borders. It will be of valuable interest to economists and development specialists as well as to scholars, policy makers and all those concerned with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
This article presents an index of governance performance for Cook Islands for the period 1985 to 2005. Three dimensions of governance (rule of law, government effectiveness, and regulatory quality) are measured using various indicators. The constructed index indicates that Cook Islands' governance performance improved between 1996 and 1999 but stagnated from 2000 to 2005. The improvement was largely due to fiscal austerity measures resulting in better economic management, competition in the essential services sector, and an expansion of the private sector. The stagnation in the post 1999 period is largely attributable to increased political instability and rising corruption. The governance index provides a useful basis from which to monitor future changes in governance performance.
This article analyses the development and functioning of the microcredit industry in Palestine in the period between its establishment as a partially autonomous political entity (1994) and the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip (2008). The article shows how, despite the increase in potential demand for microcredit due to the deterioration of the economic environment, the growth of the sector has been below expectation. One of the most important causes of this phenomenon has been the reluctance to lend resulting from the growing risk of late or no repayment of loans. Using original data from one microcredit institution (Arab Centre for Agricultural Development) and a quantitative approach, the article investigates the causes of this problem. Results show that the risk of late repayment was negatively correlated to the level of interest rate, to macroeconomic conditions, and to the age of the borrower while it was positively associated to the share of investment in the Gaza Strip, and to the size of loans.
In the Palestinian Territories, housing is thought to be amongst the most difficult problems facing the National Authority (PNA) (Al‐Agha, 1997, p. 3). Increased Israeli settlements, the large size of Palestinian families, the deteriorating economic situation, the lack of national banks operating in the field of housing, the presence of refugee settlements containing over 1.2 million people, the Israeli state's policy of residential demolition and land confiscation have all combined to present a severe obstacle to urban reconstruction in the region. In an attempt to address these issues and to make some progress towards realising the estimated 180 000 housing units required by the Palestinian people, the Palestinian Housing Council (PHC) was established in 1992 (Abd Alhadi, 1994; Ziara, 1997). Although it has had some success, the organisation has been plagued by reports of internal dissent and disputes with its beneficiaries. This paper seeks to cast some light on these controversies by focusing on the PHC's role in the Elkarama Housing Project in the Gaza Strip during the period 1993 to 2000.1 It will first outline the broader context in which public institutions within the Gaza Strip operate before offering an account of the structure and background of the PHC. It will then consider Elkarama itself and will conclude by summing up the various factors that have determined the project's outcome. Finally, the paper will offer some tentative recommendations for improved housing provisions within the Gaza Strip in the future.
Since its inauguration in 1994, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has taken responsibility over Palestinian economy and finance. The PA lifted all restrictions on the movement of capital and current payments. Although this has moved Palestinian economy from a heavily controlled economy to a market-based style, the liberalization process was not built on sound legal bases and thus created a legal vacuum. The PA has been working ever since to confirm the Palestinian free-market economy with the introduction of a new well-developed legal system consistent with international standards and norms. Therefore, the objectives of this article are to analyze the Palestinian liberalization process and its compatibility with international law obligations.
The initiation of Cross-Line of Control (LoC) trade across Jammu and Kashmir in October 2008 signaled the beginning of a new era. It was 61 years ago in 1947 that trade across line of control had stopped. The initiative has received support from business community since its start despite numerous impediments including barter exchange of goods, lack of communication, no banking channels, deficient legal contract enforcement, limit on tradable goods, structural difficulties in free movement and other barriers. This study examines how business entities and individuals in Jammu and Kashmir view trade transactions with the other side and perceptions about the economic viability of Cross-LoC trade. More specifically the paper presents primary data obtained from various stakeholders mainly the businessmen who trade on Uri-Muzaffarabad and Poonch-Rawalakote routes (The two transitory points from where the present Cross-Loc trade takes place). The study reveals that trade has increased significantly and trade in agriculture commodities has shown a robust growth, while handicrafts sector that constitutes backbone of the region's economy has not performed up to expectations.
Incl. bibl., index, statistical annex.
Using a regression analog of growth accounting, I present cross-sectional and panel regressions showing that growth is negatively associated with inflation, large budget deficits and distorted foreign exchange markets. Supplementary evidence suggests that the causation runs from macroeconomic policy to growth. The framework makes it possible to identify the channels of these effects: inflation reduces growth by reducing investment and productivity growth; budget deficits also reduce both capital accumulation and productivity growth. Examination of exceptional cases shows that while low inflation and small deficits are not necessary for high growth even over long periods, high inflation is not consistent with sustained growth.
A World Bank mission composed by five teams visited the Occupied Territories during the period January 21-February 24, 1993. The Doc.Cntr. has the set: 6 vols.
For 98 countries in the period 1960–1985, the growth rate of real per capita GDP is positively related to initial human capital
(proxied by 1960 school-enrollment rates) and negatively related to the initial (1960) level of real per capita GDP. Countries
with higher human capital also have lower fertility rates and higher ratios of physical investment to GDP. Growth is inversely
related to the share of government consumption in GDP, but insignificantly related to the share of public investment. Growth
rates are positively related to measures of political stability and inversely related to a proxy for market distortions.
The demographic transition—a change from high to low rates of mortality and fertility—has been more dramatic in East Asia
during the twentieth century than in any other region or historical period. By introducing demographic variables into an empirical
model of economic growth, this article shows that this transition has contributed substantially to East Asia's so-called economic
miracle. The miracle occurred in part because East Asia's demographic transition resulted in its working-age population growing
at a much faster rate than its dependent population during 1965–90, thereby expanding the per capita productive capacity of
East Asian economies. This effect was not inevitable; rather, it occurred because East Asian countries had social, economic,
and political institutions and policies that allowed them to realize the growth potential created by the transition. The empirical
analyses indicate that population growth has a purely transitional effect on economic growth; this effect operates only when
the dependent and working-age populations are growing at different rates. These results imply that future demographic change
will tend to depress growth rates in East Asia, while it will promote more rapid economic growth in Southeast and South Asia.
Institutions as investments External Finance for Low-Income Countries. Washington DC: International Monetary FundThe entwined growth of population and product The Israeli Economy: Maturing through CrisesDemographic transitions and economic miracles in emerging Asia
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- Y D E Ben-Porath
- J G Williamson
Bates, R. H. (1996). `Institutions as investments', in (Z. Iqbal and R. Kanbur, eds.) External Finance for Low-Income Countries. Washington DC: International Monetary Fund. Ben-Porath, Y. (1986). `The entwined growth of population and product, 1922±1982', in (Y. Ben-Porath, ed.) The Israeli Economy: Maturing through Crises. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Bloom, D. E. and Williamson, J. G. (1997). `Demographic transitions and economic miracles in emerging Asia', NBER Working Paper No. 6268, Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.
Securing Peace in the Middle East
- S Fischer
- L J Hausman
- A D Karasik
- T C Schelling
Fischer, S., Hausman, L. J., Karasik, A. D. and Schelling, T. C. (eds) (1994). Securing Peace in the Middle East. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
West Bank and Gaza Strip: economic developments in the ®ve years since Oslo The Economy of the West Bank and Gaza Strip: recent experience, prospects and challenges to private sector development
- P Alonso-Gamo
- U Erickson Von Allmen
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