Economy

The U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean—the most significant since the Cuban Missile Crisis—comes at a moment when a new world order is taking shape, its contours still unclear, and in which the U.S. seeks to be more assertive in the Western Hemisphere. This disposition toward South America and the Caribbean was underscored by the recent publication of the new U.S. National Security Strategy, in which the Monroe Doctrine is explicitly invoked. This Policy Brief situates the devel ...

In 2025, the global landscape became increasingly fragmented and uncertain. Great power competition intensified, regional conflicts became protracted and exacerbated, while economic nationalism reshaped the rules of trade and development. The mechanisms for conflict resolution and cooperation that have long provided a foundation for international cooperation are now under strain due to polarization and mistrust. Even longstanding alliances, bilateral and collective security architec ...

L’« uberisation », terme né du nom de l’entreprise américaine Uber au début des années 2010, désigne initialement un modèle économique fondé sur la mise en relation directe entre offre et demande via des plateformes numériques. Rapidement popularisé, le concept s’est élargi, avec Airbnb dans l’hébergement, puis à une multitude d’autres secteurs : livraison de repas, services à domicile, commerce en ligne, voire des métiers traditionnellement régulés ou corporatistes. Ce néologisme t ...

 Global GDP growth has proven resilient in 2025, despite the shocks caused by the trade policies implemented by United States President Donald Trump in the first year after his return to office. The gloomy projections offered by multilateral and private institutions in the first quarter of 2025 have given way to revised levels mostly in the 2.5% to 3% range for the year. ...

This paper assesses the economic and environmental implications of Morocco’s strategic transition from internal combustion engine vehicle (ICEV) manufacturing to electric vehicle (EV) production, with a particular focus on the regional impacts of localizing high-value battery manufacturing. Using an interregional input-output model, extended with environmental satellite accounts, the study simulates a structural shock related to the wholesale substitution of ICEV-specific inputs wit ...

This Policy Paper analyses the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) through the critical lens of technological colonialism. It argues that the fusion of physical, digital, and biological technologies is not merely a technical phenomenon but a civilizational shift reshaping the foundations of global power. The article traces a historical continuum from previous industrial revolutions, demonstrating how patterns of inequality and extraction persist, now transposed into the digital realm ...

This report addresses the business environment in Brazil as one of the determinants responsible for the weak evolution of productivity in recent decades. After addressing this productivity performance, we define what constitutes the business environment, using as a reference the three ways in which the World Bank has been addressing the subject.Next, we highlight how the business environment affects productivity in a country. Finally, we review some recent reforms in the country's b ...

La modélisation classique de la croissance repose sur des outils – notamment la fonction de production agrégée et la comptabilité de la croissance – dont les incohérences logiques et les ambiguïtés épistémologiques sont connues depuis la Controverse de Cambridge et les travaux d’Anwar Shaikh. Pourtant, ces failles continuent d’alimenter des raisonnements fallacieux dans le débat économique et les discours institutionnels. Cet article montre que la nature tautologique de ces outils n ...

The meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in Busan, South Korea, was more than an exercise in diplomacy. It was an emblematic performance of a world in transformation. Behind the formalities, the cameras, and the studied smiles lay an unspoken recognition: the world is no longer unipolar. The era of American supremacy, sustained for decades through its economic reach, military presence, and ideological projection, is giving way to a more diffuse, multipolar reality. ...

Morocco has emerged as one of Africa's success stories, achieving significant progress in economic transformation and the green transition over the past 25 years. Continuing and deepening this transformation is essential to reach the country’s goal of becoming a high-income economy in the coming decades. Significant challenges include managing the risk of the middle-income trap, addressing demographic pressures, promoting inclusive growth, ensuring environmental sustainability, and ...

Official Development Assistance (ODA) to developing countries has fallen in recent years to well below the UN target of 0.7% of developed countries’ gross national income. Global remittances have become the biggest inflow to poor countries, greater than ODA or foreign direct investment which has also declined. Against the backdrop of geopolitical tension between major powers, other countries including developing ones and development institutions have to do their parts in mobilizing ...

Almost a year after President Donald Trump’s return to the White House, the United States displays little of the isolationism many of the country’s international partners anticipated, and many of Trump’s supporters desired. From economic sanctions to military intervention, Trump is proving to be something of a foreign policy president, although with distinctly unilateral instincts. This approach is particularly evident in Washington’s current approach to the ‘South’, including Latin ...

This paper analyzes the impact of the BRICS+ Summit of July 2025 on the evolution of the bloc, as well as on the relationship between the bloc and the U.S. under President Trump. It also tackles the aftermath of the summit and in particular the impact it had in the souring of Brazil-U.S. relations. Before the paper analyzes the impact of BRICS+ on Morocco, it goes over the consequences of the events that resulted from the summit on the Brazilian political sphere.  ...

The publication of the latest (74th) edition of the Statistical Review of World Energy (SRWE, 2025) is a good opportunity to take stock of some major trends in the world of energy. In this note, we focus on the African continent. All figures below are taken from this document and refer to the year 2024, unless otherwise indicated.SRWE figures relate to commercially-traded energies, which include fossil fuels, hydroelectricity, nuclear power and modern renewable energies other than h ...

On 1 October, China marked the 76th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic. Few nations in modern history have experienced such a remarkable transformation in so short a time. In just over seven decades, China has ascended from poverty and fragmentation to become a technological, economic, and diplomatic powerhouse of global significance. This trajectory—driven by strategic planning, institutional stability, and a steadfast belief in the state as a catalyst for develop ...

This blog was originaly published on orfonline.org. The maritime cities of the 21st century are not merely legacies of the industrial age. Rather, they are becoming platforms of global connectivity and engines of economic transformation. As global trade shifts toward digital platforms and multimodal logistics, the traditional harbour is transforming into a 'Blue City' - a modern coastal centre where trade finance, service industries, and skilled workers are considered as k ...

Depuis que l’économie a été reconnue par les Nobel, en1969, c’est à cette discipline qu’il revient de clore les cérémonies annuelles d’attribution des Prix aux lauréats. Pour cette année 2025, c’est le 13 octobre que  l’Américano-Israélien, Joel Mokyr, le Français, Philippe   Aghion, et le Canadien, Peter Howitt, ont été consacrés Prix Nobel de l’Économie. ...

Conventional wisdom holds that the United States has undergone massive deindustrialization in recent decades, with the country's manufacturing sector supposedly withering as it lost ground to China. This narrative has fueled debates about industrial policy, economic nationalism, and the reshoring of manufacturing production. But what if this story is only partially true? What if, instead of disappearing, American industry simply changed its address?  ...

Africa's development depends on the mobilization of catalytic levers capable of accelerating growth momentum, with wider benefits for the African people. The digital, energy and demographic transitions are all major challenges, but at the same time they present the continent with new opportunities for transformation. In this context, Atlantic Africa appears to be a strategic and promising area, thanks to the richness and diversity of its natural resources, its geographical position ...

This policy paper examines digital colonialism as a defining structural challenge of the twenty-first century and argues for the urgent pursuit of digital sovereignty in the Global South. While digitalization holds immense potential to foster inclusion and bridge development gaps, current dynamics reproduce historical patterns of dependency: data is extracted from Southern populations, routed through infrastructures owned by Northern corporations, processed by algorithms trained on ...

Global economic growth has been more resilient than expected, as the artificial intelligence-led growth seems to be compensating for the negative impacts of trade conflicts. Overstretched asset values and slowing jobs growth may be signaling that the balanced crossing of those two paths will be challenged. ...

En dépit des progrès sociaux, le Maroc reste confronté à une série de défis. Le chômage persiste à un niveau inacceptable, l’adéquation entre la formation et l’emploi est insatisfaisante, l’accès aux soins est contrarié par maintes contraintes, les disparités territoriales demeurent flagrantes. Pourtant, que de réformes, que de programmes sociaux sont financés depuis des décennies pour couvrir les déficits accumulés par le passé. Beaucoup de ces secteurs névralgiques pour le bi ...

Ce livre n’est pas un énième essai sur les Fake news. Il refuse les raccourcis moralisants, les solutions toutes faites ou les anathèmes technophobes. Ce que propose ici l’auteur, c’est une cartographie rigoureuse et plurielle d’un désordre informationnel devenu structurel — non pas un simple accident de parcours numérique, mais un révélateur des tensions démocratiques, des fractures institutionnelles et sociétales ainsi que des reconfigurations épistémiques de notre épo ...

Morocco’s strong macroeconomic performance over the past two decades—anchored in infrastructure modernization, industrial diversification, and renewable energy leadership—has positioned it as a success story in the Global South. Yet these achievements mask persistent regional disparities that undermine inclusive development. Coastal regions such as Casablanca-Settat and Tangier-Tétouan-Al Hoceima dominate economic activity, while hinterland and southern provinces face structural dis ...

Amidst intense geopolitical competition, efforts to develop tokenized monetary units—tradable on programmable platforms such as blockchains—have added a new dimension to the debate about the role of a global payment and reserve currency. Tokenized monetary units are expected to greatly improve the efficiency of payment transactions in terms of their speed and cost, especially cross-border transactions. They could also meet emerging demand for technologically enabled features such as ...

Le constat est unanime et est constamment souligné : le modèle de développement en vigueur au Maroc a atteint ses limites. La Vision Royale, refusant « un Maroc à deux vitesses », vient formaliser au plus haut niveau cette préoccupation systémique, documentée par une décennie de rapports officiels. La  Vision de Sa Majesté le Roi Mohammed VI est un hymne à une dynamique de croissance dont les retombées doivent être plus équitablement réparties et à un développement te ...

Le développement de l’Afrique repose sur la mobilisation de leviers catalyseurs capables d’accélérer la dynamique de croissance avec des retombées élargies au bénéfice des populations africaines. Les transitions numérique, énergétique et démographique constituent autant de défis majeurs, mais elles présentent parallèlement de nouvelles opportunités de transformation pour le continent. Dans ce contexte, l’Afrique atlantique apparaît comme un espace stratégique et prometteur, grâce à ...

Les questions des inégalités sociales et des inégalités territoriales sont profondément liées.  Les politiques publiques ne peuvent réduire l’une sans s’attaquer à l’autre.  Le phénomène des inégalités peut s’accentuer avec la fragilité de la situation socio-économique de certains territoires d’autant que le développement territorial n’est pas spontanément équitable. La réduction de ces inégalités, un des enjeux majeurs des politiques publiques, oblige à con ...

This Paper was originally published on springer.com This paper provides an in-depth analysis of socio-economic convergence across communes in Morocco, focusing on monetary poverty and educational inequalities. This research investigates the impact of the well-known territorial and inclusive development policies of the National Initiative for Human Development on the catch-up process. We explore the data from the last two general population and housing censuses (2004 and 20 ...