Brazil and South Korea: Two Tales Of a Middle-Income Trap

The second United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG2) includes the goal to: “End hunger and achieve food security and improved nutrition” by 2030. While such an ambitious goal will clearly involve a wide range of policies and actors, this policy brief focuses on the role of trade policies in affecting food and nutrition security. Extensive and frequently contentious, debate swirls about whether trade in agricultural products is beneficial or detrimental for food security, pa ...

إن أسواق العمل في منطقة الشرق األوسط وشمال إفريقيا تتباين فيما بينها بشكل كبير، فهناك بعض الدول النفطية اليت تقوم باستيراد العمالة فيما تقوم بلدان أخرى، ومن ضمنها المغرب، بتوفير اليد العاملة والكفاءات المهاجرة. هذا وتظهر على المغرب معالم وجود بطالة مقنعة على المستوى الهيكلي بالرغم من وتيرة النمو السريعة اليت سارت عليها البالد. وهناك عدد من األسباب المتشعبة اليت تقف وراء هذا النمو العاجز عن خلق فرص عمل ِّ ها في َّ بعة قد تتمكن من التخفيف من حدة اإلشكالية ولكن دون أن تنجح في حل مكتملة ...

The jobs markets across the Middle East North Africa region vary greatly, with some oil-rich countries importers of labor while others, including Morocco, are the source of emigrants. Morocco exhibits structural underemployment despite having grown quite rapidly. The reasons for Morocco’s job-poor growth run deep. Policies can mitigate the problem but are unlikely to solve it in the foreseeable future. ...

After many decades of expansion, incomes and standards of living have never been better in many parts of the world. Yet, global trade and the prospects of growth still seem uncertain, and protectionism seems to be on the rise. In developed countries, there is anxiety over the loss of the manufacturing jobs that once absorbed a large share of the labor force and created a middle class that formed the core of democracy. Most middle-income countries have not yet been able to make the t ...

Current technological developments in manufacturing are likely to lead to a partial reversal of the wave of fragmentation and global value chains that was at the core of the rise of North-South trade from 1990 onwards. At the same time, China – the main hub of the global-growth-cum-structural-change of that period - may attempt to extend the previous wave through its “One Belt, One Road” initiative. ...

لقد حققت معدلات الدخل ومستويات العيش تحسناً غير مسبوق في العديد من مناطق العالم، وذلك بعد أن عرفت ارتفاعاً مطرداً على مدى عقود متتالية. بيد أن آفاق التجارة العالمية والنمو الاقتصادي ما تزال محفوفة بالغموض، كما يبدو أن النزعة الحمئية سائرة في تزايد مستمر. ففي الدول المتقدمة، هناك قلق ناجم عن فقدان الوظائف التصنيعية التي شغَّلت فيما مضى فئة كبيرة من العمالة، وخلقت طبقة متوسطة شكلت نواة الديمقراطية في هذه الدول. هذا ولم تنجح معظم الدول ذات الدخل المتوسط في اللَّحاق بنظيرتها العالية الد ...

The purpose of this paper is to propose the establishment of a forward-looking partnership between China and Morocco, centered around the agri-food issue in Africa. It is in Africa that the food demand will increase in a very significant way during the 21st century due, in particular, to population growth and the acceleration of urban development. Africa must succeed in its agricultural revolution in order to fight hunger and poverty, ensure the industrialization of its economy and ...

This paper sheds light on the increasing and persistent skilled unemployment in Morocco over the past decade – oscillating around 20% of total unemployment. It identifies and estimates the role and significance of a skill mismatch between Morocco’s education system and its labor market, illustrated by the ratio between technical and general university degrees produced by the education system. The paper finds supporting evidence that a skill mismatch does play a significant role in e ...

According to the European Union over a million asylum rejected asylum seekers have been ordered to return to their country of origin from Europe alone, or will be soon. To these could be added refugees that have been given temporary shelter but who could be asked to return once conditions in their home country improve. The debate on returning asylum seekers and refugees is nearly always cast in political, legal and humanitarian terms. This paper looks at the question of return stric ...

After many decades of expansion, incomes and standards of living have never been better in many parts of the world. Yet, in the developed economies, there is anxiety over the loss of manufacturing jobs that once absorbed a large share of the labor force and created a middle class that formed the core of democracy. The vast majority of middle- income countries have not yet been able to make the transition to the high-income group despite decades of growth. Progress among low-income c ...