Sectorial policies and structural transformation

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?  ...

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 ...

There is something almost predictable about how academic institutions react to disruptive technology. First comes resistance, then fear-mongering, and finally often too late grudging acceptance. This pattern has been repeated countless times throughout history. ...

The author of this opinion, Imane Lahlou, is a 2014 alumna of the Atlantic Dialogues Emerging Leaders Program.Seeing the Script“What if you heard the same idea, delivered in the same words by two people, one from Sweden, the other from Senegal. Would it land the same? Whose room do you think would fill up first if both spoke on the same topic, for the same ticket price?”These were the opening questions of a charged conversation with two dear friends, as we began naming the ...

This Blog was originally published on t20southafrica.org The G20 should address reform challenges during South Africa's presidency, as ongoing geopolitical tensions obstruct global cooperation and complicate efforts to revamp the international financial architecture. ...

Available soon on livremoi. The 2025 edition of the African Economic Report continues in the spirit of previous versions. It presents a broad overview of the continent’s economic evolution and offers insights into Africa’s relationship with the rest of the world. In other words, it explores how Africa navigates the effects of global fragmentation within its regional spaces while pursuing its ambition of continental integration. ...

Developing countries have few options to deal with the ongoing tariff war amid unpredictable shifts in global supply chains. However, regional economic integration offers a strategic path of development in these uncertain and challenging times. Helped by geographical proximity and cultural familiarity, countries in a region can benefit greatly from promoting trade with one another, reaping the benefits of comparative advantages and economies of scale—if they are able to establish a ...

La stabilité apparente des taux directeurs de la BCEAO (Banque centrale des États de l'Afrique de l'Ouest) masque une réalité bien plus préoccupante : un resserrement monétaire non déclaré dans la zone UEMOA (Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine) et une rareté accrue de la liquidité qui frappe tout le système. Nous proposons une analyse en profondeur des mécanismes de cette crise bancaire latente, ses manifestations concrètes sur le tissu économique et ses implications pour ...

Dans un contexte devenu plus incertain et plus compliqué à la suite des décisions de la nouvelle administration américaine, les impératifs de la lutte contre le changement climatique et de la transition énergétique et écologique demeurent.Les banques centrales peuvent et doivent apporter leur contribution à cette transition, en « verdissant », dans une proportion à définir, la politique monétaire qu’elles mènent. Concrètement, cela veut dire compléter la palette des object ...

This Paper was originally published on springer.com This study investigates the impact of female agricultural cooperatives on women’s empowerment in Morocco, with a focus on the rural Marrakech-Safi region. The research evaluates the effectiveness of these cooperatives in enhancing women’s empowerment through economic opportunities, participatory governance, and leadership roles. The Global Empowerment Index (GEI) was adopted to measure empowerment across five key dimensions: p ...

Les politiques industrielles semblent marquer leur retour, aussi bien dans les grandes puissances économiques que dans les pays émergents et en voie de développement, notamment après la pandémie de la Covid-19, l’accroissement des tensions géopolitiques et commerciales et les effets du changement climatique.L’Afrique n’est pas en reste, surtout qu’une prise de conscience des enjeux liés à la position continentale dans un monde multipolaire est en train de naître. Même au niveau de l ...

In 2000, The Economist dismissed Africa as the “Hopeless Continent”—a label reflecting a broader system of marginalization rooted in colonial legacy and post-Cold War neglect. This essay offers a realist reappraisal, arguing that Africa’s growing strategic relevance is not the result of benevolence, but of structural necessity.Amid a fracturing global order and the rise of transactional geopolitics under Trump 2.0’s Bessent Doctrine, Africa has become indispensable: rich in critical ...

This paper analyses the stabilization experience in the MENA region, focusing on Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, and Jordan over the past century. It seeks to answer the question: To what extent have these countries succeeded in achieving resilience to shocks and stresses? Key policy elements included significant fiscal adjustments—varying in scale across countries—and exchange rate developments supported by monetary policies aimed at combating inflationary pressures. The outcomes involved ...

This paper aims to demonstrate how certain transformations in the international economy since the 1980s¾notably the globalization of firms and industries¾combined with a set of domestic challenges, disrupted the path of industrial and technological development that Brazil had pursued since the 1930s. In essence, growth strategies based on the scale of the domestic market ceased to be effective. The innovation and economic challenges the country now faces cannot be addressed without ...

This paper was originaly published on sciencedirect.com   This paper introduces a novel empirical approach, combining sigma convergence and sigma counterfactual statistics, to examine the dynamics of structural transformation in Morocco from 1990 to 2018. The findings reveal that Morocco experienced structural transformation driven by labor productivity reallocation across sectors during specific sub-periods (1991–1993, 1996–1997, and 1998–2003). However, this process ca ...

MENA faces a severe water crisis, with 12 of the world’s 17 most water-stressed countries. Climate change, population growth, inefficient water management, and weak governance drive this challenge. Water production, treatment, and distribution require high energy inputs, while energy generation depends on water for cooling and refining. The region must integrate renewable energy, especially solar power, into water solutions like desalination. Inaction could shrink GDP by up to 14% ...

This paper (see pages: 152-164), included in the report 'The Reckoning Regression or Renaissance?' was originally published on orfonline.org   Calls for reforms of the International Financial Architecture (IFA) are foregrounded by the growing financing needs of developing countries, driven by mounting climate-related challenges; conflict and violence; rising numbers of internally displaced persons (IDPs); and macroeconomic imbalances, including crippling debt service and ...

This blog was originaly published on orfonline.org.   The maritime industry is the lifeblood of global trade, with ships carrying over 90 percent of all merchandise trade, and the global logistics market accounting for 8-12 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP). The smooth functioning of maritime trade and supply chain logistics is integral to economic development and critical to food security and the distribution of ...