Sectorial policies and structural transformation

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 essential supplies. In fact, the COVID-19 pandemic has ...

This paper was originally published on cambridge.org   This paper explores the (de-)routinisation of employment structure in developing countries, through the case of Morocco. We investigate employment (de-)routinisation from an often-overlooked perspective, aiming to elucidate the interplay between the dynamics of occupational employment composition by the level of routine tasks intensity and two structural aspects: premature deindustrialisation and the prevalence of informal lab ...

The road to decarbonizing the planet runs through the energy transition, which includes the shift from fossil-fueled cars to renewable energy vehicles. This automotive transition is unfolding as a true revolution in the industry. The evolution toward electric and hybrid vehicles has come in tandem with the ascent of Chinese producers. In the current context of geopolitical and technological rivalries, the automotive transition has been marked by an intense trade war, with implicati ...

This paper was originally published on t20brasil.org   The developing world is once again facing unsustainable sovereign debt levels that threaten to erase several years of progress on development agendas. The COVID-19 pandemic, Russia-Ukraine war, and high interest rates are the latest in a series of events that have contributed to the recent build-up of debt and raised the cost of debt financing for developing countries. The G20’s Common Framework (CF) for debt treatments is a w ...

  This paper was originally published on t20brasil.org The resurgence of Neo protectionism as a reality is creating a pressing need to establish New Industrial Policies (NIPs) capable of striking a balance between Global Value Chains (GVC) managers' quest for efficiency and policy makers' need for more increasing resilience or national security in a turmoiled geopolitical landscape. Furthermore, although NIPs might pursue legitimate non-economic objectives, they are often captured ...

This Paper was originally published on emerald.com   Purpose This paper examines the dynamics of structural transformation in Morocco since 1970 by analyzing input-output tables expressed in terms of employment and output levels across 24 sectors. Design/methodology/approach This study employs a twofold methodological approach. Firstly, it examines the evolution of sectoral employment shares over time using World Bank data. Secondly, it utilizes Input-Output analysis to examine ...

The report will soon be available for purchase.   The 2024 Annual Report on the African Economy is dedicated to monetary and financial issues on the Continent. There are three reasons for this choice. African economies are exposed to macro-financial instabilities partly generated by global monetary and financial turbulence. The Continent’s currencies and financial systems are engaged in very different dynamics, where routine methods and daring, if not risky, practices coexist. ...

En 2023, et selon le think tank américain « Atlantic Council », 114 pays ont engagé une réflexion sur La Monnaie numérique de banque centrale (MNBC). Cette réflexion concerne la MNBC de gros, visant à repenser l’interbancarité et la MNBC de détail, celle que la Chine développe avec un succès certain depuis 2014 avec son e yuan, réservé aujourd’hui au seul marché intérieur chinois, en attendant mieux. L’objet de ce Policy Brief est, tout d’abord, de rappeler que les MNB ...

Based on observable facts, this policy paper explores some of the less- acknowledged yet critically important ways in which artificial intelligence (AI) may affect the public sector and its role. Our focus is on those areas where AI's influence might be understated currently, but where it has substantial implications for future government policies and actions. We identify four main areas of impact that could redefine the public sector role, require new answers from it, or both. The ...

Depuis 2016, on assiste à une dynamique de création de fonds souverains africains. En 2023, on recense 21 pays et 24 fonds souverains. Sur la seule période 2016-23, celle de la deuxième vague, huit pays vont se doter d’un premier fonds souverain, et d’un deuxième, dans le cas du Maroc, en 2022. Cette étude rappelle tout d’abord l’historique d’une création qui commence, dès 1994, au Botswana, avec le Pula Fund, précisant pour chacun des 24 fonds leur date de création, leur ...

Morocco is positioned as a new global hub of the automotive industry in an increasingly volatile international context, with various emerging countries competing intensively to gain the best returns on openness and globalization. The Moroccan automotive industry’s recent performance shows it to be the most dynamic sector in the economy: from 2014 to 2019, value-added in the automotive sector increased by almost 70% while the overall national value-added increased by only 15%. In the ...

- Brazil’s latest tax reform will replace five taxes on consumption with one single VAT to promote greater efficiency and sectoral isonomy. - Forecasts produced by a detailed ICGE model point to sizeable gains in GDP exceeding 4% in the long run, even if spatially unequal. - Exceptions to the rules reduce potential benefits in efficiency terms. - Policies meant to promote regional development and close the gap deepened by the reform partially achieve their goal at the expense of ...

This paper was originally published on The South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) In order for Africa to raise living standards, create employment for youth and diversify exports, it must industrialise. Until recently, sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries made limited progress in manufacturing value addition and employment, mirroring the de-industrialisation trend seen in many developing countries. To propel industrialisation, SSA countries should adopt flexible st ...

This Paper was originally published on onlinelibrary.wiley.com   This study aims to shed new empirical light on the importance of the wage curve in a developing economy. The main contribution to the empirical literature is related to the analysis being conducted at different regional levels of a developing economy. This indicates that municipal-level data seems to be more adequate for wage curve evaluation, and that spatial dependency should be considered to adequately control for ...

This Paper was originally published on sciencedirect.com   From a time-space perspective, we assess the effects of geographical proximity on technological convergence over time identifying proximity dimensions associated with countries’ technological similarities. We compare a time series of input-output coefficients for 66 different countries extracted from the 2021 edition of OECD Inter-Country Input-Output to verify whether nearby countries are more likely to share similar tech ...

Multiple shocks faced by the global economy over the past three years have apparently shaken the conventional wisdom on gains from economic integration, and have sparked widespread calls for protectionist and nationalist policies. Is there already evidence of some ‘deglobalization’, or do the factors that underlie globalization remain strong enough despite the shocks? So far, there are no signs of an overall reversal in the long-term trend of greater global trade integration. Howev ...

The global economic environment has changed as the U.S.—and to a less confrontational degree, the European Union—have clearly established a context of technological rivalry with China. Hindering China’s progress in the sophistication of semiconductor production has become a centerpiece of current U.S. foreign policy. While the U.S. is clearly winning the semiconductor war, the picture is different when it comes to clean-energy technology. Both technology wars overlap with access to ...

The role of the production network in shock propagation has been an issue of considerable interest since the Great Recession. However, the empirical literature has only focused on advanced and emerging countries. This paper aims to contribute to filling this gap by examining the case of Morocco, a developing country belonging to the lower-middle-income group. The question is whether its production network is a factor in amplifying idiosyncratic industry-level shocks or, conversely, ...

Addressing inequalities in all their forms has emerged as one of the major global challenges faced by numerous countries across the globe, particularly in Africa. In a context where Africa faces many pressing challenges that are the subject of much analysis (Sarbib et al. 2022), there is a clear gap in conducting comprehensive reviews focused on inequalities, partly due to the lack of available data. Inequalities, which are both consequences and partial causes of poor development o ...

The surprising victory of Javier Milei, the unconventional ‘anarcho-capitalist’ candidate, in the August primaries ahead of Argentina’s October 2023 general election, can be largely credited to his commitment to dollarize the Argentine economy, a move perceived as the ultimate solution to bring an end to the nation's economic turmoil. The potential shift from the local currency to the dollar has sparked concerns about Argentina's bilateral currency swap line with China. This swap l ...

Cette édition du Rapport économique de l’Afrique est construite autour d’une thématique d’une grande actualité : les conséquences des incertitudes et des risques aussi bien sanitaires que climatiques et sécuritaires sur les économies du continent. L’exercice est d’autant plus légitime que la recomposition de l’ordre mondial questionne la place du continent à l’échelle planétaire, sur les plans économique, social et environnemental. L’économie mondiale est confrontée à des défis glo ...

This Book was originally published on springer.com   This book examines regional structural challenges on Colombia’s path to sustainable social cohesion and regionally inclusive growth. These challenges can be divided into three main groups: (i) those that focus on competitiveness and the supply side, (ii) those that arise from critical business cycle issues on the demand side, and (iii) those concerning environmental sustainability, employment and social inclusion.  The contribu ...

Défis et opportunités économiques en Afrique : Renforcer la stabilité financière pour un développement durable L’Afrique est un continent qui connaît de nombreux défis économiques et sociaux, mais aussi de grandes opportunités de développement. Pour réaliser son potentiel, le continent a besoin de renforcer sa stabilité financière, c’est-à-dire sa capacité à faire face aux chocs internes et externes qui peuvent affecter sa croissance et son développement. (Figure 1) La stabilité f ...

Tea for two was planned in a friend’s house in California’s Beverly Hills, but, surprise, we were joined by one of the great futurist of America, a science fiction master, who turned “Fahrenheit 451” into a bestseller and himself into an admired visionary - Ray Bradbury. Bradbury who? Time is erasing memories, even of great minds - we met in the 80s at Harold Nebenzal, the producer (Cabaret) and author (Café Berlin) whose father produced German  film classics as “M” (1931) and “Das ...

Artificial intelligence (AI) is playing an increasingly important role in our daily lives. Having experienced considerable growth in recent years, artificial intelligence corresponds to technologies capable of processing hybrid sources, particularly unstructured data. Complex tasks are thus delegated to increasingly autonomous technological processes, capable of driving economic and social development. In current African society, AI is becoming more popular and seeking to cover all ...

Le secteur informel est une composante essentielle de l'économie marocaine, employant une large partie de la population, mais nuisant à la productivité, aux recettes fiscales de l’État et à la croissance économique à long terme. Sur la base de la définition adoptée dans cette étude et qui définit les travailleurs informels comme étant ceux qui ne sont pas couverts par les régimes contributifs de sécurité sociale de la Caisse nationale de sécurité sociale (CNSS) et d ...

This policy brief was originally published on t20ind.org   Despite the perception of abundant financial resources and technology worldwide, building quality project pipelines of sustainable infrastructure and securing funding for them remains a challenge for most developing countries. One potential solution to these obstacles is international cooperation among governments through enhancing cooperation among their national, regional, and multilateral development banks, which alread ...

This paper was originally published on erf.org.eg   The digital divide in the financial sector has occurred through the development of financial technologies. These latest “FinTech” refers to technological innovations that have emerged in the financial system in recent years, which are the new channels for providing financial services. These innovations have disrupted traditional financing models by making financial transactions more secure and by reducing spatiotemporal constrain ...

This report was originally published on openknowledge.worldbank.org The long-standing informality debate in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region has taken on a new urgency as it looks for a pathway to more socially inclusive growth that is less reliant on fossil fuels. This is occurring against a backdrop of subpar labor market outcomes, further growth setbacks, and deteriorating fiscal and current account de ficits in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic—and in the wak ...

Morocco has made important strides in reducing poverty in the last three decades, thanks in large part to trade and industrial policies aimed at durably inserting the country into world flows of goods, services, and cross-border investment. Since 1992, per capita incomes have tripled (in current US$), contributing to a threefold drop in the Kingdom’s poverty headcount. The country of 37 million features consistently as one of the better-performing and more stable economies in the No ...

The broad thrust of Morocco’s trade and industrial policies over the last thirty years has been to anchor Morocco into world flows of goods, services, and cross-border investment. Despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, rising international prices, and a complex geopolitical environment, Moroccans continue to derive significant benefits from their economy’s openness. These include improved consumer choice and welfare, the growing insertion of Moroccan firms into cross ...

Le Policy Center for the New South (PCNS) et le Fonds Monétaire International (FMI) ont organisé, le 28 avril, à Rabat, une table ronde d'experts sur le thème "Fighting Inflation and Building Resilience : the Outlook for MENA and Morocco". Au niveau international, la lutte contre l’inflation constitue la principale préoccupation des politiques économiques dans la majorité des pays. La détection des risques inflationnistes a pris du retard après la crise sanitaire parce que les aut ...

Nothing better illustrates the positive contribution of the integration of national economies into global value chains than the fact that in the 1990s, the automotive sector barely existed in Morocco. Now, it is the leading export sector, with a production and assembly capacity of 700,000 vehicles, making it an attractive and competitive hub linking Africa and Europe in the automotive value chain. However, the automotive industry is on the cusp of change, with advances in electric a ...

This paper presents a synthetic view of the socioeconomic and environmental impacts of the economic sectors and regions that make up the Moroccan economy, taking into account the current economic structure and production technologies. Therefore, the potential effects must be understood as signals to think about interventions aimed at redirecting the desired trajectories of sustainable development. The application of the tools developed to give scientific support to this analysis rev ...

Recent initiatives and policy moves by China and other countries to extend the reach of use of the renminbi in the international monetary system, while the U.S. dollar share in global reserves has slightly shrunk in relative terms, have sparked frequent discussions about a hypothetical “de-dollarization” of the global economy. We approach here what that would mean in terms of global currency functions as means of payment and store of value. While we point out a relative decline of ...

It is estimated that $1 trillion to $6 trillion per year (up to 2050) needs to be invested globally if the world is to stay below the 2°C global warming ceiling of the Paris Agreement and to meet its adaptation goals. Currently, investments stand at about $630 billion per year, way below the original target. And although great efforts have been made in the climate-finance area, more than 70% of the funds deployed have gone to one sector, renewable energy, followed by the transportat ...

The Policy Center for the New South and the Economic Research Forum held on March 20 a workshop titled ‘Stabilization and adjustment towards inclusive and sustainable policies in MENA: The Moroccan case study’. The event took place at the PCNS headquarters in Rabat, Morocco. It brought together renowned Moroccan economists and scholars to discuss the issue of public debt sustainability in the context of the Moroccan economy. It was an occasion to revisit the main features of the Mor ...

This Paper was originally published on mdpi.com   Cities play a fundamental role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and advancing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In this context, public authorities need tools to help in identifying the best set of available solutions for the urban environment. Here, we developed an approach to help decision makers in evaluating sustainable solutions, considering aspects such as emission rate, economic attractiveness, job creation, a ...

The aims of this article were twofold. First, to tackle the issue of convergence from an analytical point of view by presenting the mathematical developments of the main economic growth models, which emphasized that the convergence of African economies is conditional to the investment level in the early stages of physical capital accumulation. As the latter increases, the convergence of African economies is determined by other factors (investment in research and development (R&D ...