75094 - Economic Development in The Middle East and North Africa

Learning outcomes

The course introduces to the learning and to the comprehension of the economic systems of the countries included in the MENA Region, providing a detailed analysis of their structure and showing their recent performance. The student should be able, at the end of the course, to use his basic economic knowledge to study the economies of the different countries, to understand their particular problems, and to evaluate the policies implemented during the last decade to copy with the development process.

Course contents

The students planning to choose this discipline don’t need a prior knowledge in Economics, as the program of the course has been organized to provide students, in the first methodological part, with basic concepts about development economics. As the lectures and teaching materials are in English, a prior knowledge and understanding of the language is required.

First part

• Middle East and Nord Africa as a highly important region in geo-politic and geo-economic perspective
• Development as a transition process toward capitalism
• The role of economic institutions in the MENA development process

Second part

• The peculiarities of MENA region development in the last half century
• Demographic transition and development in the region
• Regional labour market structures and connections with the Euro-Mediterranean and Gulf migration system
• Regional economies openness and the present economic integration

Readings/Bibliography

All the arguments of the course are developed in each one among the following handbooks, though in different and updated ways.

- Romagnoli A., Mengoni L. (2014) The Economic Development Process in Middle East and North Africa, Routledge, London

- Richards A., Waterbury J. (2008) A political economy of the Middle East, Westview Press, Oxford.

- Noland M., Pack H. (2007) The Arab Economies in a Changing World, Peterson Institute for International Economics, Washington DC.

 

The following volumes contain, on the contrary, monographic essays about some economies of the region.

- Rivlin P. (2009) Arab Economies in the Twenty-First Century, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

- Nugent J., Pesaran H. (Eds.) (2007) Explaining growth in Middle East, Elsevier, Amsterdam.

Teaching methods

The arguments of the course will be developed during frontal lectures. Two discussions will be planned to aim at deepening the learning methodology and a current event chosen by the students.

Assessment methods

For the students attending the lectures the learning assessment will take place in two phases: in progress, by the discussions aiming at spotting the acquisition of the basic economic terminology and concepts explained and used during the first part of the course; at the end of the lectures by a written final examination lasting 2 hours made up of 3 + 6 open questions aiming at spotting the student’s ability of talking about the subject matters proposed in the course in a deep and competent manner. The grade will result from the discussion and from the active involvement in the lectures (30%) and from the second test (70%). Students not attending must carry out a written test lasting 3 hours and consisting of 5 open questions aiming at spotting the student’s ability of talking about the subject matters proposed in the course in a deep and competent manner and of 6 short open questions aiming at spotting the acquisition of the basic economic terminology and concepts.

To pass the exam the student must prove its learning about the basic concepts of development economics, its knowledge of the region and of MENA economies evolution and its master of the present economic problems they are facing.

Office hours

See the website of Alessandro Romagnoli