This paper assesses empirically the COVID-19 effect on businesses and the potential dynamic changes regarding post-COVID-19 automation and technology penetration using various logistic regression models. A field survey was used to collect the necessary data for testing various hypotheses. This...

The year 2016 appears to be one of the toughest for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region as their governments face serious policy challenges. The biggest challenge for oil exporters is managing their finances and diversification strategies with oil below $45 a barrel. Fiscal...

This report draws lessons for improving the policy design of poverty alleviation schemes in Jordan. The conclusions herein are based on analyses of trends in consumption poverty in Jordan and assessment of the impact of government programs (including food subsidies and cash transfers) on poverty...

This paper introduces the 2018 wave of the Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey (ELMPS), previously fielded in 1998, 2006, and 2012. The ELMPS has already become the primary source of data for a large number of scholarly and policy studies on the labor market and human development issues in Egypt,...

This paper introduces the 2016 wave of the Jordan Labor Market Panel Survey (JLMPS). It is an essential reference for users of this innovative and valuable dataset, which adds to the growing series of labor market panel surveys (LMPSs) produced by the Economic Research Forum (ERF). The 2016 wave...

The impact of the growth of the local supply of public schools in the post-Colonial period on intergenerational mobility in education is a first-order question in the Arab World. This question is examined in Jordan using a unique dataset that links individual data on own schooling and parents'...

Formalizing firms can potentially increase the tax base, expand safety and social protections for workers, create good jobs, and grow the economy. However, the costs and processes of formality may be too challenging for firms, particularly the smallest firms, to bear. Thus, informal firms may...

Refugees face important barriers to participation in the formal market, which locks them in informal employment and makes them more vulnerable to shocks. Using data from Jordan, this paper compares the job finding and separation rates of Syrian refugees to those of their hosts before and after...