Oil and Development in the Arab Gulf States (1985) brings together in one volume the manifold sources of information on the Arab Gulf region, especially the impact of oil revenues on its economic, political and social development. It provides a balanced core of primary and secondary sources on various aspects of the economics of Arab oil between 1973 and 1983.
Were oil supplies everlasting and the demand for oil strong and continuous, economic diversification in the Gulf would be pointless. However oil reserves are finite and non-renewable and the world demand for oil from the Gulf region is simply not stable. Collectively the countries of the Gulf face the striking prospect that unless priorities and plans are set with care the gestation period of their economic development may be longer than the expected life of their hydrocarbon resources. This book examines just that threat. It considers the opportunities available to the Gulf states for accumulating sufficient productive capital in the non-oil sectors of their economy to offset the drawing down of oil reserves. The book pays particular attention to the possibilities of development through cooperation not only within the Gulf Cooperation Council but also within the larger Arab region and the Third World as a whole. It concludes with a critical review of the main challenges that these economies are facing and are likely to face in the near future with special emphasis on their major problems and failures. First published in 1984.
As the price of oil fell in the eighties the pressures on the Arab Gulf States to speed up the diversification of their economies into non-oil sectors increased. This book, first published in 1984, examines this problem and many other issues connected with the impact of oil revenues on development in the Gulf States. It considers changing oil production policies and developments in other sectors of the economy including agriculture, industry and banking. It explores population problems, moves towards Gulf economic coordination and the impact of oil on society, culture and education. This book provides an assessment of just how much the region depends on oil for its economic prosperity and development and some indication of the enormous problems that would face the region should the demand for oil decease still further.
As the price of oil fell in the eighties the pressures on the Arab Gulf States to speed up the diversification of their economies into non-oil sectors increased. This book, first published in 1984, examines this problem and many other issues connected with the impact of oil revenues on development in the Gulf States. It considers changing oil production policies and developments in other sectors of the economy including agriculture, industry and banking. It explores population problems, moves towards Gulf economic coordination and the impact of oil on society, culture and education. This book provides an assessment of just how much the region depends on oil for its economic prosperity and development and some indication of the enormous problems that would face the region should the demand for oil decease still further.
This book, first published in 1984, examines the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and UAE. Culturally, historically, geographically and politically the GCC countries represent a rare instance of regional homogeneity and they face similar problems and challenges. Despite their international importance as oil exporters, there is a lack of solid statistical information on each country or as a region as a whole. This book addresses that gap with a substantial collection of data on the individual countries and the larger region.
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is an economically diverse region. Despite undertaking economic reforms in many countries, and having considerable success in avoiding crises and achieving macroeconomic stability, the region’s economic performance in the past 30 years has been below potential. This paper takes stock of the region’s relatively weak performance, explores the reasons for this out come, and proposes an agenda for urgent reforms.
The crucial importance of the Gulf region today – which may be defined as comprising the states of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, with Iran as a non-Arab onlooker – has stimulated surprisingly little interest in academic circles. Much of what has been written, moreover, focuses exclusively on those aspects of direct concern to external interests. The focus of this book is on the Gulf region as an area with its own problems of social, economic and political development. It examines the dimensions of the attempts by the governments and peoples of the area to create new social, economic and political structures – stemming mainly, of course, from their new-found oil wealth. First published in 1980.
This open access book questions the stereotype depicting all Gulf (GCC) economies as not sustainable, and starts a critical discussion of what these economies and polities should do to guarantee themselves a relatively stable future. Volatile international oil markets and the acceleration of the energy transition has challenged the notion that oil revenues are sufficient to sustain oil economies in the near to medium term. But what is the meaning of economic sustainability? The book discusses the multiple dimensions of the concept: economic diversification, continuing value of resources, taxation and fiscal development, labor market sustainability, sustainable income distribution, environmental sustainability, political order (democracy or authoritarianism) and sustainability, regional integration. The overarching message in this book is that we should move on from the simplistic branding of the Gulf economies as unsustainable and tackle the details of which adaptations they might need to undertake.
The downhill slide in the global price of crude oil, which started mid-2014, had major repercussions across the Middle East for net oil exporters, as well as importers closely connected to the oil-producing countries from the Gulf. Following the Arab uprisings of 2010 and 2011, the oil price decline represented a second major shock for the region in the early twenty-first century – one that has continued to impose constraints, but also provided opportunities. Offering the first comprehensive analysis of the Middle Eastern political economy in response to the 2014 oil price decline, this book connects oil market dynamics with an understanding of socio-political changes. Inspired by rentierism, the contributors present original studies on Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The studies reveal a large diversity of country-specific policy adjustment strategies: from the migrant workers in the Arab Gulf, who lost out in the post-2014 period but were incapable of repelling burdensome adjustment policies, to Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon, who have never been able to fulfil the expectation that they could benefit from the 2014 oil price decline. With timely contributions on the COVID-19-induced oil price crash in 2020, this collection signifies that rentierism still prevails with regard to both empirical dynamics in the Middle East and academic discussions on its political economy.
Explaining—and solving—the oil curse in the developing world Countries that are rich in petroleum have less democracy, less economic stability, and more frequent civil wars than countries without oil. What explains this oil curse? And can it be fixed? In this groundbreaking analysis, Michael L. Ross looks at how developing nations are shaped by their mineral wealth—and how they can turn oil from a curse into a blessing. Ross traces the oil curse to the upheaval of the 1970s, when oil prices soared and governments across the developing world seized control of their countries' oil industries. Before nationalization, the oil-rich countries looked much like the rest of the world; today, they are 50 percent more likely to be ruled by autocrats—and twice as likely to descend into civil war—than countries without oil. The Oil Curse shows why oil wealth typically creates less economic growth than it should; why it produces jobs for men but not women; and why it creates more problems in poor states than in rich ones. It also warns that the global thirst for petroleum is causing companies to drill in increasingly poor nations, which could further spread the oil curse. This landmark book explains why good geology often leads to bad governance, and how this can be changed.
