From MENA to East Asia and back: Lessons of globalization, crisis and economic reform

This chapter examines the recent Asian crisis and evaluates its lessons and implications for policy debates and development prospects in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The experiences of East Asian and MENA economies are, in many ways, antithetical. East Asian economies have been characterized widely as models of openness and beacons of economic orthodoxy and macroeconomic stability. MENA's comparatively poor economic performance in recent years has been a common focal point in the literature dealing with economic reform and liberalization. Various analysts and researchers have highlighted the region's weak growth record since the early 1980s and its inflexible production structures as providing a strong rationale for extensive economic reforms in the area. The comparative perspective helps demonstrate that MENA has not been able to sustain the prosperity of the 1970s or achieve its full economic potential.