The Energy Studies Program researches fossil fuel and alternative energy issues with a focus on the GCC countries and Bahrain in particular.
A concise monthly publication that covers the headline Bahraini economic indicators and the most important Bahraini business, financial, and economics news.
The human capital model of education, developed in the 1950s, analysed education as a way of building valuable skills. It provided economists with an intellectual foundation for treating education as a source of wealth, paving the way for the big expansion in higher education that has happened in advanced economies since the 1970s.
Russia has nominally committed to cutting its oil production by 300,000 barrels over the first few months of 2016. How did oil and financial markets react? How will they react in the near future?
The two biggest electoral shocks this year were unquestionably the UK’s decision to leave the European Union, and Donald Trump’s victory in the US elections. A key issue among voters was the perception that migrant workers depress the wages of low-skilled nationals, because of their willingness to work for a lower wage.
The primary factors that govern a worker’s wage are the worker’s ability to generate revenue for the company and the degree of competition from other workers. Sometimes, this organic wage determination process results in a wage that society regards as “too low to make a living”, leading to calls for a minimum wage.
Raising female labor force participation from 22% to 30% represents one of the Saudi Arabian government’s goals in its Vision 2030. All advanced economies feature strong female participation in the labor force, as robust economies make use of all available resources, male and female.
One salient difference between economists and non-economists is that the latter are often observed describing prices, including wages, as being “fair” or “unfair”, whereas economists will scarcely use such terms.
A concise monthly publication that covers the headline Bahraini economic indicators, and the most important Bahraini business, financial, and economics news.
A concise monthly publication that covers the headline Bahraini economic indicators, and the most important Bahraini business, financial, and economics news.
The recent success of Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar Airways has concerned global competitors, who have responded with government-mediated complaints alleging of “unfair” assistance from the Gulf governments, such as interest-free loans.
Under normal circumstances (the GCC is not included; see below), a company agrees to pay you a wage for one reason only: the tasks that you perform generate revenues for the company.
Oil has given the Gulf economies a very unique structure, which complicates comparisons to traditional economies. In particular, hydrocarbon income has played a large role in creating labor forces wherein nationals constitute a minority, a rare occurrence.
In last week’s Econ 101 column, we learnt that when a government struggles to manage its finances, it will suffer inflation and high interest rates, and that one remedy is to join the currency of a fiscally disciplined country.
During the euro zone debt crisis, the central authorities took emergency stabilising measures and adopted a series of preventive reforms. To understand them, one has to go back to the Nobel Prize winner Robert Mundell’s theory of optimal currency areas.
These are encouraging words for the economy, as global commerce has been a key cause of two centuries of prosperity. But a closer look at the U.K.’s trade policies during the 19th century—and perceptions thereof—confirms the importance of measuring free trade in the correct way, if...
Pensions seem straightforward: governments simply have to devise a system that ensures that people save enough of their income. It is basically that simple when you are dealing with an individual, but when you are organising something at the population level, it is more complicated.
In 1999, the year in which the European single currency was launched, the Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to Robert Mundell for his theory of the conditions under which it is desirable for multiple countries to use a unified currency rather than each having their own one.
With the election date approaching, GCC states, just like the rest of the world, are closely watching for the next American president. With Clinton and Trump proposing opposing policies, these will have direct impact on GCC states, particularly in the energy and trade sectors.
