Middle Eastern Studies: Activating the Private Sector in the Middle East and North Africa

Moynihan Middle Eastern Studies Program presents: Caroline Freund - Activating the Private Sector in the Middle East and North Africa

Caroline Freund, Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics

The private sector has failed to stimulate growth in the Middle East and North Africa.  Instead, the population has relied on government employment coupled with food and fuel subsidies for survival, but this is not sustainable. Caroline Freund will explore the impediments to starting and growing a company, how cronyism has discredited big business, and the policies needed to create a more vibrant private sector in the countries of the region.

Caroline Freund, currently senior fellow at the PIIE, was chief economist for the Middle East and North Africa at the World Bank. Freund works primarily on economic growth, international trade and economic issues in the Middle East and North Africa. She has published numerous articles in top economics journals, including the American Economic Review, and the Quarterly Journal of Economics. She holds a PhD in economics from Columbia University.

Sponsored by the Middle Eastern Studies Program at the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs