Situating Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Capital Markets within the Emerging Market's Universe

Abstract:     
The objective of this paper is to situate the MENA area within the emerging markets universe. We first discuss the various components of market emergence and generate four bootstrapped indexes reflecting market size, market activity, market pricing and transparency. We then draw inter-regional and country-level comparisons using a probit model and a hierarchical cluster analysis. Our results suggest that in spite of intra-regional heterogeneity, the MENA region ranks favorably by comparison to Latin America and Eastern Europe. We can therefore expect greater international financial integration of the MENA region in the near future.

Keywords: Emerging Markets, Middle East and North Africa, Meta analysis,Common Agricultural Policy, World Trade Organizations, Trade Negotiations

JEL Classifications: G11, G12, G15, F13, Q17

Working Paper Series