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Copyright of Arkhaia Anatolika: The Journal of Anatolian Archaeological Studies is the property of Arkhaia Anatolika and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper analyses the practise of surveying and reconstruction of the buildings in a Roman North Africa monumental centre by means of photogrammetry and three-dimensional modeling. Photogrammetry, in particular, proves to be an efficient and economic method for field analysis, although it has limitations in terms of processing time and the need for very powerful computers. Photogrammetric models, characterized by a high volumetric and colorimetric quality, constitute an ideal basis for reconstruction by means of 3D modeling, particularly in the case of research, such as this one, related to the Archaeology of Construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this paper is to investigate determinants of non-performing loans in the Middle East and North Africa region by exploring the role of bank-specific and macroeconomic factors, particularly in the period of the global financial crisis, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, as a health crisis that translates to an economic crisis. This study includes 74 banks belonging to 11 MENA countries over the period 2005–2020 and uses the two-stage system generalized method of moment estimator. To conduct a comparative analysis, the whole sample is divided into two sub-samples. The first one is related to the Middle East countries and the second one covers North African countries. The empirical findings indicate that the level of non-performing loans is more sensitive to bank specifics than macroeconomic factors. When it comes to macroeconomic factors, macroeconomic environment and institutional quality significantly affect the level of NPLs. However, no significant effect has been detected regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many African countries are still in the early stages of structural transformation. Typically, as economies move through the structural transformation, activities once conducted within the household are outsourced to the market. This has particular implications for women's time use. In this paper, we document that current patterns of female time use in home production in several African countries closely resemble historical time use patterns in the Untied States. We highlight two stylized facts about women's time use in Africa. First, in North Africa, women spend very few hours in market work and female labor force participation overall is extremely low. Second, although extensive margin participation of women is high in sub-Saharan Africa, women tend to work in the market for only a few hours each week, with the rest of their work hours spent in home production. These two facts suggest two different types of constraints that could slow down the reallocation of female time from home to market as economies grow: social norms related to women's market work, and a lack of infrastructure (e.g., household infrastructure and childcare facilities) to facilitate marketizing home production. We discuss recent empirical evidence related to each set of constraints and highlight new avenues for research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financialization in the Global South represents a further form of subordination to the centers of the advanced capitalism in the Global North. In particular, this phenomenon seems to be deeply intertwined with new patterns of urbanization characterized by high-end, exclusive buildings and infrastructure fuelling patterns of marginalization and exclusion of the population through financial channels that extract value and divert resources that should be used for public services and productive investments. This paper analyzes the financialization of urban projects and infrastructure in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region by applying a non-mainstream economic approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Vínculos de Historia is the property of Vinculos de Historia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper provides new cytotaxonomic data on the genus Narcissus Linnaeus, 1753, in Algeria. Populations of seven taxa, N. tazetta Linnaeus, 1753, N. pachybolbus Durieu, 1847, N. papyraceus Ker Gawler, 1806, N. elegans (Haworth) Spach, 1846, N. serotinus sensu lato Linnaeus, 1753, including N. obsoletus (Haworth) Steudel, 1841, and N. cantabricus De Candolle, 1815, were karyologically investigated through chromosome counting and karyotype parameters. N. tazetta and N. elegans have the same number of chromosomes 2n = 2x = 20 with different karyotype formulas. Karyological and morphological characteristics, confirm the specific status of N. pachybolbus and N. papyraceus, both are diploids with 2n = 22 but differing in asymmetry indices. The morphotypes corresponding to N. serotinus sensu lato show two ploidy levels 2n = 4x = 20 and 2n = 6x = 30 characterized by a yellow corona. Some hexaploid cytotypes have more asymmetric karyotype with predominance of subtelocentric chromosomes. They are distinguished by orange corona and may correspond to N. obsoletus. Other cytotype 2n = 28 of N. serotinus was observed in the North Western biogeographic sectors. N. cantabricus was found to be diploid with 2n = 2x = 14, which is a new diploid report in the southernmost geographic range of this polyploid complex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applies a scoping review approach to inductively assess the evolution of empirical adaptation research in the global South over the period 2010 to 2020 using, as indicators of the literature, three leading adaptation journals covering different scales of analysis: Global Environmental Change, Regional Environmental Change and Climate and Development. The review confirms that previous calls for an increase in empirical adaptation research have been heeded. Research covers both policy and practice, and also different scales, with a particular focus on agricultural and rural settings. There is significant and growing interest in the determinants of adaptation and adaptive capacity (including the role of barriers and enablers), and a small but growing interest in the role of gender. The overall increase in total publications does not show even geographical or sectoral coverage. Large swathes of sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East/North Africa remain severely under-researched; and the overwhelming majority of papers focus on rural and agricultural issues rather than cities. This analysis offers tangible evidence to highlight where geographical and thematic gaps exist in our research on adaptation in the global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the light of recent years' armed conflicts and the growing level of terrorist activity globally, the link between illicit trafficking of cultural property and terrorism constitutes a growing concern for war-torn regions as well as for the international community as a whole. Identified as a possible form of terrorismfinancing in recent years, the illegal trade of artefacts contributes to the fuelling of the spiral of violence and by this, to the undermining of the identity of the targeted populations. Due to the effects of the Arab Spring swiping through several African countries resulting in a still-existing destabilisation, power vacuum and the spread of different terrorist groups, these countries are serving an especially timeous example from this point of view. By presenting some examples from North Africa and the Sahel region, the paper aims to give an initial insight into the issue as an increasingly important international security challenge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Egyptian youth played a central role in the Arab Spring (AS) uprisings, demanding bread, justice and opportunities. This paper examines the perceptions of young Egyptians about the AS through their responses on the economic, institutional and sociopolitical conditions in the pre-AS and post-AS periods. Design/methodology/approach: The empirical analysis relies on a micro-level dataset extracted from the SAHWA Youth Survey. The estimations are carried out through the bivariate ordered probit model. Findings: The results reveal that the perceptions about the AS-related outcomes are not uniform, and that social values and ideological characteristics matter more than the standard socioeconomic attributes in comprehending the responses. They indicate that individuals with secularist, non-traditionalist and gender equality inclinations have generally formed more favorable perceptions about the AS-related changes. Also, the results suggest that the AS has generated propitious perceived conditions for further global connection, relative to the Arab and Islamic ties. They show that the perceptions of individuals who place credence in entrepreneurial attitude have been relatively unfavorable vis-à-vis the post-AS conditions. Originality/value: The findings underscore the importance of comprehending the perceptions about the AS-related outcomes. They imply that the AS has produced "winners" and "losers," and has laid down the basis for social transformations in Egypt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developed and well regulated financial markets are usually seen as a precondition for an efficient allocation of resources and can foster long term economic growth. This paper explores the institutional determinants for financial development in the countries of the Middle East and North African ( MENA) region. Institutional conditions are from the International Country Risk Guide. Panel-econometric techniques are applied to assess the development in the banking sector and the stock market. As a main finding, institutional conditions are important in both financial segments, even after controlling for standard macroeconomic determinants and fixed effects. For the banking sector, corruption seems to be most decisive. For the stock market, the impact of corruption and law and order appear to be relevant. While per capita income and inflation do not seem to play a vital role, openness to foreign trade is quite important for all areas of financial development. Hence, overall, faster real economic integration is of key policy priority to improve financial development as a condition for higher GDP growth. Better law and enforcement practices and anti-corruption policies are strategies to accompany this process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I describe how feminists in countries of the Middle East and North Africa are challenging their second-class citizenship—largely institutionalized in patriarchal family laws—and are calling for an extension of their civil, political, and social rights. I use the term "feminist" to denote de jure and de facto feminists working to advance women's rights. The paper seeks to make theoretical sense of contemporary rights-based movements and discourses in the region through an application of theories of citizenship. It highlights the role of women's organizations in the regional call for democratization, civil society, and citizenship and it provides an empirical content to the discussion of citizenship, state, and civil society. Data and information are gleaned from a close reading of the literature by and on women's organizations in the region, and from personal observations and interviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Understanding the epidemiology of substance use disorders (SUDs) and mental health disorders (MHDs) among forced migrants from the Middle East and North Africa and Türkiye (MENAT) region is of utmost importance given their distinct challenges and vulnerabilities. Existing research on the topic is substantial; however, comprehensive systematic reviews are limited. We aim to conduct a systematic literature review to bridge this gap, providing a thorough understanding of SUDs and MHDs epidemiology among this population. Methods: The systematic review will include original, peer-reviewed research articles published in English or Arabic between 2013 and 2023. It will encompass qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods studies focusing on SUDs and/or MHDs among forced migrants from the MENAT region. A Medline (via Ovid) search strategy was developed and will be translated into databases of EMBASE (via Ovid), Web of Science Core Collection (as licensed at Yale), and CINAHL. Risk of Bias in the included studies will be assessed using the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) checklist for observational studies and the Cochrane Risk of Bias (ROB) 2 tool for intervention studies. Meta-analysis using random-effects models will be conducted and subgroup analyses based on studies' data will be performed. The systematic review will be conducted based on the framework introduced by the Joanna Briggs Institute. Additionally, the PRISMA-P extension for systematic reviews was used to report the present protocol. The present systematic review protocol has been registered with PROSPERO, an international prospective register of systematic reviews. The review's registration ID is CRD42021286882. Discussion: The systematic review aims to explore, identify and synthesize the evidence to reveal the epidemiology of SU and/or MH of forced migrants of the MENAT region as described in this protocol. In sum, the review will provide evidence to fill the gap in the literature and help the stakeholders, policymakers, and health providers to expand current knowledge of the prevalence and risk factors of SU and/or MH in humanitarian settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial intelligence-based question-answering (QA) systems can expedite the performance of various tasks. These systems either read passages and answer questions given in natural languages or if a question is given, they extract the most accurate answer from documents retrieved from the internet. Arabic is spoken by Arabs and Muslims and is located in the middle of the Arab world, which encompasses the Middle East and North Africa. It is difficult to use natural language processing techniques to process modern Arabic owing to the language's complex morphology, orthographic ambiguity, regional variations in spoken Arabic, and limited linguistic and technological resources. Only a few Arabic QA experiments and systems have been designed on small datasets, some of which are yet to be made available. Although several reviews of Arabic QA studies have been conducted, the number of studies covered has been limited and recent trends have not been included. To the best of our knowledge, only two systematic reviews focused on Arabic QA have been published to date. One covered only 26 primary studies without considering recent techniques, while the other covered only nine studies conducted for Holy Qur'an QA systems. Here, the included studies were analyzed in terms of the datasets used, domains covered, types of Arabic questions asked, information retrieved, the mechanism used to extract answers, and the techniques used. Based on the results of the analysis, several limitations, concerns, and recommendations for future research were identified. Additionally, a novel taxonomy was developed to categorize the techniques used based on the domains and approaches of the QA system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geopolitical and economic changes have accelerated worldwide since the Russian military operation in Ukraine. The impact of this military crisis has extended beyond the borders of Europe, casting its shadow on the Middle East and North Africa, causing major political, social and economic repercussions, due to the fragility of the economies in the region and the structural problems it suffers from, such as corruption, unemployment and lack of good governance, and the dependence on imports for most commodities, including food. This paper examines the repercussions of the Russian-Ukrainian war on the regional and local Arab political situations, presenting a political reading on the variant standpoints from this war, and then analyzing stances in light of international changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social customer relationship management (CRM) deals with integrating social media data with traditional CRM in order to engage customers. This paper extends the Technology-Organization-Environment model with the diffusion of innovation theory to obtain insights into the factors and differences driving the use of social CRM in firms in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia (n = 211). We find that the key factors driving the use of social CRM are organizational, through top management support and employee IT skills. Environmental factors also play a role, particularly through competitive pressure Compatibility, as a technology factor, is apparently not an antecedent to use. Our research also finds differences in social CRM use according to gender and industry, with male managers and those in ICT, media, training, and consulting more likely to use social CRM. This study differs from past studies by focusing on use rather than on adoption while examining a new context to provide additional insight for theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explored the link between energy consumption and carbon emissions in North Africa through an Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) framework. Panel data extracted from the data base of the World Development Indicators (WDI) for the period 1990–2015 were used for the study. In the analytical process, more modern econometric techniques that are vigorous to cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity were employed. From the findings, the studied panel was heterogeneous and cross-sectionally dependent. Also, all the series were first differenced stationary and cointegrated in the long-run. Further, the Augmented Mean Group (AMG) and the Common Correlated Effects Mean Group (CCEMG) estimators affirmed energy consumption as a significantly positive determinant of CO2 emissions. Also, urbanization and foreign direct investments promoted the emanation of CO2 in the block. Finally, an inverted U-shaped relationship between economic growth and CO2 emissions was disclosed, validating the EKC hypothesis. On the causal connections amid the series, there was a bidirectional causality between energy consumption and CO2 emissions, economic growth and CO2 emanations, and urbanization and CO2 emissions. Lastly, a unidirectional causality from foreign direct investments to CO2 emissions was unfolded. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that, the countries should advocate for the consumption of renewable energies like wind, solar, hydro, biomass and biofuels among others. This will help to reduce the rate of emissions in the bloc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluating the Notitia Provinciarum, ambiguities regarding the transmission and the content are to be encountered. This paper attempts to gain a consistent view on this document in respect to facts conveyed and the presumptive historical context and to draw conclusions concerning the identity of Catholics in Vandal Africa. The relationship to the Historia Persecutionis by Victor of Vita and the Liber Fidei Catholicae has been surveyed. Assuming textual consistency of the document, conclusions concerning the contextual location have been drawn from its Incipit and hints inside. Linking it to events as reported in the Historia Persecutionis the meaning of appositions to names has been enlightened and a consistent understanding of the document has been demonstrated. Information regarding the identity of Catholics in Vandal Africa has been deduced from the results of this evaluation due to the fact of differences between the provinces in respect of the appositions. Thus, different views and decisions within the African Catholic Church in regard to Vandal rule and to the relationship to Catholic ecumenical Christianity become evident. In spite of a common confession of faith as documented in the Liber Fidei Catholicae, there was no common posture toward Vandal rule and toward Catholic ecumenical Christianity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through a collaborative self-study approach, a critical discussion of visioning is presented that focuses on the perspectives of two international students from southeastern Europe and North Africa. The authors explore their visions as doctoral students in light of recent changes to immigration policies in the United States. Discussion centers on their evolving visions as emerging scholars, teachers, and doctoral students considering the complexities of the current cultural and racial conditions in the United States. The paper has implications for the preparation of future professors and scholars of education broadly and reminds educators to open more inclusive and equitable spaces in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Livestock dung is a suitable material for delineating the complexity of interactions between people, plants and animals as it contains critical information on environmental and ecological issues as well as socio-economic dynamics and cultural lifeways. However, animal faecal remains and other coprogenic materials are commonly overlooked in most archaeological research programs due, in part, to methodological challenges in its recovery and identification. This paper evaluates the contribution of integrated geoarchaeological approaches, together with comparative reference ethnoarchaeological records, to interdisciplinary microscopic analyses on the identification of animal dung and its archaeological significance within farming built environments. It brings together records from a selection of recent geo-ethnoarchaeological case studies across the Near East, one of the heartlands of plant and animal domestication, and from northern Africa, an understudied key area with critical implications for neighbouring regions such as the Sahara. This article examines the state-of-the-art of dung material identifications within agricultural and pastoral settlements and their potential for tracing ecological diversity, animal management strategies, penning, grazing and foddering, seasonality, and dung use. This review highlights the value of modern reference frameworks of livestock dung as a primary source of information for disentangling human–plant–animal dynamics through time and space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the complex processes that have been shaping the increased involvement of Bahraini women in politics, especially their share in elected political offices as MPs. Looking back at the unprecedented rise of female MPs in electoral polls in 2018, this research examines the last two decades of female progress in politics and looks in depth at the contributing factors. Using the initial factors established through a literature review, it examines their relevance in the Bahraini political environment, and establishes additional factors peculiar to the kingdom. The role of women is interwoven with political liberalization reforms in the first decade of the twenty-first century, but it was also shaped by the current events, namely, the popular uprising of 2011. The uprising was ultimately contained; yet, the authoritarian upgrading that followed paradoxically created opportunities for greater women's engagement in electoral politics. The case of Bahrain sheds light on how sectarianism, popular uprisings, and authoritarianism affect women's position in electoral politics in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the business strategies of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are investigated theoretically and practically, their diffusion and features in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are not clearly described in the literature. This is in particular due to the recent transformation that member countries have been going through since the financial crisis of 2008 and the Arab Spring. Through shareholder maximization theory, agency theory, and the resource-based view we identified the reasons and characteristics of M&As in the Middle East and North Africa regions. Following a systematic literature review methodology, we identified 37 articles related to M&A in MENA countries published in peer-reviewed journals and reported in CABS ranking (Chartered Association of Business Schools). Based on this analysis, we map the extant literature on the topic and present an integrative framework of these features for future researchers to further explore and expand the boundaries of the domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A preliminary checklist of macromycetes has been previously published with reference to six governorates located in northern Tunisia. This paper provides an updated version of the inventory of macromycetes in Tunisia, which includes 268 species, of which seven are worldwide recognized as rare. The investigation was carried out from September 2015 to December 2018 in 13 governorates of the Tunisian territory. This updated checklist reports 145 new national species records (139 basidiomycetes and six ascomycetes) belonging to 57 genera and 13 families. Data related to distribution, ecology and preferential hosts of each recorded taxon are also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In southwestern Tunisia, the intense exploitation of the natural resources (soil, water, hydrocarbons, etc.) bears unrecoverable consequences on the local environment. In fact, the harsh climate conditions, the expansion of irrigated areas (date plantation and greenhouses) and the overexploitation of water resources in these ecologically fragile lands increase understandably desertification in the Kebili field. The field observations in the study indicate that the sustainability of natural resources is threatened, besides increasing soil salinization and water degradation. The used water quality indexes (BCWQI, OWQI and WAWQI) indicate that more than 55% of the samples are unsuitable for domestic consumption and irrigation purposes. The contamination of the CI water and the agricultural lands by crude mature organic matter is confirmed by the elevated concentrations of organic compounds that range between 1.8 and 16 mg/L in the sampled waters, while they reach the 80 mg/L in the surface horizon in the oases in Mazraa Neji and Oum El Fareth areas. The sensitivity of the study area to different processes of land degradation is evaluated by two multi-criteria models (MEDALUS and IMDPA), which indicate high to very high risks of environmental degradation in the study area with an average geometric mean of 1.67 and 2.8, respectively. Given the potential relevance of the contamination and its long-term impacts on the healthy environmental functioning, this paper outlines the main baselines aspects, the rehabilitation measures and the decontamination actions that should be taken in account in the planning of the most adopted management projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has realized significant advances toward improving women's well-being and social status over the last few decades. However, women's employment rate in the MENA region remains one of the lowest in the world. This paper examines the implications of firm-related and national factors for female employment in manufacturing firms located in the MENA region. The empirical analysis is implemented for firm-level data derived from the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys database. It uses fractional logit and other econometric models to perform the estimations for female overall employment, female non-production employment, and female employment in managerial positions. The results reveal significant implications of firm-related factors, such as private foreign ownership, exporting activities, firm size, and labour composition, for female employment. They also show that national factors, such as economic development and gender equality, promote female employment. There are considerable differences in the estimated marginal effects across female employment categories. This paper provides policy-makers with directions to design strategies aiming at enhancing women's economic opportunities and employment rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper studies the role of fiscal policies and institutions in building resilience in sub‐Saharan African countries, focussing on 26 countries that were deemed fragile in the 1990s. We use a probabilistic framework together with GMM estimation to address endogeneity and reverse causality. We find that fiscal institutions and fiscal space, namely the capacity to raise tax revenue and contain current spending, as well as the quality of public expenditure, are significantly and robustly associated with building resilience. Similar conclusions arise from a qualitative study of 7 sub‐Saharan African countries in the sample that built resilience since the 1990s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our paper explores the effect of economic performance variables on the carbon intensity of human well-being (CIWB) for 13 countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region over the period (1995–2013). We use a time-series cross-sectional Prais–Winsten regression model with panel-corrected standard errors (PCSEs). We find that economic performance has a statistically significant positive influence onCIWBover the period in question; thus, economic performance harms the environment, but the final effect deviates to a constant level after a while. This finding is not encouraging from the economic sustainability point of view. On the contrary, we find that total health expenditure has a statistically significant negative impact onCIWBby increasing life expectancy, which means less stress on the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to analyse existing and projected trends in the dynamics of African-European migration. Despite the belief that African migrations are extraordinary compared to those in the rest of the world, the reviewed modern theoretical framework offers different depiction regarding the motivations of the African population to migrate and the identification of relevant push and pull factors. The paper also includes review of the attitudes towards immigrants in EU countries, capturing cultural, economic and general dimension. The existing secondary data show that European public does not feel comfortable with the growing number of foreign immigrants, especially in Hungary. Czech Republic, Italy and Slovakia, which puts long-term pressure on policymakers and EU institutions in creating a robust system that can cope with both current and future pressures on the EU's external borders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability to read and comprehend texts has long been considered critical for achieving success in academic pursuits. While a myriad of studies has investigated the components that affect 'learners' reading comprehension, there are a limited number of investigations into such elements in the Middle East and North Africa. The following article will discuss the experiences of students from Albaha secondary school in Saudi Arabia and the group's difficulties with reading comprehension in the English as a Foreign Language ('EFL') studies. The specific focus is Saudi high school EFL 'learner's reading comprehension ability. To gather data, a sample of twenty (n= 20) Saudi high school EFL learners completed two research instruments: (i) an adapted reading comprehension test and (ii) focus group discussion ('FGD'). The results showed that for students in Saudi Arabia, the reading comprehension levels were quite low. However, the findings did indicate that motivated students were willing to learn and did understand the need for English language acquisition. However, there are several issues affecting their reading comprehension ability. For example, the road blocks include the school environment, textbooks, English teachers, English teachers, and learners. This paper provides useful insights for Saudi Arabian educational stakeholders to improve reading comprehension in L2 contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Natura Croatica is the property of Natura Croatica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper investigates how banking competition and capital level impact on the risk-taking behavior of banking institutions in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The topic is perceived to be of significant importance during the COVID-19 pandemic. We use data for more than 225 banks in 18 countries in the MENA region to test whether increased competition causes banks to hold higher capital ratios. Employing panel data techniques, and distinguishing between Islamic and conventional banks, we show that banks tend to hold higher capital ratios when operating in a more competitive environment. We also provide evidence that banks in the MENA region increase their capitalization levels in response to a higher risk and vice versa. Further, banking concentration (measured by the HH-index) and credit risk have a significant and positive impact on capital ratios of IBs, whereas competition does play a restrictive role in determining the level of their capital. The results hold when controlling for ownership structure, regulatory and institutional environment, bank-specific and macroeconomic characteristics. Our findings inform regulatory authorities concerned with improving the financial stability of banking sector in the MENA region to strengthen their policies in order to force banks to better align with capital requirements and risk during the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes different trajectories followed by Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries with regard to feminization of the labor force. It uses accounting decomposition analysis for the manufacturing sector employment in eight MENA countries from 1983 to 2013. Overall feminization has been weak in the region, even for the best-performing countries. The trends in feminization are driven by labor-intensive industries, particularly textile and clothing, with Jordan being an exception with feminization in capital-intensive industries. As traditionally 'female' jobs lose their significance with structural transformation and capital deepening, manufacturing employment opportunities for women disappear, confirming the defeminization literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces a series of articles about the state of land and housing development in Middle Eastern and North African cities. A major theme of much previous work on North African and Middle Eastern cities has been the cultural specificity of the Islamic city. Despite their common focus, the papers have different emphases. They relate to different parts of the housing market, different spatial scales, and show differing degrees of attention to the political sphere. Three types of access as usually distinguished, non-commercial, commercial and administrative. The main example of non-commercial access to land is squatting. In other countries, access to land is mediated by commercial interests or the state. M. Chabbi's study of the urban periphery in Tunis emphasizes the role of a small-scale commercial operator, the pirate subdivider. The same phenomenon is reported in Bogota by A. Gilbert though a lower middle-income group is involved there. He states that commercial companies have no involvement in the urban periphery land market and limit themselves to the central area. The key point which all papers bring out regarding access to land is that government adopts a laisser-faire role, and that where it does intervene, its policies tend to benefit the middle income groups either deliberately or unintentionally.

The European Union has drawn on its migration policy in the Middle East and North Africa as a method of region-building that takes resilience as its "Governing Principle" when responding to crises. The central theme of resilience is to keep refugees closer to their home instead of flowing into Europe. This approach might be promising, yet it has both positive and negative effects. In the absence of adequate resources, resilience building may exacerbate the economic, political and social vulnerabilities already existing in these countries. In addition, resilience does not seem to put an end to the refugees' suffering which, in turn, leads to increasing demands for better services, which could ultimately lead to violent riots that endanger the security of these states. Hence, resilience may seem to jeopardise rather than safeguard the security of these hosts. However, considering the case of displacement from Syria, the article focuses on the EU's approach to refugees in its neighbourhood, and attempts an in-depth analysis of the EU's refugee cooperation with Jordan, one of the key regional hosts, to argue that while resilience might be an approach with opposing effects, the EU and Jordan are working to make it a promising one. Their focus is to maintain a balance between the interests of refugees and of local communities. More importantly, the role of resilience in preserving Jordan's economic and social stability and its social cohesion makes it a more promising approach than simply providing humanitarian assistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the Tunisian revolution of 2011, Arab countries witnessed different degrees of revolutionary diffusion. While some countries experienced a process of advanced diffusion, others experienced more limited forms of emulation. This paper examines the process of regional diffusion that occurred in North Africa during the first half of 2011 to show that shifts by local political agents explain these differences. Using the rich literature of informational cascades, this paper investigates the cases of Algeria, Egypt, Libya, and Morocco to demonstrate that in all four countries, local political agents actively nourished or hindered the process of revolutionary diffusion that followed the Tunisian revolution. In Egypt, the strong involvement of upper-middle-class youth traditionally close to the regime signaled to the general population the presence of a historical opportunity for contestation and helped precipitate the 2011 revolution. The same logic occurred in Libya where defections of important senior members of Gadhafi's regime signaled to the Libyan population that major local actors were also dissatisfied with the leadership of the country. In contrast, major actors in Algeria and Morocco refused to mobilize against their respective governments, thus depriving nascent local demonstrations of both the visibility and the resources necessary for the inception of an informational cascade. Without a shift from local political agents, the process of regional diffusion came to an abrupt end in these two countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the dynamic relationship across stock market returns in Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arabic Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, and Oman from June 2005 to January 2012. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses a multivariate model with leptokurtic distribution which allows for both return asymmetry and fat tails. The paper also derives from the model the conditional correlation between stock markets and examines the impact of the global financial crisis of 2008 on the conditional variance and correlation. Findings – The empirical results show that the Middle East and North African (MENA) markets are interconnected by their volatilities and not by their returns. Volatility persists in each market and significant volatility spillovers from small to relatively larger markets. During the crisis, the paper finds that conditional volatilities across markets increase but then during the post-crisis period return to their pre-crisis levels. More importantly, the conditional correlation behaves differently, with a significant evidence of downwards trend in some correlations across the MENA stock markets. Research limitations/implications – One limitation of the study relates to the relatively short-sample period which drives the empirical results. Practical implications – The key results imply that there is still a possibility of benefits from portfolio diversification across specific MENA countries during periods of high volatility. Originality/value – No previous study investigates the transmission of both the first and second moments of the return series across the MENA stock markets allowing for time-varying volatility and correlation and accounts for the 2008 global financial crisis to examine whether the conditional volatilities and correlations have strengthened or weakened during the crisis and afterwards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on data gathered from British Council seminars in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Dubai onAbsent Talent: Women in Research and Academic Leadership(2012–2013), this paper discusses academic women's experiences and explanations for women's under-representation as knowledge leaders and producers in the global academy. Participants from South and East Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, Australasia and Europe shared experiences and identified desires for future action in the form of aManifesto for Change. The paper combines empirical data on enablers, impediments and attractions with consideration of debates on women's exclusions and disqualifications from academic leadership and knowledge production. A key question is whether women are desiring, dismissing or being disqualified from senior leadership positions in the global academy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the religious dimensions of armed conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), a region where the monotheistic religions of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity traditionally dominate. Applying a regional perspective, this study finds that about half of the armed conflicts in the MENA region were between parties, where at least one side had made explicit reference to religion in their basic demands, and this category of conflicts has increased substantially over time. Why are religious civil wars becoming relatively more common over time in the MENA region? I argue that the relatively high frequency of religious armed intrastate conflicts in the region can be explained by three major empirical regularities: (1) the intractability of interreligious conflicts; (2) the spread of several but relatively shorter intrareligious disputes; and (3) the increasingly transnational aspect of religious disputes in the MENA region. Although these trends have been countered by the emergence of institutional settlements of some of the armed conflicts, these types of conflict management and conflict resolution attempts have, so far, been too few to generate a general shift in the basic empirical patterns. This paper provides an empirical overview over the main patterns and ends by identifying some important avenues for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The East Asia summer monsoon transition zone, a unique area of transition from humid monsoon to arid continental climate, has the most prominent aridification in the world, and has experienced land surface aridification (LSA) in recent years. To investigate the influence of LSA on regional monsoon precipitation, two numerical experiments were run for vegetation degradation over a long period (30 years). Then, precipitation variation of different magnitudes was analyzed. After that, the mechanism of LSA influence on precipitation was studied. The results show that aridification reduced average summer precipitation by 5%. Additionally, LSA considerably changed the frequency of precipitation. Unlike aridification in North Africa caused by albedo variation, LSA in our study area mainly reduced surface thermal capacity, increased surface temperature, sharply increased the transport of surface sensible heat, and raised the atmospheric convective boundary layer. This reduces atmospheric moist static energy, which is not conducive to the generation of precipitation. LSA also increases the surface landscape gradient, local horizontal gradient of land surface turbulent flux, and probability of heavy convective precipitation. This paper reveals the mechanism by which land surface anomalies affect precipitation, which lays a foundation for follow-up studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Espanola de Investigacion Criminologica is the property of Revista Espanola de Investigacion Criminologica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose: This paper aims to identify and analyze the similarities and differences of the liquidity risk determinants within conventional and Islamic banks. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses a dynamic panel data approach to examine the relationship between liquidity risk and a set of bank-specific and macroeconomic factors during 2005–2015, by selecting 27 Islamic banks and 49 conventional ones operating in the MENA region. More specifically, the dynamic two-step generalized method of moment estimator technique introduced by Arellano and Bond (1991) is applied. Findings: The results suggest that the set of bank-specific variables influences the liquidity risk of both banking systems, while macroeconomic factors determine the liquidity risk of conventional banks. Islamic banks are not affected by macroeconomic determinants. Practical implications: The research facilitates to the academicians, practitioners and bankers to have an alluded picture about liquidity risk determinants and their management. The findings can be used by bankers' policy decision-makers to improve and enhance their consideration for liquidity risk management in both banking systems. Indeed, the study makes them aware to manage liquidity risk differently between conventional and Islamic banks, as the results reveal different liquidity risk determinants. Originality/value: Compared to the abundant studies on the determinants of credit risk, researchers have not sufficiently addressed the factors influencing liquidity risk. Moreover, none of these few research studies has discussed and compared liquidity risk determinants within both banking systems operating in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. This leads us to identify the similarities and differences between conventional and Islamic banks in the MENA region in respect of systematic and unsystematic determinants of the liquidity risk. The value is attributed to the increasing differentiation between Islamic and conventional banks. Islamic banks are characterized with a different liquidity structure distinguishing them from their conventional counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Mural Internacional is the property of Editora da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (EdUERJ) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The objective of the paper is to examine the impact of exports and innovation on the demand for skilled labor in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. In this matter, we contribute to the existing literature in several ways. First, we examine the connection between exports and skill bias through several innovation and technology adoption indicators, which we divide into core product-related innovation and innovation in auxiliary services. Second, we differentiate between the effect of innovation on skilled blue-collar (production workers) vs. white collar (non-production) workers. We also run the regressions for the manufacturing sector and the services sector separately. Third, we test this relationship for eight MENA countries, using firm-level data from the World Bank Enterprise Survey (2013). Our results suggest a positive and significant impact of the extensive trade margin on innovation and technology adoption, while trade at the intensive margin is insignificant. Furthermore, demand for skilled workers by firms in the MENA region is likely to be higher for production workers than that for non-production ones. This demand is particularly high when a firm adopts a new product, a new production method or spends on research and development, rather than in the case of spending on auxiliary services. At the sector level, the impact of innovation on the demand for skilled labor is positive and significant in the manufacturing sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Power supply in developing countries is often characterized by unreliability and inefficiency, resulting in disruption costs for operating firms. The extents of power outages in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are more significant compared to other geo-economic regions. This paper examines the effects of power outages on the performance of manufacturing firms in the MENA region using a firm-level dataset derived from the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys (WBES) database. Firm performance is represented by sales, employment, and productivity growth rates. The extents of power outages are depicted by objective measures characterizing durations and frequencies of power outages, and by perception-based measures reflecting firms' perceived severity of power outages. The results emphasize the adverse consequences of power outages for the performance of manufacturing firms in the MENA region. They also suggest that different patterns of power outages have varying implications for firm performance, and that the effects of power outages exhibit variations with firm size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After decades of irrelevance, the 2011 regime changes in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia stimulated hope that political parties would eventually strengthen their importance across North Africa, as in the projected future democracies the varieties of opinions across the citizenries were expected to be needed represented better in the political processes. Local as well as international organisations engaged in tailormade programmes for the setup and support of democratic and inclusive political parties. However, apart from notably Tunisia, no visible strengthening of democratic parties has occurred so far. While this failure has many reasons, this article argues that a core problem for higher relevance of political parties in North Africa is the lack of sufficient arenas for their activism, resulting in particular from the weakness of parliaments. As long as no relevant legislatures exist, the article claims, no adequately democratic, and effective, parties can be created. Yet, the relation between parliaments and parties is not a one-way road, as also the other relation is important: as long as parties remain irrelevant, parliaments will not be able to grow into meaningful loci of politics either. Hence, the paper problematises the fundamental 'chicken and egg' question for the analysis of the mutual interdependence of political parties and parliaments in North Africa. After a thorough assessment of both institutions' current shortcomings, it will trace ways to strengthen the relevance of both, political parties and parliaments, and show that both endeavours bear the chance of lasting success only if conducted in parallel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]