Gov 365N/MES 323K

Questions for Class 9: Feb 16, 2010

First look at this week's syllabus and download the British Petroleum Excel spreadsheet of energy statistics found at http://www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=2012411&contentId=2018340

How much of the world's reserves are found in the MENA? How much oil and natural gas are produced in the region? (Please look at the Practicum section and try to download the BP data - you can also check how much oil is being produced and is held in reserve by the countries you have selected - or are they heavy importers like Turkey - you can also find that out)

Looking at chapter 2 of Henry-Springborg,

1. What might the use of IMF credit in the 1980s and 1990s tell us about the experiences with "globalization" of different MENA countries?
2. What are "strategic rents" and how might they affect a MENA country's economic policies, notably its commitments to neoliberal economic reforms? Does foreign aid encourage reform or serve to put it off? How about strategic military relationships?
3. What effects might remittances of workers have on their home countries? (Remember Gala Amin's Egyptians who went off to the Gulf countries and then returned?)
4. What about those oil rents? Do they encourage or discourage economic reform?
5. Which MENA countries have significantly expanded their manufactured exports?
6. May regional intra-Arab trade help these countries to be more internationally competitive?
7. Which countries need foreign capital? What forms does it take? How successful have they been in attracting FDI?
8. Do wealthy Arab states really need FDI?

Department of Government, College of Liberal Arts, University of Texas at Austin.

Questions, Comments, and Suggestions to chenry@mail.utexas.edu