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Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries are among the most affected regions globally, which are expected also to be influenced significantly for an extended period. This paper aims to consider an attempt for a real-time evaluation of the colossal impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on health, economic and social sectors in MENA nations.

This paper draws from published academic studies. It is also based on the synthesis of news broadcasted and current media sources, government speeches and reports, as the novel COVID-19 situation is unfolding. The authors’ experiences investigating in this domain have also contributed to the research.

This investigation captures events on the novel COVID-19, as they are unfolding now. The study predicts that the COVID-19 pandemic will probably affect the general patterns of MENA people’s lifestyles. In addition, the COVID-19 epidemic will have a substantial influence on healthcare systems and economic sectors in MENA countries.

This viewpoint paper offers some emerging outlooks, appearing with the contemporary novel COVID-19 outbreak. This study provides valuable insights to inform investors, policymakers and the public that natural disasters can inflict economic damage on an unprecedented scale.

This is a “real-time” evaluation study. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that map and assess the potential impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on health-care systems, economic sectors and people’s lifestyle in MENA countries.

This paper aims to explore the extreme effect of crude oil price fluctuations and its volatility on the economic growth of Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries. It also investigates the asymmetric and dynamic relationship between oil price and economic growth. Further, a separate analysis for each MENA oil-export and oil-import countries is conducted. Furthermore, it studies to what extent the quality of institutions will change the effect of oil price fluctuations on economic growth.

As the effect of oil price fluctuations is not the same over different business cycles or oil price levels, the paper uses a panel quantile regression approach with other linear models such as fixed effects, random effects and panel generalized method of moments. The panel quantile methodology is an extension of traditional linear models and it has the advantage of exploring the relationship over the different quantiles of the whole distribution.

The paper can summarize results as following: changes in oil price and its volatility have an opposite effect for each oil-export and oil-import countries; for the former, changes in oil prices have a positive impact but the volatility a negative effect. While for the latter, changes in oil prices have a negative effect but volatility a positive effect. Further, the impact of oil price changes and their uncertainty are different across different quantiles. Furthermore, there is evidence about the asymmetric effect of the oil price changes on economic growth. Finally, accounting for institutional quality led to a reduction in the impact of oil price changes on economic growth.

The study concludes more detailed results on the impact of oil prices on gross domestic product growth. Thus, it can be used as a decision-support tool for policymakers.

The purpose of this study is to apply the regulatory dialectic to describe the evolution of trade-based money laundering (TBML) schemes, to describe three recent TBML innovations uncovered by a large bank in the important global trade jurisdiction of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and to provide recommendations for an effective regulatory response.

The methodology used is a caselet approach with three examples of TBML schemes recently foiled in the UAE as well as an application of the regulatory dialectic literature to TBML.

The implications of the regulatory dialectic for research regarding TBML and associated regulation and compliance will enable regulators, the financial services sector and academics to understand TBML and the ever-evolving steps criminals are taking to circumvent the changing landscape of regulation and controls implemented by the financial services sector and customs tasked with mitigating such behaviour. This paper will bring awareness of the evolution of TBML, the controls and frameworks that may be used to prevent, detect and investigate some of the complex schemes of TBML.

The regulatory dialectic theory provides insights into the evolution of TBML schemes as well as why compliance activities tend to be reactive, rather than proactive. The cases covered in this paper provide insights into the nature of this circular process between financial crime and regulation, which is useful for anti-financial crime professionals and regulators focusing on deterrence.

The UAE is a small, rapidly developing trade and finance center in the Middle East, surrounded by nations that are sanctioned, in active conflicts, politically unstable and/or highly corrupt. TBLM undermines the security of the UAE; the authors provide insights into criminal innovations and regulatory responses.

To promote the safety and stability of the ten million residents of the UAE, and others in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, it is important to understand the process of innovation in TBML schemes and regulatory response.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to apply the regulatory dialectic theory to TBML to describe innovation in TBML schemes and to provide cases describing contemporary TBML innovations in the MENA region.

Serious concerns about the stability of the international financial systems have arisen recently, resulting from the mounting inflation rates and the accompanying procedures to control them. Consequently, this study aims at examining empirically the impact of inflationary pressures/shocks on the stability of banking sectors.

The study adopts a dynamic GMM models and exploits a sample of 188 banks operating in 14 MENA economies, over the period 1999–2021.

This research finds that high inflation does indeed harm bank financial stability and deteriorates banks credit risk. Furthermore, the examination of the impact of interaction terms between inflation and bank-specific and institutional quality variables shows that better capitalisation levels, higher liquidity buffers, larger asset size, greater market power, foreign ownership and overall political stability, all can counterbalance the impact of inflationary pressures on MENA banks financial stability.

In addition to empirically revealing how inflationary shocks can deteriorate financial stability, the main novelty of this research is examining how the interactions between inflation on one hand, and bank-specific and institutional quality on the other, affect bank stability.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of capital requirements and bank competition on banks' risk-taking behavior in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

The study combines both descriptive and analytical approaches. It considers panel data sets and adopts panel data econometric techniques like fixed effects/random effects and generalized method of moments estimator.

Regulatory capital and market competition have different effects according to the bank’s type (Islamic or conventional). The results show that the capital adequacy ratio has a significant impact on the credit risk of conventional banks (CBs) while this effect is irrelevant for Islamic banks (IBs). However, market competition plays a significant role in shaping risk-taking behavior of Islamic banking institutions. Our results indicate that banks with strong market power may pursue risky strategies in the face of increased regulatory pressure (e.g. increased minimum capital requirements). The results were robust to alternative profitability measures and endogeneity checks.

The most important limitation is the lack of data for some banks and years, and this paper had to exclude some variables because of missing observations. The second limitation concerns the number of IBs in the sample. However, this can be overcome by including more countries from MENA and other regions where Islamic banking is a growing phenomenon.

Our findings call for a change in Islamic banking’s traditional business model based on the prohibition of interest. The analysis indicates that market concentration moderates the association between capital requirements and the insolvency risk of IBs but not CBs. Therefore, regulatory authorities concerned with improving financial stability in the MENA region should set up their policies differently depending on the level of banking market concentration. Finally, bank managers are requested to apply a more disciplined approach to their lending decisions and build sufficient capital conservation buffers to limit the impact of downside risk from the depletion of capital buffers during the pandemic.

This study addresses banks’ risk-taking behavior and stability in the MENA region, which includes banks of different types (Islamic and conventional). This paper also contributes to the literature on bank stability by identifying the most critical factors that affect bank risk and stability in the MENA region, which can be relevant in the context of the new global (COVID-19) crisis.

In the light of high reliance on digital technology to mitigate the consequences of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and its containment measures, this study investigates the factors influencing firms' decision to adopt digital technologies during COVID-19 in four Middle East and Northern African (MENA) countries, namely, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia.

The study used the International Labour Organization (ILO)/Economic Research Forum (ERF) COVID-19 - MENA Monitor Enterprise Survey (CMMENT), comprising 5,480 firms, surveyed during 2020–2021. The empirical model is estimated using the linear probability model (LPM) to address the problem of unobserved heterogeneity between firms, countries, and time.

The results revealed that firm characteristics, such as firm size and foreign ownership, encourage digital transformation in the business sector. Moreover, firms that face challenges during the pandemic, comply with the containment measures, and receive government assistance are more likely to adopt digital solutions. Furthermore, the results indicated that firms operating in services sector have a higher likelihood to adopt digital technology. Disaggregating the total sample into several sub-samples, the results are robust across countries and technology types, supporting the initial hypothesis that COVID-19 encourages digital transformation in the MENA region.

The study has numerous contributions. First, to the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the sole study that uses micro data collected during the COVID-19 to examine the factors influencing firms' decision to adopt and invest in digital solutions in the MENA countries. Second, the paper employs the LPM estimator to address the issue of unobserved heterogeneity between firms, countries and time. Finally, the paper offers some practical recommendations for accelerating digital transformation in MENA region.

Reflecting emerging concerns about Principles of Responsible Management Education’s (PRME's) reach beyond the West, the authors provide an analysis of its contribution to responsible management development in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

Drawing on 18 PRME MENA signatories' Sharing Information on Progress Reports, the authors examine levels of engagement with PRME, as well the practices used in the region to progress its six principles. The authors examine the depth of integration based on Rusinko's (2010) typology and its success in addressing local responsible management challenges.

The analysis revealed modest levels of engagement with PRME in MENA. Consistent with other regions, for those actively participating, the authors identified a wide variation in PRME responses. First, the authors found wide variation in the interpretation of the six principles. Second, the authors found a diversity of practices, especially the extent to which efforts were linked to progressing local management challenges. Third, the authors also found variability relating to the depth of PRME's integration into the curricular of MENA signatories with, most displaying Ruskino's (2010) narrower approaches.

The authors address calls to understand the contribution of PRME beyond Western contexts and offer suggestions for how PRME can be strengthened to facilitate responsible management development in MENA.

The purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive review of the literature on financial inclusion, with a focus on its relationship to financial and economic development.

This paper begins by surveying the field of financial inclusion research over the past 15 years, highlighting the evolution of how financial inclusion has been studied in practice. By reviewing 107 studies published between 2008 and 2023 in 63 peer-reviewed journals, the study emphasizes the importance of recent research in this field.

The analysis reveals key findings on the positive impact of financial inclusion on economic growth, poverty reduction, financial stability and CO₂ emissions, among other factors. Despite the extensive empirical and theoretical work accomplished in the field, the study argues that there is still a need for further research on financial inclusion, including exploring new regions and financial and economic development indicators such as social capital, entrepreneurship and political stability.

This research aspires to map the emerging discourse on this topic, identify major gaps, and provide a productive line to guide future research. This will contribute to the ongoing debate led by the World Bank on financial inclusion as an effective measure to fight poverty. This study attempts to proffer ideas to encourage collaborative research and deepen our understanding on the role of financial inclusion.

This study offers a comprehensive overview of recent research on financial inclusion and highlights the need for further research in this field. This study also proposes a promising future research agenda to guide future advancements in the area of financial inclusion.

The paper aims to provide empirical evidence of the impact of IFRS adoption on the value relevance of accounting information in the emerging market of Saudi Arabia.

The sample consists of 98 non-financial listed firms operating in Saudi Arabia from 2014 to 2019, representing the years before and after IFRS adoption. The authors apply basic and extended price models to examine the value relevance of select accounting figures.

The authors findings provide evidence that accounting information is, generally, value relevant to the Saudi Arabian capital market. However, mixed results exist for particular accounting variables. Both earnings and cash flows are value-relevant in the period before and after IFRS adoption; equity is only relevant in the post-adoption period. Furthermore, IFRS adoption also increases the explanatory power of earnings. An increase in the value relevance of earnings and equity hurts the value relevance of cash flows. The effects are moderated by leverage and dividend policy.

The authors contribute to the ongoing discussion of the economic effects of IFRS adoption in emerging markets. The empirical findings show that initial concerns about IFRS adoption, as reflected by the negative coefficient within the regression analysis, are mitigated once the usefulness of the individual accounting variables published in financial statements is investigated.

In this paper, the author aims to investigate the relationship between economic growth and unemployment in six Arab countries from Middle East and North Africa (MENA) zone including Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, Lebanon, Jordan and Oman through the implementation of Okun's law using quarterly dataset covering the time period 2000: 1–2014: 4.

In this paper, static and dynamic linear and nonlinear models are used to test the linkage between cyclical unemployment and cyclical growth rate.

The empirical results from considered models confirm an inverse linkage between unemployment rate and economic growth, as the Okun's law suggests (except for Oman). In a nonlinear autoregressive dynamic linear (NARDL) framework and gap specification, statistically significant Okun's coefficients indicate that output growth can be translated into employment gains. Absolute effect of an economic contraction is significantly larger than that of an expansion in Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco and Lebanon. The opposite is true for Jordan and Oman.

Empirical finding provides then an additional proof that Okun's law could exist in a developing countries such as Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, Lebanon and Jordan. Hence, any attempt to increase gross domestic product (GDP) through some economic fiscal and/or monetary policies in these countries would reduce unemployment rate.

Based on asymmetric specification, the author can conclude with precision that an economic upturn of 3.37, 2.98 and 2.5%, respectively, in Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt reduces unemployment by 1%, whilst the downturn of 5.03 and 2.43% (and about 12%), respectively, in Tunisia and Morocco (and Lebanon and Jordan) achieves the opposite.