Alan Richards

The political economy of dilatory reform: Egypt in the 1980s

Abstract The paper explores the political economy of Egypts failure to implement policy reforms during the 1980s despite mounting problems of international indebtedness, macroeconomics imbalances, microdistortions, lack of employment creation, and the need for poverty alleviation. After reviewing the size and origins of these problems, the causes of reform failure are analyzed. These causes lie in domestic blockages, particularly the role of interest groups, and especially in “strategic rents”: the Egyptian governments skillful exploitation of its political role in the region to extract unique favors from the United States and, with US influence, from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The paper concludes with an interpretation of the May 1991 agreement with the IMF reached after the Gulf war.

The Egyptian farm labor market revisited

Abstract Egyptian evidence loomed large in the old debate between proponents of surplus labor and their neo-classical critics. The paper uses the recent experience of this labor market to revisit the issues. the unprecedented changes engendered by the oil boom basically confirm the neo-classical view. One may discern the following ‘stylized facts’ of the Egyptian farm labor market: (1) both supply and demand for labor are inelastic with respect to the wage; (2) real wages are very flexible, rising, and then falling sharply with international oil prices; (3) supply shifts explain these real wage changes; (4) these are in turn primarily the outcome of international labor migration; (5) regional wage disparities remained roughly constant during the past decade. The conclusion draws some implications for poverty alleviation and for the political economy question of how the benefits of the regional oil boom were shared.

The Political Economy of Gutswirtschaft : A Comparative Analysis of East Elbian Germany, Egypt, and Chile

In many otherwise diverse societies, owners of large agricultural estates have paid their year-round workers with the use of a piece of land on which to produce their own subsistence crops. In a “preliminary report” Magnus Morner cited some eleven examples of this system in Europe, Latin America, and Africa. Although Morner mentions different influences, he does not advance an argument to explain these systems. This essay seeks to contribute to our understanding of the political economy of these “labor rent” or “estate labor” systems. The paper is exploratory: previous approaches are considered, a theoretical framework is proposed, and some tentative hypotheses are presented. My evidence comes from three examples: the Insten system of East Elbian Germany from ca. 1750 to ca. 1860; the ‘ izbah system of the Egyptian Delta from ca. 1850 to ca. 1940; and the pre-1930 inquilinaje system of Central Chile.

Ten years of infitah: class, rent, and policy stasis in Egypt

The Political Economy of Income Distribution in Egypt. Edited by Gouda Abdel‐Khalek and Robert Tignor. New York: Holmes & Meier, 1982.

The agricultural crisis in Egypt

55. ISBN 0 8419 0633 5. Employment Opportunities and Equity in Egypt: A Labour Market Approach. By Bent Hansen and Samir Radwan. Geneva: International Labour Office, 1982.

Syrian food security in the 1970s and 1980s

25.65 and

No Easy Exit: Property Rights, Markets, and Negotiations over Water

19.95. ISBN 92 2 102995 6 and 102996 4. Egypt: Politics and Society, 1945–1981. By Derek Hopwood. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1982. £12.50. ISBN 0 04 956011 5. An Economic History of the Middle East and North Africa. By Charles Issawi. London: Methuen, 1982. £12.50. ISBN 0 416 34330 9. Population and Development in Rural Egypt. By Allen C. Kelley, Atef M. Khalifa, and M. Nabil El‐Khorazaty. Durham, NC: Duke Press Policy Studies, 1982.

SOCIO-ECONOMIC ROOTS OF RADICALISM? TOWARDS EXPLAINING THE APPEAL OF ISLAMIC RADICALS

22.75. ISBN 0 8223 0475 9.

Democracy in the Arab Region: Getting There from Here

The paper probes the historical origins of and current responses to the agricultural problems of Egypt. Much of the difficulty stems from the fact that the class structure, the distribution of resources, and the social bases of both Nassers and Sadats regime have blocked either the mobilization of the peasantry on the one hand or the provision of decentralized incentives on the other. After a brief assessment of Nassers land reforms, price policies, and investment strategy, the current responses of changing crop patterns and mechanization are assessed. Such a strategy seems unlikely to succeed, but no other obvious alternative strategy is at hand.

Coping with Water Scarcity: The Governance Challenge

Abstract An analysis of changes in domestic production, foreign trade and aid in Syria from 1970 to the late 1980s reveals a marked contrast between the two decades. In the 1970s per capita incomes expanded rapidly due to the regional oil boom. Demand for food grew quickly and, despite respectable supply growth, food imports as a percentage of consumption increased. During the 1980s income per capita stagnated and demand growth slowed. At the same time a series of poor rainfall years reduced domestic supply growth and increased production variability, yet food imports showed no trend