Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Foreword -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Glossary of Terms -- Abbreviations -- Overview -- What Is This Report About? -- Is the Private Sector Able to Play the Role of a Growth Engine? -- How Has the Private Sector Performed So Far? -- Is It about Missing Reforms? -- Is It about the Way Rules Are Implemented? -- Why Is It Difficult to Improve the Business Environment in the Region? -- Weak Demand for Reform: A Private Sector That Has Yet to Become an Agent of Change -- Weak "Supply" of Reforms: Policy-Making Institutions That Lack Credibility -- What Should Be Done Differently? Where Should Each Country Start? -- Getting Specific: A Roadmap for Credible Private-Led Growth Strategies in MENA -- Looking Forward -- 1. Voices of Entrepreneurs-Stories of Success, Hope, and Challenge -- Listening to Entrepreneurs -- Government Successes and Pitfalls in Supporting the Private Sector -- Challenges Facing Entrepreneurs-From Regulatory Barriers to Conflict and War -- Privileges, Unlevel Playing Fields, and the Credibility of the Reforms -- Hope and Enthusiasm for the Future -- Part I Private Sector Performance in the MENA Region: Explaining the Untapped Potential -- 2. Searching for Signs of Sustained Private-Led Growth in MENA -- The Growth of MENA Economies -- An Economy-Wide Perspective -- Firm-Level Productivity -- Summing Up -- 3. Explaining the Private Sector's Weak Performance-An Organizing Framework -- The Need for Humility in Prescribing the Keys to Private-Led Growth -- Policies, Institutions That Implement Them, and Expectations about the Future -- Measuring Rules, How They Are Applied, and Expectations about the Future -- 4. Policy Reforms in MENA, Their Credibility, and Their Implementation -- Is the Problem with Missing Reforms?.

The Problem Is the Insufficient Private Sector Response to Reforms -- Is It about the Way Rules and Policies Are Implemented? -- Symptoms of a Business Environment That Is Not the Same for All -- Summing Up -- Part II Policies and How They Are Applied: State Intervention and Discretion in Credit, Land, and Industrial Policy -- 5. Access to Credit in MENA: Toward Better Supervision and Less Interference -- Credit Markets and Banking Systems in MENA -- Business Manager Perceptions of Credit Constraints -- Beyond Perceptions and Complaints: How Many Firms Are Really Credit Constrained? -- What Can Governments Do to Increase Access to Credit? -- 6. Reassessing the State's Role in Industrial Land Markets -- The Low Access to Land in MENA Countries -- Sources of Inefficiencies in Land Markets -- Getting the Incentives Right in Enclaves -- Power and Rent Seeking in Public Land Allocation and Regulation -- The Way Forward -- 7. New Industrial Policies: Opportunities and Perils of Selective Interventions -- A Tradition of Subsidies and Selective State Interventions -- A Framework to Clarify a Controversial Debate -- Private Sector Policies in MENA-A Legacy of Disproportionate Interventionism -- Assessing Risks of Industrial Policy Interventions -- Should Oil-Rich Countries Intervene? Yes, but the Risks of Failure Are Higher -- A Final Cautionary Note: Industrial Policies Could Succeed if the Right Conditions and Processes Are in Place -- Part III Designing Credible Private Sector Reforms Informed by Political Economy Realities -- 8. Institutions and State-Business Alliances Constraining Reforms and Credibility -- Weak Supply of Reforms: Policy-Making Institutions That Lack Commitment and Credibility -- Weak Demand for Reform: A Private Sector That Has Yet to Become an Agent of Change -- What Can Reformers Do to Change the Political Economy Status Quo?.

9. Rethinking Private Sector Policy Making in MENA -- What Should Be Done Differently to Realign Investor Expectations? -- Looking Forward: Unlocking the Region's Private Sector Potential -- References -- Index -- Back Cover.