The advent of the internet has provided a new possibility for companies to communicate with their stakeholders and this thesis uses a new institutional sociology perspective to investigate the adoption of Internet Financial Reporting (IFR) in Arab MENA countries (Middle East and North Africa) to: i) evaluate the extent of IFR; and ii) identify the factors that influence Arab MENA listed companies to voluntarily adopt IFR. The study examines the extent of IFR in Arab MENA countries in 2010 using a sample of 1,456 listed companies from the 16 Arab MENA countries that have a stock exchange. To determine the factors that affect listed companies to adopt IFR, 961 listed companies were investigated from ten Arab MENA countries from two regions. Seven factors are investigated; five of which (company size; profitability; leverage; type of auditor; and industrial sector) have been investigated in prior studies; the other two factors, country and region, are also investigated as the effect of a country has been investigated in very few studies; the regional factor has not been investigated at all in prior studies; and hence contributes to our knowledge. The main findings of this thesis indicate that IFR in Arab MENA countries is growing; but listed companies in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have the most extensive practice of IFR; North African listed companies are next whereas listed companies located in the Middle East excluding GCC countries have a lower level of IFR than the other two groups. Moreover, the findings reveal that communities of practice have been formed by large profitable companies as well as those audited by the Big-4 audit firms. Further, financial sector companies and companies from the GCC region also appear to have similar practices with more extensive IFR than other listed companies. These communities of practice may be due to coercive, mimetic and normative isomorphism. From a mimetic pressure, arguably, listed companies imitate each other, as for instance, managers of large profitable companies, or financial companies may network and meet together and discuss issues relating to their businesses. Companies within the same country may also be exhibit homogeneous IFR practice for the same reason. Furthermore, companies from one region may be similar to each other because they have similar country characteristics such as political and economic factors. From a normative isomorphic perspective, the Big-4 audit firms may influence companies to adopt IFR across the globe. Further, banks in many countries have separate requirements bringing a coercive influence to bear on their practices.

There is a big debate among economists, why are the resource-rich economies growing slower than resource-poor economies? Which is making this puzzle more difficult, there are two groups of resources-rich abundance countries one group grow more than other ones. For instance, the Arabic Gulf, Nigeria, and Venezuela are growing slower than Botswanan, Norway, and Australia, but both groups are resources-rich countries. Is it the resources curse scenario? Or is it weak institutions? To study this puzzle, I have observed two groups of studies. The first group of old studies claim that the problem of low growth in resources-rich economics comes from the scenario of Dutch disease, but the second group or more recent studies strongly refuse the claim by the first group. They have debated that the problem comes from poor institutional quality. We totally agree with both groups, yet we have another scenario. The resources-rich countries suffer from Dutch diseases problem and from poor quality of institutions. We strongly criticize the most significant a series of studies by Sachs and Warner (1995, 1997a,1997b, 2001). They have debated that the Dutch Disease scenario is a possible mechanism of the resource curse, which is the labor factor and capital factor move from the manufacturing and service sectors to the natural resources sector. Thus, the negative effect of natural resources on economic growth is direct effect. We argue that there is a positive relationship between most types of natural resources (oil) and economic growth. We claim also this a positive relationship holds true even after controlling for significant variables found to be for economic growth. We are not only debating that the main symptoms of the resources curse come from the weakness of institutional quality, but also come from Dutch disease scenario. We see that the indirect effect of natural resources on economic growth. To prove this association, we have used multiple institutions and resources. However, we set up three chapters: The first chapter discusses how natural resources (oil rents) impact institutional quality (control of corruption) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). We discuss that is there any possibility of interaction terms between oil rents and rule of law from one side, and between oil rents and democracy from another side to avoid high corruption in MENA countries? Our findings confirm: First, the oil rents can highly feed corruption. Second, our estimates confirm that the relationship between oil rents and corruption depends on the quality of institutions (rule of law), which oil rents avoid to feed corruption unless the mean of quality of law role is (0.33). Furthermore, our findings suggest that the autocracy is better policy in the region. In the second chapter, to approach to our goal, the main symptoms of the resource curse phenomenon in MENA. The findings confirm that the economic growth in MENA is greatly and positively influence by oil rents, but we have blamed poor institutions leading to the phenomenon of resources curse. When the weakness of institutions reaches to certain limits, oil rents will start to create a negative impact on growth. This result seems to confirm the theory of the natural resource curse and to confirm that resources-rich countries are associated with poor institutions. Moreover, the interaction terms between diversification and oil rent can promote economic growth. In the third chapter, we discuss how the interaction terms between various types of natural resources, petroleum, natural coal, and coal, and political stability influence economic growth? The findings have diagnosed there are dissimilar effects by petroleum, natural gas, and coal on economic growth.

Credit Rating Agencies (CRAs) play a key role in financial markets by helping to reduce informative asymmetry between lenders and investors, on one side, and issuers on the other side, with regard to the creditworthiness of banks or countries. This crucial role has expanded alongside financial globalisation and received an additional boost from Basel II which integrates the ratings of CRAs into the rules for setting weights for credit risk. Ratings adjustment tends to be sticky, lagging behind markets, and often overreact when they do change. This overreaction may have aggravated the recent financial crises, contributing to financial instability and cross-country contagion. Criticism has been especially directed towards the high degree of concentration of the ratings industry. Promotion of competition may require policy action at the international level to encourage the establishment of new agencies and to discover alternative rules or regulatory requirements in order to achieve promising results. The recent growth of Middle Eastern and North African countries (MENA) and their commercial banking system has increased the need of paying widespread attention to this region of the world. This thesis crucially identifies, and estimates, the robust determinants of credit ratings for MENA countries and their commercial banks, incorporating a set of bank level accounting and financial risk factors, as well as country-specific characteristics, including indicators for regulatory, supervision, legal and economic environments. The research contributes, firstly, to the theoretical literature on credit ratings industry by reviewing extant methodologies specifically as they apply to banks and sovereign countries. Secondly, it conducts a systematic, cross-country empirical investigation using panel data econometric methodology for the purpose of estimating MENA countries sovereign and bank credit rating models. Thirdly, it provides tangible and statistically significant evidence on the different factors that determines the estimation of credit ratings and influencing bank's risk. The extant literature reviewed serves as a basis to achieve and develop the research aim, objectives and hypotheses of the thesis. The research then constructs an appropriate panel dataset from different sources, containing bank-level and country-level information for a sample of 108 commercial banks covering 13 MENA countries over the period 2000 - 2012. The methodological framework for estimating credit rating models (linear regression, logit and probit) is also reviewed and the procedures for panel data estimation are implemented using the econometric package STATA (version 13). All relevant data are drawn from public sources including Reuters, Bankscope, IMF and the World Bank. Using the random effects ordered probit and logit methodologies to estimate both sovereign (country) and bank level credit ratings models for the MENA countries, the evidence shows that real GDP growth, capital requirements, restrictions on banking activities and control of corruption all contribute negatively to the sovereign ratings. Furthermore, internal management and organisational requirements is considered as an additional regulatory factor not studied in previous research. The statistically significant and inverse relationship of the latter is considered an important and interesting outcome of MENA countries’ sovereign ratings. On the other hand, GDP per capita, investment (as a percentage of GDP), political stability, government effectiveness and the rule of law all reveal significant and positive impact on the sovereign credit ratings. In general, this research finds that improved macroeconomic conditions are correlated with higher ratings, while greater reserve regulations are correlated with lower ratings. The study also does find the significance of governance and regulatory variables plays a key role into the final credit rating. With regard to the impact on banks’ ratings, the results show that higher return on average assets and equity, larger bank size, more restrictions on bank activities, as well as higher official disciplinary power and higher standards of internal management, will yield higher credit ratings. Apart from having direct and positive impact on banks credit ratings, these variables are important for examining the risk-sharing incentives in MENA countries’ banks. In contrast, the estimation results indicate that net interest margin, net loans to deposits, liquid assets to deposits, capital requirements, deposit insurance scheme, liquidity requirements, unemployment rate and government effectiveness have an inverse and negative impact on banks ratings. In general, this study also finds various financial, macroeconomic, and regulatory effects on banks’ credit ratings. To a much lesser extent than government ratings, various macroeconomic variables also helped predict banks’ ratings, including real GDP growth and the unemployment rate. The thesis concludes by arguing that the combined use of financial and non-financial factors for estimating credit ratings models supports the relevant hypotheses examined and adds value to all stakeholders in improving and obtaining a better quality of credit ratings. This study also demonstrates that a diversity of bank-level and country-level factors influence the MENA sovereign and bank ratings differently, implying that policy makers, regulators alongside rating agencies should distinguish the different environmental factors between nations before any judgment and issuance can be model of the ratings. To conclude, there is no study which exclusively investigates credit rating models for the MENA region exploiting the richness of the data and methodology employed, and the current research aims to fill this gap.

This dissertation consists of two empirical papers that explore recent phenomena in Banking and Microfinance Performance. Chapter 1, “Market Power and Bank Performance in MENA Countries,” examines the determinants of market power in 12 Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), specifically within six Gulf Cooperation Countries and six non-Gulf countries. We examine the dynamics of bank competition in MENA countries, provide an up-to-date assessment of market power, investigate the factors impacting bank competition, and explore the evolution of market power during the financial crisis. Our results show an overall increase in market power following the GFC for both regions. We find that bank size, capitalization, and diversification affect market power differently in the pre-crisis and post-crisis years. Larger banks enjoy cost advantages and the diversification impact on market power has decreased in the post-crisis years and the impact of capitalization on market power increased during the GFC. Overall, banks with higher capitalization can better weather the crisis. Chapter 2, “The impact of firm-level characteristic and county-specific attributes on the performance and efficiency of the Microfinance institutions,” estimates the impact of country-specific macro-variables and firm-specific attributes on the financial performance and the efficiency of microfinance institutions (MFIs). We use a large international up-to-date database consisting of over 10,000 firm-years for MFIs over 89 countries during the period 2008-2015. Several interesting findings emerge: a) regulation and outreach are negatively correlated. b) There is a negative and highly statistically significant correlation between the percentage of female borrowers and loan size, which is evidence of “mission drift”. c) An increase in the percentage of female board member has positive and statistically significant effect on MFIs profitability and ROA; which emphasizes the importance of female participation in leading position in MFIs.

Les échanges dans la zone euro-méditerranéenne ont été caractérisés par une intensification des flux commerciaux au début des années 2000. A cette même période, la question migratoire a été mise en avant en raison d’une explosion de l’immigration clandestine dans les pays du sud de l’Europe. L’objectif de cette thèse est d’étudier certaines conséquences économiques actuelles de ces migrations dans le cas de France. Dans cette optique nous abordons les questions liées à la relation commerce-migrations, à la politique migratoire, et à la localisation spatiale des immigrés en France. En utilisant des données récentes et en intégrant des paramètres jusque là peu utilisés, nous mettons en évidence des caractéristiques particulières de l’immigration en France. Nous apportons également des réponses quant a` la contribution des immigrés a` la production nationale, de même qu’a` l’accroissement du commerce bilatéral avec les pays d’origine. Les implications en termes de politiques économiques se situent d’une part dans la mise en œuvre d’une facilitation des opportunités d’aaires entre la France et les pays d’origine. Cela s’impose au regard de l’impact positif de l’immigration sur le commerce bilatéral. D’autre part, les difficultés relevées au niveau des politiques migratoires appellent a` une nécessaire harmonie de ces dernières, au plan européen, pour une gestion plus efficace. Cela passe encore par une implication des pays d’origine afin de faciliter l’immigration légale, et limiter les entrées clandestines. Enfin, la localisation spatiale des immigrés indique que leur concentration dans les pôles régionaux a un impact négatif sur leur contribution `a la production. La réponse peut se situer dans une analyse détaillée de la structure et du processus d’intégration des populations immigrés / The Euro-Mediterranean trade has grown up a lot in the early 2000. At the same time, the migration issue has been highlighted due to an explosion of illegal immigration in the Southern Europe countries. The aim of this thesis is to study some current economic impact this immigration in the French case. We address the issues of trade and migration relationship, migration policy, and spatial location of immigrants in France. Using recent data and shaping factors little used empirically, we highlight the specific characteristics of immigration in France. We also provide explanations to the contribution of immigrants to the domestic, as well as increasing bilateral trade with the country. In terms of economic policies, it lies firstly in the implementation of facilitating business opportunities between France and the countries of origin. This is necessary to take more profit from the positive impact of immigration on bilateral trade. On the other hand, problems identified in migration policies call for a necessary harmony of policies, at European level, for more effective management. Such objectives require the involvement of countries of origin to facilitate legal migration, and limit illegal entries. Finally, the spatial location of immigrants indicates that their concentration at regional level has a negative impact on their contribution to production. The solution may lie in a detailed analysis of the structure, and the integration of immigrant populations’ process.

Les pays du Moyen-Orient et d’Afrique du Nord sont connus pour leurs richesses et leur diversité, conséquence d’une histoire économique et politique longue de plusieurs décennies. Ils s’étendent sur une vaste étendue allant du golfe Persique à l'est, jusqu’à l'Océan Atlantique à l'ouest. Cette région appelée parfois MENA (Middle East and North Africa) comprend la plus grande partie du Sud-Ouest de l'Asie et l'Afrique du nord. Elle inclut sur le continent asiatique l’Iran, la Turquie et tous les pays arabes. En Afrique du nord, elle inclut l’Égypte, la Tunisie, la Libye, le Maroc et l'Algérie.Cette thèse commence par une première partie consacrée à la géographie et l’histoire des principaux pays de la région en commençant par les dernières décennies vécues par l’Empire Ottoman. Dans la deuxième partie nous présentons un panorama économique et social des pays de la zone.Dans la troisième partie nous nous concentrons sur la politique monétaire. Cette politique est l'une des politiques économiques les plus importantes, car son succès est sensé contribué à la réussite et au développement d’autres politiques. Nous analysons les relations problématiques entre le gouvernement au pouvoir exécutif et la Banque centrale en tant qu’autorité monétaire. / The Countries in the Middle East and North Africa are known for their wealth and diversity as a result of a decades-long economic and political history. They extend over a vast expanse from the Persian Gulf to the east, to the Atlantic Ocean to the west. This region sometimes referred to as MENA (Middle East and North Africa) includes most of Southwest Asia and North Africa. It includes on the Asian continent Iran, Turkey and all the Arab countries. In North Africa, it includes Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Morocco and Algeria.This thesis begins with a first part devoted to the geography and history of the main countries of the region, starting with the last decades lived by the Ottoman Empire.In the second part we present an economic and social panorama of the countries of the zone.In the third part we focus on monetary policy. This policy is one of the most important economic policies, as its success is supposed to contribute to the success and development of other policies. We analyze the problematic relations between the executive government and the central bank as monetary authority.

Malgré la diversité des études théoriques et empiriques, la problématique de la relation compte capital – croissance économique reste une question controversée. L’objet de ce travail de recherche consiste donc à expliciter la nature d’une telle relation dans les économies de la région MENA, tout en tenant compte de la qualité institutionnelle. Dans ce contexte, les différentes estimations ont été effectuées par la méthode des moments généralisés (GMM), sur la période allant de 1986 à 2012, pour 11 pays. Les résultats montrent que la corruption et la responsabilité démocratique influencent négativement la croissance économique si la politique de la libéralisation du compte capital est adoptée. Cependant, le terme d'interaction entre la qualité bureaucratique et l'ouverture financière stimulent positivement la croissance économique. Ces résultats suggèrent alors que les avantages de la libéralisation du compte capital sont conditionnés par les facteurs institutionnels. De ce fait, notre thèse contribue aux débats politiques récents sur les mérites et les démérites de la libéralisation du compte capital. En ce qui concerne le lien entre la libéralisation du compte capital et le développement financier en Tunisie, les différentes estimations ont été effectuées par l’approche autorégressive à retards échelonnés (ARDL), sur la période allant de 1986 à 2014. Les résultats obtenus montrent que l’effet positif de l’ouverture sur le développement financier est bien plus important à long terme qu’à court terme. Par ailleurs, les résultats confirment l’impact négatif de la corruption sur le système financier tunisien. / Despite the diversity of theoretical and empirical studies, the question of capital account–economic growth relationship remains a controversial issue. This research aims to complete the existing evidence focusing on MENA countries, while taking into account the institutional quality. In this context, various estimates were made by generalized method of moments (GMM) over the period of 1986–2012 for 11 countries. The results show that corruption and democratic accountability have a significant and negative impact on economic growth if capital account liberalization is enacted. However, the interaction term of bureaucracy quality and financial openness has a significant and positive impact on economic growth. These findings therefore show that the benefits of capital account liberalization are not unconditional, but are likely to depend upon the environment in which the liberalization occurs. Hence, our thesis contributes to the recent policy debates on the merits and demerits of capital account liberalization. As regards the link between capital account liberalization and financial development in Tunisia, the various estimates were made by the autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL) over the period 1986 to 2014. The results show that the positive effect of opening on financial development is much more important in the long term than in the short term. Moreover, the results confirm the negative impact of corruption on the Tunisian financial system.

Cette thèse étudie l'impact des marchés financiers sur la croissance économique dans la région MENA. Le premier chapitre présente la situation économique, démographique et financière de la région. Le deuxième chapitre présente un modèle d'équilibre général à générations imbriquées, qui relie la croissance économique, les marchés financiers et l'évolution démographique. Le modèle est calibré et simulé pour trois pays de la région, présentant des tendances démographiques diverses. Les résultats montrent qu'un secteur financier plus performant conduit à une meilleure performance économique et à des taux d'emploi plus élevés. Par ailleurs, les jeunes sont les premiers bénéficiaires de la réforme du secteur financier. Le troisième chapitre teste empiriquement l'impact du secteur financier sur le secteur réel et la croissance dans 15 pays de la région MENA et constate un impact négatif du développement du secteur financier sur la croissance. Ces résultats soulignent l'inefficacité de secteur financier dans la région et le besoin urgent de cibler des politiques qui améliorent l'efficience du secteur et pas seulement sa taille. Dans le quatrième chapitre, un indicateur de développement des marchés financiers est construit pour les pays de la région. Cet indicateur est basé sur les 3 piliers que sont l'environnement macroéconomique, les institutions financières et les marchés financiers. Il prend en compte les spécificités des pays de la région MENA et permet de classer les pays de la région en fonction de leur performance dans le secteur financier / This thesis studies the impact of the financial markets on economic growth for MENA region. The first chapter presents a general overview of the region, with a focus on economic, demographic and financial market outlook of the region. In the second chapter an overlapping generation model is presented, that links economic development, financial markets and demographic shift. The model is simulated for three countries in the region with different speeds in demographic shift. The results show that a more efficient financial sector leads to better economic performance and higher employment rates, furthermore, youth are the primary beneficiaries of the reform in the financial sector. The third chapter tests empirically the link between the financial sector and the real sector in 15 MENA countries and finds a negative impact of financial sector development on growth. These results underline the expansion of an inefficient financial sector in the region, and the urgent need to focus on policies that target the efficiency of the sector and not solely its size. A comprehensive composite index for the financial sector development is developed in the fourth chapter. This index is based on three pillars that are, macroeconomic environment, financial institutions and financial markets. The index takes into account the specificities of MENA countries and allows us to rank the countries in the region according to their performance in the financial sector.

La région MENA est aujourd’hui, au centre d’ambitieux enjeux économiques essentiellement en matière d’intégration régionale et de transformation structurelle. Toutefois, les Etats Arabes de cette région ont présenté des défaillances et une vulnérabilité importante dans le système économique et productif au lendemain des mouvements et des bouleversements politiques, économiques, sociales et populaires de très grande ampleur. Ces chocs apportent un lot de nouveaux défis à relever. L’objectif principal de cette thèse est d’étudier les nouvelles dynamiques du processus de transformation structurelle afin de proposer de nouvelles trajectoires de développement pour ces pays. Dans cette optique, nous abordons les questions liées aux déterminants et aux effets spatiaux de ce processus, à la relation entre d’une part la complexité économique et la pollution de l’air, et d’autre part, la complexité économique et les inégalités de genre en éducation. Pour cela, nous considérons un panel dynamique de 133 pays qui couvre une période longue et récente (1984 à 2014). En utilisant des données récentes et en intégrant des paramètres jusque-là peu utilisés, nous mettons en évidence des caractéristiques particulières du processus de complexification des systèmes productifs. D’un point de vue général, les résultats révèlent que les performances en matière de complexification des systèmes productifs sont très hétérogènes au sein des pays MENA et que leurs déterminants dépendent des caractéristiques des économies. Les fortes disparités observées s’expliquent, au-delà de l’effet significatif du revenu par habitant, par une carence dans le système institutionnel, éducatif en particulier dans l’accès à l’innovation, mais aussi à l’abondance des ressources naturelles ou encore à l’attractivité des investissements directs étrangers. Au-delà des caractéristiques individuelles des économies, l’analyse spatiale montre que des facteurs géographiques tels que le taux d’urbanisation, les accords commerciaux, et la localisation spatiale jouent un rôle très important dans le processus de transformation structurelle. Nous apportons également, grâce aux outils tirés de la mécanique classique, des réponses aux limites des modèles économiques traditionnels qui peinent à démontrer l’existence d’un processus d’accélération du développement économique. / MENA countries is today, at the center of ambitious economic stakes mainly in regional integration and structural transformation. However, the Arab States of this region have suffered great shortcomings and vulnerability in the economic and productive system in the aftermath of massive political, economic, social and popular upheavals and upheavals. These shocks present a number of new challenges. The main objective of this thesis is to study the new dynamics of the structural transformation process in order to propose new development trajectories for these countries. In this context, we address issues related to the spatial determinants and effects of this process, the relationship between economic complexity and air pollution on the one hand, and economic complexity and inequalities on the other education. For this, we consider a dynamic panel of 133 countries covering an important and recent period (1984 to 2014). Using recent data and integrating previously little used parameters, we highlight particular characteristics of the process of complexification of productive systems. From a general point of view, the results reveal that the productivity performance of productive systems is very heterogeneous within MENA countries and that their determinants depend on the characteristics of the economies. The large disparities observed are explained, beyond the significant effect of per capita income, by a deficiency in the institutional system, particularly in terms of access to innovation, but also to the abundance of natural resources or the attractiveness of foreign direct investment. Beyond the individual characteristics of economies, spatial analysis shows that geographical factors such as urbanization rate, trade agreements, but especially spatial location play a very important role in the process of structural transformation.We also bring, thanks to the tools derived from classical mechanics, answers to the limits of traditional economic models which are difficult to demonstrate the existence of a process of accelerating economic development.