Algeria 
Bahrain 
Egypt 
Iran 
Iraq 
Israel 
Jordan 
Kuwait 
Lebanon 
Libya 
Morocco 
Oman 
Palestine * 
Qatar 
Saudi Arabia 
Syria 
Tunisia 
United Arab Emirates 
Yemen EMNES Working paper 35 – Financial inclusion in the Middle East and North Africa and its effect on unemployment
The Euro-Mediterranean Network for Economic Studies (EMNES) published a new working paper on its website. The purpose of this study is to investigate empirically the relationship between financial inclusion and unemployment for a sample of countries within the MENA. An index for financial inclusion, using Sarma (2008), has been estimated for Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia during the period 2008-2018. The estimated index for financial inclusion reveals that, despite some progress, there is a need to foster financial inclusion in the region.
Based on this index, the impact of financial inclusion on unemployment has been tested. The estimation of a random effect model testing the relationship between financial inclusion and unemployment shows a negative effect of financial inclusion on unemployment for the selected sample of countries.
