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Policies that constrain private sector competition and job creation abound in MENA. Such policies are often captured by few privileged firms with deep political connections. The millions of workers who bear the brunt are often unaware of the adverse impact of these policies on the jobs to which they aspire.

This paper presents new evidence that cronyism reduces long-term economic growth by discouraging firms' innovation activities. The analysis is based on novel establishment survey data from The Arab Republic of Egypt which provides information on establishments' political connections, their innovation activities, and their access to policy privileges. The analysis finds that the probability that firms invest in products new to the firm increases from under 1 percent for politically connected firms to over 7 percent for unconnected firms. The results are robust across different innovation measures. Despite innovating less, politically connected firms are more capital intensive, as they face lower marginal cost of capital due to the generous policy privileges they receive, including exclusive access to input subsidies, public procurement contracts, favorable exchange rates, and financing from politically connected banks. These privileges are largest when compared with their direct competitors operating in the same 4-digit sectors. The findings suggest that connected firms out-rival their competitors by lobbying for privileges instead of innovating. In the aggregate, these policy privileges reduce Egypt's long-term growth potential by diverting resources away from innovation to the inefficient capital accumulation of a few large, connected firms. A wide array of supporting evidence suggests that this effect is causal and not due to selection.

Sahar Delijanis debutroman, Jacarandatreets barn, er hyllet av både kritikere og forfattere. Boken er basert på Delijanis egen historie, og er en gripende roman om den iranske revolusjonens mørke hemmeligheter. Fortellingen spenner over tre generasjoner, og gir et levende portrett av sterke menn og kvinner. Drevet av kjærlighet, poesi og brennende idealisme jakter de på evig rettferdighet og frihet. Sahar Delijanis rike og levende språk fanger essensen av revolusjonens menneskelige aspekter på en gripende måte. «Delijanis sterke roman er et brennende oppgjør mot tyranniet, en gripende honnør til de som bærer med seg arrene etter undertrykkelse, og en hyllest til menneskets evige søken etter frihet.» Khaled Hosseini, forfatter

Sahar Abdulaziz's new Women's Contemporary Fiction novel, The Broken Half, is the harrowing story of a young American Muslim woman, Zahra, whose marriage has been anything but peaceful. Faced with the difficult and dangerous choice to either stay in her abusive marriage or leave, Zahra soon realizes each step she takes towards freedom is riddled with risky and uncertain repercussions. Feeling trapped, alone, and without the support she so desperately needs, Zahra is almost out of options. While the threat of danger continues to escalate around her, will Zahra ultimately choose to fix her broken marriage or will escaping become a life or death decision?

Afaf Rahman, the daughter of Palestinian immigrants, is the principal of Nurrideen School for Girls, a Muslim school in the Chicago suburbs. One morning, a shooter―radicalized by the online alt-right―attacks the school.

Tehran, 1983. A city paralysed by fear, its people silenced. And the beating heart of the regime is Evin prison. Yet even within its walls three women dare to dream of a life beyond tyranny. Azar gives birth to her daughter in captivity. One day the guards simply take her child from her. Parisa yearns for her tiny son, growing up a few miles away but completely out of reach. And Firoozeh, broken by cruelty, has turned her back on everything she was fighting for. But even in the most desolate places hope can take root . . .