Events

A lecture covering Ishac Diwan's recent research on cronyism in Egypt, which tries to quantify the impact of favoritism on economic performance, using corporate data on large firms in Egypt. Diwanidentifies a large number of politically connected firms elucidating their sectoral dominance and the impeding effects it has on those firms not connected. In addition, Diwan reviews the impact of the 2011 uprisings on their value and examines the extent to which they capture regulations.The results suggest that cronyism reduced the effectiveness of the private sector in leading economic growth, and offers a novel entry point to discuss the root causes for the failure of authoritarian regimes to put their countries on a solid development path.