世界银行-出口改善中东和北非劳动力市场（英）-2023-191页_7mb

Exports to Improve Labor Markets in the Middle East and North Africa: Summary

The report investigates why increased trade and export liberalization in Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia failed to improve labor market outcomes despite global evidence of trade's benefits. Key findings include:

• Trade Liberalization and Labor Markets: While trade agreements boosted exports and GDP, labor outcomes like wages, informality, and female labor force participation (FLFP) did not improve significantly. Morocco and Tunisia experienced a shift from female-dominated labor-intensive sectors to male-dominated capital-intensive ones, reducing job opportunities for women. Egypt’s exports remained a small share of its economy, limiting broader impacts.

• Gender Segmentation: Labor markets in all three countries were highly gender-segmented. In Morocco and Tunisia, higher exports concentrated in male-intensity sectors, reducing the female-to-male employment ratio. Egypt’s limited export scale and public sector dominance limited wage impacts but showed a positive firm-level employment-exports elasticity.

• Firm-Level Dynamics: Exports positively correlated with employment but only at the micro level. Egypt’s small exporting firms could not scale impacts economy-wide, while Morocco and Tunisia’s firms reinforced male-labor-intensity. Higher imports had negligible long-term effects on labor markets, except for temporary wage decreases in Egypt.

Policy Recommendations:

• Address gender segmentation by promoting female-friendly industries and reducing social barriers.
• Support labor-intensive sectors over capital-intensive ones to create more inclusive jobs.
• Improve the business environment to attract investment and enhance export competitiveness.
• Use firm-level data to design policies that ensure trade benefits translate into broader labor market improvements.