VAT Hike in Bahrain Points to Fiscal Challenges, Unattractive Choices Government Faced
Even though an increase in the VAT seems the most viable option, higher levels of public buy-in could be secured through greater transparency in fiscal policy.
Omar Al-Ubaydli
Non-Resident Fellow, AGSIW
Omar Al-Ubaydli is a non-resident fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. He is also an affiliated associate professor of economics at George Mason University; an affiliated senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center; an adjunct visiting professor at the King Fahad University of Petroleum and Minerals; and a non-resident fellow at Trends, UAE. His research interests include political economy, experimental economics, and the economics of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. Al-Ubaydli previously served as a member of the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Joint Advisory Board of Economists and a visiting professor of economics at the University of Chicago. He regularly publishes his research in international peer-reviewed academic journals, and his mainstream media articles appear in Arabic- and English-language newspapers and blogs such as Al-Hayat, The National, Forbes Opinion, and US News. Al-Ubaydli earned his BA in economics from the University of Cambridge and his MA and PhD in economics from the University of Chicago.
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Bahraini Marriages: Against Pandemic Odds, Tying the Knot Gets Easier
Economics may offer some insight into why Bahrainis tied the knot more frequently in 2020.
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Gulf States’ Demographics Favorable to the Growth of the Sharing Economy
Gulf governments see the sharing economy as a source of jobs for young people and promising outlet for entrepreneurs.
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Bahrain’s Path to a Balanced Budget
Many natural resource-dependent countries have tried to restructure government finances in the wake of falling commodity prices, with little success. However, Bahrain’s current efforts may bear fruit.
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Subsidizing Basic Commodities in the Gulf Arab States: Distortive and Regressive
This paper uses economic theory to demonstrate the negative implications of subsidies.
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Bahrain Moving toward Implementation of U.N. SDGs
Bahrain recently hosted the sixth meeting of the interagency and expert group on the sustainable development goals (SDGs), the successor to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), gathering international experts from dozens of countries and U.N.
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Bahrain Beckons Tourists as It Diversifies Its Economy
Augustine of Hippo once remarked: “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” In the last few years, the Bahraini government has launched a multipronged strategy to ensure that the kingdom’s page is more frequently read by the world’s travelers.
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Aramco IPO Could Improve its Governance and Management
This marks the start of a new weekly feature in which Omar Al Ubaydli answers questions on economics.
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UAE Labour Mobility Reforms Create Winners and Losers
In 2011, the UAE dramatically reformed its kafala system by allowing migrant workers with expiring contracts to change employers without the initial sponsor’s permission.
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We Must Experiment to Move Economics Forward in the Middle East
From the days of antiquity, through to the middle of the twentieth century, economics was largely a deductive and narrative discipline.