The past ten years for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region countries have registered an extreme deterioration in at least one measure of social and economic welfare: earnings inequality, unemployment, and poverty. The combination of slow economic growth, population explosion, and decline in labor productivity led to the reversal of the economic gains achieved during the economic boom in the 1970s. In contrast to that period, growth per capita (GDP) in 1980-1991 for Arab countries was -0.2%. Several indicators point to the extent of the problems faced today by the region's countries. Although the percentage of poverty declined for the majority of the regions in the world in 1985-1990, it has increased in the MENA region.

The purpose of this volume is to address the conditions of earnings inequality, unemployment, and poverty in the MENA region and the problems associated with these factors; to determine the state and magnitude of these problems through various country studies; and to provide solutions to alleviate the negative conditions facing developing economies, with special emphasis on the MENA countries.