Economic growth in the Maghrib

The Maghrib region encompasses countries with a common heritage but which are challenged to forge regional integration and cooperation. In light of initiatives to establish a Maghrib trading block, a fundamental question is whether economic performance in Maghrib member states has intraregional growth impacts. The rationale behind such inquiry derives from the geographers' first law that states, ‘everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things’. This study analyses whether neighbouring North African economies are more integrated regionally than with more distant Euro-Mediterranean countries. Using a growth model, the study offers statistical evidence to counter the geographers' first law. No statistically significant evidence of spatial proximity influence is found to link three neighbouring Maghrib economies: Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. Instead, further examination reveals statistical evidence that more distant Euro-Mediterranean economies tend significantly to influence economic growth in the Maghrib region

Economic geography · Economics · Economy · Geography · Political science · Statistical evidence · Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth · Local Government Finance and Decentralization · Regional Economics and Spatial Analysis