Book Chapter
The United Arab Emirates

Some Lessons in Economic Development

Oil was discovered in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) just 50 years ago. During that time, UAE has been able to transform itself into a rapidly modernizing country, which is fast becoming a major economic hub and a key player on the international economic landscape.

This paper discusses a number of aspects of the development strategy of the UAE that contributed to its phenomenal development: (i) the political system, which has resulted in a perception of stability and minimal political risk, encouraging investment; (ii) oil; (iii) development strategies that have resulted in a very dynamic business environment; (iv) open importation of foreign skills and management; (v) labour policies that have enabled the immigration of vast numbers of foreign lower-skilled workers.

There are, of course, also concerns for the future, and indeed each of the five positive attributes listed above has a flip side which is a potential major challenge for the future.

Endorsements

'This valuable collection of studies is full of new insights. It confirms that a deep understanding of economic history really matters for policy makers in developing countries.' - Nicholas Crafts, Professor of Economic History, Warwick University

'Comparative analysis of development successes based on country case studies is a useful complement to statistical cross-country regressions. While they have no claim at establishing causality, they give us a richness of detail that reliably suggests policy approaches to success. The 21 case studies from all five continents presented in this book show that success can be achieved, that there are many ways of engineering success, but that good governance and market forces play key complementary roles. While we have a good understanding of how markets work, knowing how to make developing country governments assume developmental functions is one of the greatest challenges to the development profession. This book makes an important contribution in that direction that will be of great assistance to both scholars and policy makers.' - Elisabeth Sadoulet, Professor, Agricultural & Resource Economics, University of California at Berkeley

'Nations are not destined to fail, however most fail to be successful. The case studies in this book provide both aspiration and insights on how to guide a nation away from failure towards success. This book will become an essential reading for scholars and for policy makers in developing countries, international development community, and in developed countries as well.' - Justin Yifu Lin, Professor and Honorary Dean, National School of Development, Peking University and Former Chief Economist, World Bank