The Economist uses a recent report (pdf) to advocate for economic reform in the Mideast:
The Middle East has strikingly few private companies, less than one-third of the number per person in eastern Europe. Everywhere the state dominates the economy. In Egypt the public sector accounts for 40% of value-added outside agriculture—an unusually large share for a middle-income country. Such private firms as do exist tend to be large and closely connected to the state. The average Middle Eastern company is ten years older than in East Asia or eastern Europe because new entrants are kept out by pervasive red tape. The authors reckon it costs roughly 20 times the average annual income to start a firm in Syria and Yemen (assuming anyone would want to), just over twice the average globally.
Ryan Avent adds:
The resource curse is frequently blamed for disadvantages in trade, but other barriers—tariffs, regulations, and poor infrastructure among them—add needlessly to the remoteness and the poverty of the region.
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