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This paper examined the impact of fiscal policy on non-oil GDP in Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, over the annual period 1989-2018. We employed various cointegration methods within the framework of the augmented production function and estimated that government current and capital expenditure, in addition to non-oil labour and capital, have statistically significant positive effects on non-oil GDP. We tested whether the recent oil price decline and the implemented economic reforms caused a break in the relationship that non-oil GDP establishes with the mentioned variables and found that there was no break in either the long-run or the shortrun relationship. The study concluded with some policy insights that could be useful for fiscal authorities to promote non-oil economic development.

The King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center (KAPSARC) is a non-profit global institution dedicated to independent research into energy economics, policy, technology and the environment across all types of energy. KAPSARC's mandate is to advance the understanding of energy challenges and opportunities facing the world today and tomorrow, through unbiased, independent, and high-caliber research for the benefit of society. KAPSARC is located in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Labour productivity growth in manufacturing is decomposed into technical efficiency change (movement towards or away from the frontier), technological progress (shifts in the production frontier), and capital accumulation (movement along the frontier) using a nonparametric production frontier method. The results suggest that labour productivity growth is primarily driven by capital accumulation and to a lesser extent technological progress, while technical efficiency is deteriorating over the period 1995-2014. We find that technological progress appears to be nonneutral, as the world manufacturing production frontier expands only at higher capital intensities, benefiting highly industrialized nations. We also find evidence of unconditional convergence in labour productivity for the manufacturing sector. Capital accumulation is the main driver of the observed unconditional convergence, whereas technological change is contributing to divergence rather than convergence. The findings suggest that expanding manufacturing activities through capital accumulation is essential for developing countries to catch-up with developed countries.