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Providing an empirical and conceptual context for the volume, this chapter discusses patterns and trends in women's social and economic participation in the region, draws together the themes explored in individual chapters, and offers policy recommendations and suggestions for future research. Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries have made good progress in educating women, whose schooling attainments often outstrip those of men, and in reducing fertility rates, but most of MENA women remain out of the labor force, and those who do work outside the home face a wide range of difficulties associated with their gender. Having so few women working is costly for the countries in the region, limiting their economic size and growth prospects. From a policy perspective, it is important to understand why so few women work. Reasons include discriminatory practices in the workplace and difficulty in obtaining access to credit and productive assets; women's reservation wages and internalized gender roles in traditionally patriarchal societies; and discrimination by government policies against female market-based activities. The chapter seeks to understand the links between these causual factors within a coherent analytical framework that can handle both diversity and difference. Women, Work and Welfare in the Middle East and North Africa Keywords: Gender, Middle East, women's economic status, women's entrepreneurship, women's employment, social norms, gender bias in policymakingCountries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are diverse but also share some common characteristics that set them apart from countries in other world regions. Not least among these is the small size of the economic contribution made by women. MENA countries have made good progress in educating women, whose schooling attainments often exceed those of men, and in reducing fertility rates, but most of MENA women remain out of the labor force and those who do work outside the home face a wide range of difficulties associated with their gender.Having so few women working imposes heavy costs on the countries in the region, limiting the size and growth of their economies, and limiting their ability to improve their wellbeing and prosperity. Hsieh and others (2013) find that 15 to 20 percent of the growth in aggregate output per worker in the United States over the last 50 years -a period that has seen rapid growth in computerization and mechanization -can be explained by the improved allocation of talent that resulted from greater gender and racial equality. Similar studies carried out in other advanced economies have enhanced the attention given to gender equality and women's empowerment as means to achieve economic efficiency, productivity, and growth.Gender inequality still stymies growth and progress across all countries, albeit at different levels. A recent study for Booz and Company (Aguirre and others, 2012) estimates this loss for several economies, as highlighted in Table 1.1. Applying the same methodology, which assumes that men and...

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Economics has rediscovered happiness even though the discipline has always been about human wellbeing. A growing evidence suggests that happier people can be more productive and innovative, which leads to profitability and economic growth. Thus, there are concerted efforts to measure happiness and design policies to enhance it. Happiness metrics rank North African countries among the lowest, and worsening over time. This paper explores key contributing factors to decades of frustration and anger in North Africa, and how these sentiments play themselves out since the Arab revolutions. Though these societies are more than ever polarized along the secular/progressive and Islamist/conservative lines, any government must deliver on economic expectations that are surprisingly similar for both groups. Insights from happiness economics and models of successful countries can serve as guiding principles for reforms that can promote economic and non-economic dimensions of individual and communal wellbeing.