Egypt and Jordan

403 Pages·2017·24.39 MB·French

by  Shaimaa Yassin

Labor market search frictions in developing countries:
evidence from the MENA region: Egypt and Jordan
Shaimaa Yassin
To cite this version:
Shaimaa Yassin. Labor market search frictions in developing countries: evidence from the MENA
region: Egypt and Jordan. Economics and Finance. Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I, 2015.
English. ￿NNT: 2015PA010004￿. ￿tel-01320707￿
HAL Id: tel-01320707
https://theses.hal.science/tel-01320707
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Universite´ Paris I - Panthe´on Sorbonne
U.F.R. de sciences e´conomiques
Ann´ee 2015 Num´ero attribu´e par la biblioth`eque
| | | | | | | | | | | | |
`
THESE
Pour l’obtention du grade de
Docteur de l’Universit´e de Paris I
Discipline : Sciences Economiques
Pr´esent´ee et soutenue publiquement par
Chaimaa
Yassine
————–
Labor Market Search Frictions in
Developing Countries
Evidence from the MENA region: Egypt and Jordan
————–
Directeur de th`ese: Franc¸ois Langot
JURY :
Ragui Assaad Professeur a` l’Universit´e de Minnesota
Olivier Charlot Professeur a` l’Universit´e de Cergy-Pontoise (rapporteur)
Nicolas Jacquemet Professeur a` l’Universit´e Paris 1 Panth´eon-Sorbonne
Franc¸ois Langot Professeur a` l’Universit´e du Maine (directeur de th`ese)
David Margolis Directeur de recherche CNRS
Fabien Postel-Vinay Professeur a` l’Universit´e College London (rapporteur)
L’universit´e Paris I Panth´eon-Sorbonne n’entend donner aucune approbation
ni improbation aux opinions ´emises dans cette th`ese. Ces opinions doivent ˆetre consid-
´er´ees comme propres a` leur auteur.
2
En souvenir de ma grandm`ere, qui me manque.
`
A ma m`ere, qui m’est tellement ch`ere.
`
A mon ch´eri, qui me fait vivre les rˆeves les plus merveilleux.
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Acknowledgements
“Paris has given me what no other city in the world can give to a student (...) The
seed of understanding is in my heart now.”Khalil Gibran to Mary Haskell, March14,
1909. For many, Paris is a tourist destination, a charming city and a symbol for the art
of living. For me, Paris is much more than that. Paris is the city that received me with
wide opened arms, and it did so in every sense: not only education and knowledge,
but more importantly health, friendships and exceptional experiences. I’m grateful to
every moment I’ve spent in the city of lights, which shall always remain my second
homeland.
This thesis is the result of my Ph.D. studies at the University of Paris 1 Panth´eon-
Sorbonne during the period September 2011 to December 2015. While my name may
be alone on the front cover of this thesis, I am by no means its sole contributor.
Rather, there are a number of people behind this piece of work who deserve to be
both acknowledged and thanked here: a committed supervisor, generous researchers
and professors, patient friends, an inspiring grandmother, a determined mother and a
fantastically supportive partner.
First and foremost, I would like to offer my sincerest gratitude to my supervisor
Franc¸ois Langot for his constant encouragement, support and guidance. I have ben-
efited tremendously from my interactions with him both on the professional and the
personal level, and I owe a great debt to him. His guidance helped me in all the time
of research and writing of this thesis. I could not have imagined having a better ad-
visor and mentor for my Ph.D. study. Franc¸ois has taught me, both consciously and
un-consciously, how good quality economic research is done. I appreciate all his con-
tributions of time and ideas to make my Ph.D. experience productive and stimulating.
The joy and enthusiasm he has for his research was contagious and motivational for
4
me, even during tough times in the Ph.D. pursuit.
My passion to labor economics, in general, and to the job search equilibrium theory,
in particular, was primarily inspired by my instructors in the ETE Masters program at
Paris School of Economics, Andr´e Zylberberg and Fabien Postel-Vinay. I owe a special
thanks to Fabien Postel-Vinay for all the guide and assistance he provided through out
the writing of my Masters’ thesis, the first milestone to this Ph.D. thesis.
I will forever be thankful to Ragui Assaad. Not only that he provided me with a
life-changing experience by getting me involved in the Egypt and Jordan Labor Market
Surveys through their different phases, but he has always been helpful in providing
advice many times during my graduate school journey. Inviting me to spend a semester
at the University of Minnesota definitely provided a valuable plus to my career. Ragui
will always remain as my best role model for a researcher, mentor, co-author and
teacher. I still think fondly of my time as his research assistant at the Economic
Research Forum. A real father, a friend and a colleague, whom I’m very lucky to have
met at the very early years of my career as a labor economist.
I am particularly indebted to David Margolis, whose office had a door that was
wide open all the time for my questions, concerns and doubts during tough times of my
Ph.D. David has been actively interested in my work and has always been available to
advise me. I am very grateful for his patience, motivation, enthusiasm, and immense
knowledge that, taken together, make him a great mentor and a friend.
I am very grateful to the remaining members of my dissertation committee, Olivier
Charlot and Nicolas Jacquemet. Their academic support, input and personal cheering
are greatly appreciated.
Special mention goes to Mona Amer, without whom, this post-graduate journey
would have not been possible. Not only for her tremendous academic support since
my undergraduate studies, but also for helping me out through so many wonderful
opportunities. I owe a lot to Rana Hendy, Chahir Zaki, Jackie Wahba, Caroline Krafft
and Hoda Selim. Apart from being my friends, they were always there providing all
the support, advice and motivation.
Profound gratitude goes to all my professors and colleagues at the MSE in general
and in the microeconomics department in particular. I am also hugely appreciative to
5
Antoine Terracol and Benoit Rappoport, who never hesitated to share their expertise
so willingly. It was always a pleasure to cross Stephane Gautier by the coffee ma-
chine and get the chance to hear one of his amazingly hilarious jokes or comments.
Special mention also goes to Jean-Phillipe Tropeano, Franc¸ois Fontaine and Phillipe
Gagnepain.
My gratitude is also extended to Elda Andr´e and Loic Sorel who have known the
answer to every question I’ve everasked regarding the aministrative steps of the Gradu-
ate School. The first friendly faces one gets to greet as soon as one begins this doctoral
program. Elda has always been a tremendous help no matter the task or circumstance
and if it weren’t for Loic I wouldn’t have completed all the required paperwork and
delivered it to the correct place at the right timing. Thank you Elda and Loic, you shall
always be remembered as smiling faces, warm and friendly hearts and among the main
people who assisted me in completing my doctoral program. I also greatly appreciate
all the technical support I luckily got from the MSE IT department. Stephane, Rachad
and Rachid were always there, with smiley encouraging faces, whenever the computer
bugs and freaks me out.
This dissertation would have also been impossible without the financial support of
Campus France, the Graduate School of the University of Paris 1 Panth´eon-Sorbonne,
the Microeconomics department (UG4) of the Centre d’Economie de la Sorbonne and
the GAINS (Groupe d’Analyse des Itin´eraires et des Niveaux Salariaux) department
at the University of Maine.
I am indebted to all my friends in Paris who were always so helpful in numerous
ways. Special thanks to Claire Thibout and Rawaa Harati who have always been by my
side since our masters program back in 2009. I’ve enjoyed being surrounded during my
Ph.D. studies by loveable friends like Thomas Fagart, Juliette Rey, Robert Somogyi,
Omar S`ene and Batool Syeda. I was also very lucky to have shared the office with the
amazing Marine Hainguerlot, Sandra Daudignon, Pierre Aldama, Antoine H´emon and
Antoine Mal´ezieux. I can never forget the fun lunch breaks and Menagerie weekend
outings with all the MSE Ph.D. students in the different departments, particularly
Elias, Remi, Leontine, Alexandra, Marco, Noemi, Mehdi, Lorenzo, Anastaciaandmany
others.
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I show extensive gratitude to all my colleagues at the GAINS laboratory at the
University of Maine in le Mans. Special thanks to my bureau-mates who were always
very good listeners and were a main source of motivation. Big thanks to Jeremy
Tanguy, Eva Mareno-Galbis, Sylvie Blasco, Ahmed Tritah, Pierre-Jean Messe, Salima
Bouayad, Sol`ene Tanguy, Fr´ed´eric Karame, Xavier Fairise, Jean-Pascal Gayant and
Arthur Poirier. Fun talks and coffee breaks with J´erome Ronchetti, Emmanuel Auvray
and Anthony Terriau shall always be remembered as my recharging stops during my
marathon teaching days in le Mans.
I also owe a lot to all my Egyptian friends present in Paris over the different years
ever since my masters. Gatherings with fine Egyptian dining that I miss made it
impossibleforonetofeelhomesick. Hopingnottoforgetanyone, Iexpressmygratitude
toIreneSelwaness,MayMagdi,StephanieYoussef,NellyElMallakh,DinaKassab,Rim
Ismail, Ahmed Habib, Mohammed Doma, Omar Monieb, Fady Rizk-Allah, Martine
Ackaad, Nancy Nagui, Heba Mohsen, Tamer Mohsen, Maria Adib, Dina Mandour,
Riham Ezzat and Nesma Magdi.
My thoughts are back home with the irreplaceable best friends, more of sisters,
Maha El Garf, Ghadie El Helaly and Ingy Akoush. Being there in the good and tough
times, they were of great support by all means and over all the levels. They never
hesitated to do everything to draw a smile on my face during peaks of stress, all the
way from sunday morning viber talks and their dogs’ photos that always occupied my
phone memory to getting themselves to Europe just to get on the carroussel infront of
the Eiffel tower together.
I wish my father in law, Magdi Shalash, was there at the moment I am finalizing
this thesis. I am sure he would have been so proud. I would also like to express my
appreciation to a loveable supporting mother in law, Amel Hatem.
I end this aknowledgements’ section with special warm thanks to the three most
important persons in my life: my grandmother, my mother and my fianc´e.
I owe so much of the person I am today to one great lady who taught me how to
hold a pencil and write down ABC, my grandmother. The loving memory of how tough
she has always been till the very last moment of her life, shall always be my inspiration
throughout my career and personal life. I miss you and I know you’re always there in
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spirit.
Words can never express how much I’m grateful to one of the greatest mothers
on Earth, Nagwa Nassar. Without her continuous support, love and encouragement I
never would have been able to achieve any of my goals. I owe everything to you mom!
You’ve been the mother, the father, the sister and the friend. Thank you for being my
backbone. It’s time for me to take care of you, make you proud and try to repay a tiny
part of my debt. This one is for you!
The third most special person to my heart is my best friend, my one and only love,
my future husband, Karim Shalash. You have selflessly given more to me than I could
have ever asked for. I love you, and look forward to our lifelong journey. I will end this
by our favorite poem, back in 2007, when we first met.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Chaimaa Yassine
Paris, December 2015
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R´esum´e en franc¸ais
Les mod`eles de recherche d’emploi
dans les pays en voie de
developpement
L’´elargissement de l’´ecart entre les nations est un ph´enom`ene inqui´etant pour tous
les pays du monde et particuli`erement les pays pauvres en voie de d´eveloppement.
En 2010, la distance entre les pays riches et pauvres s’est ´elargie ´enorm´ement. Selon
Klugman(2010), lepaysleplusricheen2010(leLiechtenstein)´etaittroisfoisplusriche
que le pays le plus riche en 1970, pendant que le pays le plus pauvre (le Zimbabwe) est
devenu 25% plus pauvre qu’il ´etait en 1970 (´etant lui-mˆeme le pays le plus pauvre a
l’´epoque).
Comme L’´ecart entre les richesses des pays ne cesse de se creuser, les politiques
dans les pays en voie de d´eveloppement visent a` augmenter les opportunit´es d’emploi
afin d’´elever les revenus et les niveaux de vie des populations. Cependant, ces poli-
tiques sont souvent contradictoires. Bien que l’expansion d’emploi devrait soulager la
pauvret´e, il n’existe pas de consensus sur les meilleures strat´egies a` adopter dans ces
pays, ´etant donn´ee leur caract´eristiques assez particuli`eres. Les r`eglements et institu-
tions sont n´ecessaires pour prot´eger les droits des travailleurs et pour am´eliorer leurs
conditions de travail. Cependant, ils pourraient en mˆeme temps d´ecourager des en-
treprises a` embaucher des travailleurs, ayant alors involontairement une cons´equence
contradictoire sur les personnes dont les droits et les conditions ´etaient cens´es ˆetre pro-
i