World-wide privatization has expanded rapidly, but in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region progress has been markedly slow. The two main obstacles to privatization in the MENA region are seen to be the high level of overstaffing in public enterprises and the inability of economies to create jobs fast enough. This volume is divided into two parts. The first addresses key issues of an institutional and politically economic nature to explain pressures for and against state-owned enterprise (SOE) reform and privatization. The second part of the book presents empirical studies of Egypt,...