Polarization and Its Discontents : Morocco Before and After the Arab Spring

This paper uses data obtained from three Moroccan household surveys that took place between 2000 to 2013, to address issues related to the so-called "Arab puzzle." Welfare inequalities are low and declining in Arab countries and exist aga...

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Main Authors: Clementi, Fabio, Khan, Haider A., Molini, Vasco, Schettino, Francesco, Soudi, Khalid
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/711411572275750555/Polarization-and-Its-Discontents-Morocco-before-and-after-the-Arab-Spring
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32658
id okr-10986-32658
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-326582022-09-19T12:17:15Z Polarization and Its Discontents : Morocco Before and After the Arab Spring Clementi, Fabio Khan, Haider A. Molini, Vasco Schettino, Francesco Soudi, Khalid POLARIZATION PERCEPTIONS SUBJECTIVE MEASURES ABSOLUTE MEASURES HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS INEQUALITY INCOME DISTRIBUTION POVERTY HOUSEHOLD WELLBEING This paper uses data obtained from three Moroccan household surveys that took place between 2000 to 2013, to address issues related to the so-called "Arab puzzle." Welfare inequalities are low and declining in Arab countries and exist against the backdrop of a growing sense of dissatisfaction and frustration. The paper hypothesizes that welfare inequality plays a role, if seen through the lens of absolute measures and notably absolute polarization. The paper argues that the relatively worse perception of poor, vulnerable, and lower middle-class Moroccan households mirrors the ongoing hollowing out of the welfare distribution process and its concentration in the tails. The results of a multi-logit regression indicate that polarization is significantly correlated to perception and, importantly, that this correlation is asymmetric. The poorer are the households, the more polarization is perceived to link negatively to the well-being of households; and the richer are the households, the more polarization will positively correlate with their perceived well-being. The results are robust to the use of classes or quintiles for ranking social groups from the poorest to the richest. 2019-11-21T17:11:16Z 2019-11-21T17:11:16Z 2019-10 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/711411572275750555/Polarization-and-Its-Discontents-Morocco-before-and-after-the-Arab-Spring http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32658 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9049 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Middle East and North Africa Morocco
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic POLARIZATION
PERCEPTIONS
SUBJECTIVE MEASURES
ABSOLUTE MEASURES
HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS
INEQUALITY
INCOME DISTRIBUTION
POVERTY
HOUSEHOLD WELLBEING
spellingShingle POLARIZATION
PERCEPTIONS
SUBJECTIVE MEASURES
ABSOLUTE MEASURES
HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS
INEQUALITY
INCOME DISTRIBUTION
POVERTY
HOUSEHOLD WELLBEING
Clementi, Fabio
Khan, Haider A.
Molini, Vasco
Schettino, Francesco
Soudi, Khalid
Polarization and Its Discontents : Morocco Before and After the Arab Spring
geographic_facet Middle East and North Africa
Morocco
relation Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9049
description This paper uses data obtained from three Moroccan household surveys that took place between 2000 to 2013, to address issues related to the so-called "Arab puzzle." Welfare inequalities are low and declining in Arab countries and exist against the backdrop of a growing sense of dissatisfaction and frustration. The paper hypothesizes that welfare inequality plays a role, if seen through the lens of absolute measures and notably absolute polarization. The paper argues that the relatively worse perception of poor, vulnerable, and lower middle-class Moroccan households mirrors the ongoing hollowing out of the welfare distribution process and its concentration in the tails. The results of a multi-logit regression indicate that polarization is significantly correlated to perception and, importantly, that this correlation is asymmetric. The poorer are the households, the more polarization is perceived to link negatively to the well-being of households; and the richer are the households, the more polarization will positively correlate with their perceived well-being. The results are robust to the use of classes or quintiles for ranking social groups from the poorest to the richest.
format Working Paper
author Clementi, Fabio
Khan, Haider A.
Molini, Vasco
Schettino, Francesco
Soudi, Khalid
author_facet Clementi, Fabio
Khan, Haider A.
Molini, Vasco
Schettino, Francesco
Soudi, Khalid
author_sort Clementi, Fabio
title Polarization and Its Discontents : Morocco Before and After the Arab Spring
title_short Polarization and Its Discontents : Morocco Before and After the Arab Spring
title_full Polarization and Its Discontents : Morocco Before and After the Arab Spring
title_fullStr Polarization and Its Discontents : Morocco Before and After the Arab Spring
title_full_unstemmed Polarization and Its Discontents : Morocco Before and After the Arab Spring
title_sort polarization and its discontents : morocco before and after the arab spring
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2019
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/711411572275750555/Polarization-and-Its-Discontents-Morocco-before-and-after-the-Arab-Spring
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32658
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