State-Owned Enterprises in the Middle East and North Africa

State-owned enterprises (SOEs) are an important feature of the economic landscape in the Middle East and North Africa region and yet, their contribution to the local economies has not been subject to a systematic investigation. SOEs in the region are generally perceived as inefficient and subject to sub-optimal governance arrangements but at the same time, and somewhat paradoxically, they are often charged developmental mandates that typically go beyond their stated commercial objectives. This p