Economic Development in Palestine

What are the economic development issues in Palestine? What does the ongoing occupation and violence do to the local political economy? For this online panel, Economics for Inclusive Prosperity brought together four Palestinian economists to discuss their research on the unique challenges their economy faces, how people are facing those challenges, and prospects for the future. They covered the economics of structural change, healthcare, violence, politics, and more from a Palestinian perspective. The panel was moderated by EFIP co-director Suresh Naidu. Suresh is a Professor of International and Public Affairs and the Jack Wang and Echo Ren Professor of Economics at Columbia University. The panelists for this webinar included: Raja Khalidi — was the Director General of the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute (MAS). Prior to MAS, he worked at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and was the Coordinator of its Program of Assistance to the Palestinian people. He researches the economic situation and development policies in the occupied Palestinian territories and the Arab economy in Israel. Sameera Awawda — is an Associate Professor of Health Economics at the Economics Department, Birzeit University, Palestine. Currently, she is the chairperson of the Economics department. Her research interests include economic evaluation, microeconometrics, microsimulation, data analysis, project evaluation, and economics of inequality and wellbeing. She specializes in health economics, particularly topics related to universal health coverage, financing and organization of health care systems, health insurance, and financial health protection in developing countries. Belal Fallah — is an Associate Professor of Economics at College of Administrative Sciences and Informatics, Palestine Polytechnic University. His current research focuses on Palestine, covering areas related to development economics, policy evaluation, and the economic cost of conflict. He will be discussing his work “No, Punitive House Demolition Does Not Reduce Suicide Bombing: Revisiting Evidence from the Second Intifada”. Rabeh Morrar — is an Associate Professor of Economics at An-Najah National University. His latest work revolves around “Settler Colonialism and Economic Dependency: Rethinking Sovereignty in Palestine”: exploring the socioeconomic effects of colonization, focusing on the direct impact of external rule on the Palestinian economy, as well as the resilience strategies of the oppressed population.