Economic Growth and Trade in the United Arab Emirates

Skyline of Dubai, UAE with a train in the foregroundThe Growth Lab is engaged in a multi-year collaboration with the UAE Ministry of Economy (MoE). As part of this initiative, the Growth Lab strives to provide rigorous and actionable research that can support the UAE Ministry of Economy, but also other key policymakers in the UAE, in their mission to promote high-quality sustainable growth, trade, and productivity-driven economic transformation.

In the past decades, the UAE has achieved dramatic economic growth and undergone a deep social transformation. Going forward, major strategic questions regarding the country’s growth model are however on the policy agenda.

MORE ABOUT THE PROJECT

  • Are there limits to the historic growth model?
  • What are domestic developments and external constraints that may now require an adaptation of the country’s development strategy?
  • What new opportunities can we identify, and how can the UAE seize them?

The joint project between the Growth Lab and the UAE Ministry of Economy aims to contribute to this reflection through a multi-pronged approach based on data analysis, a diagnostics mindset, its proprietary economic complexity paradigm, and other evidence-based policy zooms.

Key objectives of the collaboration include:

  • Uncovering current and future constraints to strong and sustainable economic growth in the UAE and its seven Emirates, and suggest concrete policy options to proactively address them.
  • Identify strategic sectors and activities with high potential to drive the country’s future economic diversification and high-productivity growth.
  • Provide analytical support to the UAE’s active trade policy and trade negotiations.
  • More generally, conduct research that can help the MoE and other key policy-making entities formulate and implement policies to spark sustainable and inclusive growth, promote export diversification, and attract investments.
  •  Transfer knowledge, especially by building capacity at the MoE and in other government entities to conduct novel, data-driven economic analyses that can inform policy.

PROJECT DATES

October 2021 - October 2023

FUNDED BY

UAE Ministry of Economy

Team Members

Head shot of Ricardo Hausmann

Ricardo Hausmann

Director
Rafik Hariri Professor of the Practice of International Political Economy, HKS
Head shot of Robert Z. Lawrence

Robert Z. Lawrence

Albert L. Williams Professor of International Trade and Investment, HKS
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