On March 17, AUC Press author Khalid Ikram will give a lecture entitled “The Political Economy of Reforms in Egypt: Past, Present and Future Perspectives,” at 1:00pm at the AUC New Cairo Campus, Abdul Latif Jameel Building, Room PO86.
His book The Political Economy of Reforms in Egypt: Issues and Policymaking since 1952 (AUC Press, 2018) has been described as “outstanding” by Foreign Affairs magazine.
It lays out the enduring features of the Egyptian economy and its performance since 1952 before presenting an account of policy-making, growth and structural change under the country’s successive presidents to the present day. Topics covered include agrarian reforms; the Aswan High Dam; the move towards Arab socialism and a planned economy; the reversal of strategy and the infitah; fiscal, monetary, and exchange-rate policies; consumer subsidies; external debt crises; negotiations between Egypt and international donors and financial institutions; privatization; labor and employment; and poverty and income distribution.
Khalid Ikram has been associated with Egypt’s economic development for forty years, including as director of the World Bank’s Egypt department. He has been a consultant to several institutions, including the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, USAID, OECD, UNDP and many other leading international and private institutions. He is the author of Egypt: Economic Management in a Period of Transition (1981) and The Egyptian Economy, 1952–2000: Performance, Policies, and Issues (2006).