Cover: The Levant Economic Integration Calculator

The Levant Economic Integration Calculator

by Daniel Egel, Lee Floyd, Chara Williams, Brian Phillips, Alyson Youngblood, James Gazis

View Online

Access the tool

Economic integration in the Levant — in the form of a comprehensive free trade agreement (FTA) that eliminates tariffs, lowers investment and nontariff barriers, and waives visa requirements — could increase the average gross domestic product (GDP) of the Levant nations by 3–7 percent. This economic expansion would likely create at least 0.7 million to 1.7 million additional new jobs, reducing regional unemployment rates by 8–18 percent, and total job creation might be substantially larger. These estimates are for a potential FTA among Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey — six of the core Levant countries.

This online tool allows policymakers and the public to examine the economic dividend from economic integration. It allows users to (1) vary key assumptions about the movement of goods, people, and capital and (2) explore different combinations of countries participating in the FTA — even allowing the inclusion of Israel and the West Bank and Gaza, the latter two of which are referred to as Palestine. The benefits increase for larger blocs of countries and with reduced restrictions on the movement of goods, people, and capital among these countries. The tool creators recognize that regional integration might start with only a subset of countries and with only partial economic integration, and this tool also allows examination of the benefits of these alternative arrangements.

Access the tool

Research conducted by

This research was sponsored by the New Levant Initiative and conducted within the International Security and Defense Policy Center of the RAND National Security Research Division (NSRD).

This report is part of the RAND Corporation Tool series. RAND tools may include models, databases, calculators, computer code, GIS mapping tools, practitioner guidelines, web applications, and various toolkits. All RAND tools undergo rigorous peer review to ensure both high data standards and appropriate methodology in keeping with RAND's commitment to quality and objectivity.

Our mission to help improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis is enabled through our core values of quality and objectivity and our unwavering commitment to the highest level of integrity and ethical behavior. To help ensure our research and analysis are rigorous, objective, and nonpartisan, we subject our research publications to a robust and exacting quality-assurance process; avoid both the appearance and reality of financial and other conflicts of interest through staff training, project screening, and a policy of mandatory disclosure; and pursue transparency in our research engagements through our commitment to the open publication of our research findings and recommendations, disclosure of the source of funding of published research, and policies to ensure intellectual independence. For more information, visit www.rand.org/about/research-integrity.

This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited; linking directly to this product page is encouraged. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial purposes. For information on reprint and reuse permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.

The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.