Rethinking Territorial Attractiveness in Selected MENA Countries: A Composite Index and Panel Data Perspective

Ouail  Chahbouni; Fatima  Zahra Fekkak; Ali  Squalli; Douaa  El Azami Idrissi; Ali  Bennagem Touati; Mounir  Benboubker; Mohamed ES-SANOUN

doi:10.48161/qaj.v6n4a2662

Authors

Ouail Chahbouni Interdisciplinary Research Laboratory in Economics, Finance and Organization Management (LIREFIMO), Faculty of Legal, Economic and Social Sciences, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Fez 30000, Morocco; https://orcid.org/0009-0003-0472-3433
Fatima Zahra Fekkak Interdisciplinary Research Laboratory in Economics, Finance and Organization Management (LIREFIMO), Faculty of Legal, Economic and Social Sciences, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Fez 30000, Morocco; https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2822-9918
Ali Squalli Interdisciplinary Research Laboratory on Economic Dynamics, Finance, and Entrepreneurship (LIRDEFE), Faculty of Legal, Economic and Social Sciences, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Fez 30000, Morocco; https://orcid.org/0009-0001-1237-0012
Douaa El Azami Idrissi Interdisciplinary Research Laboratory on Economic Dynamics, Finance, and Entrepreneurship (LIRDEFE), Faculty of Legal, Economic and Social Sciences, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Fez 30000, Morocco; https://orcid.org/0009-0008-1535-1379
Ali Bennagem Touati Research Laboratory in Innovation, Economic Policies, and Development, Faculty of Economics and Management, Sultan Moulay Slimane University, Beni Mellal 23000, Morocco. https://orcid.org/0009-0008-3364-4108
Mounir Benboubker Interdisciplinary Research Laboratory on Economic Dynamics, Finance, and Entrepreneurship (LIRDEFE), Faculty of Legal, Economic and Social Sciences, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Fez 30000, Morocco; https://orcid.org/0009-0007-9950-5939
Mohamed ES-SANOUN Faculty of Legal, Economic and Social Sciences, Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah University, Fez, Morocco

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.48161/qaj.v6n4a2662

Keywords:

Territorial attractiveness, Multidimensional determinants, Composite index, Panel data, MENA.

Abstract

This article analyses territorial attractiveness in six selected MENA countries Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Qatar and Tunisia from 2000–2024. It builds a Composite Territorial Attractiveness Index (CTAI) from seven economic, institutional, infrastructural, tourism and environmental indicators and analyses its relationships with trade openness, inflation rate, internet penetration rate, oil rents (as % of GDP) and population using panel-data econometric models. The analysis employs two-way fixed effects with Driscoll–Kraay standard errors and provides robustness checks on the estimation in terms of alternative index constructions, bandwidth sensitivity and first-difference specifications. Perhaps the strongest positive correlate of the CTAI found across all three index constructions and first-difference models is trade openness. CTAI is negatively (and slightly more significant on levels than first-differences) associated with inflation in the main and alternative specifications, Internet penetration and oil rents are not statistically significant whereas the negative population coefficient is sensitive to index construction and econometric specification. The results reaffirm the view of territorial attractiveness as a spatially complex and multidimensional concept, and call to take external integration policies into account alongside reforms by institutions, infrastructure or productive capacity. Owing to the small, unbalanced panel and ambiguous unit-root results, the findings are taken as conditional correlations rather than causal effects or fitted long-run relations.

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