ABSTRACT

The predominant theme of republican Egypt’s economic history is that of rent seeking, external and internal. ‘Cursed’ by the resource endowment of a key geostrategic location, which is reinforced by being the largest, most powerful Arab state, possessing substantial hydrocarbon reserves, Egypt has substituted rents for reforms required for a productive, rapidly growing economy. Successive administrations have pursued national economic well-being primarily by attempting to garner public assistance from foreign suitors and by extracting oil and gas rents. They have, moreover, surrendered steadily more of the economy to the military and security services that prop up executive power.