Publications
Books:
Locked Out of Development: Insiders and Outsiders in Arab Capitalism (Cambridge Elements, Cambridge University Press 2022)
(with Diego Gambetta), Engineers of Jihad: The Curious Connection Between Violent Extremism and Education (Princeton University 2016), listed as one of the best books of the year 2016 by Foreign Affairs
(with Alissa Amico), MENA SOEs: Engines of Development and Competitiveness? (OECD 2013)
(edited with Giacomo Luciani and Marc Valeri), Business Politics in the Middle East (Hurst 2013)
(editor) Labour Market, Unemployment, and Migration in the GCC (Gerlach Press 2012)
Princes, Brokers and Bureaucrats: Oil and the State in Saudi Arabia (Cornell University Press 2010)
Academic journal articles:
(with Ferdinand Eibl) From Rents to Welfare: Why Are Some Oil-Rich States Generous to Their People?, conditional accept at American Political Science Review (April 2023)
Taking Causal Heterogeneity Seriously: Implications for Case Choice and Case Study-Based Generalizations, Sociological Methods and Research (2021, online pre-publication)
Segmented market economies in the Arab world: the political economy of insider-outsider divisions, Socio-Economic Review, 20 (3). 1211-1247 (July 2022)
(with Makio Yamada), editor of special issue of British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Revisiting rentierism: the changing political economy of resource-dependent states in the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula, 47 (1)
The ‘rentier mentality’, 30 years on: evidence from survey data, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 47 (1). 6-23 (January 2020)
(with Ferdinand Eibl and Dan Slater) War Makes the Regime: Regional Rebellions and Political Militarization Worldwide, British Journal of Political Science, 51 (3). 1002-1023 (July 2021)
Dangerous ideas: the force of ideology and personality in driving radicalization, Critical Review, 31 (1). 95-101 (April 2019)
Making wealth sharing more efficient in high-rent countries: the citizens’ income, Energy Transitions, 1 (7). 1-14 (December 2017)
The Political Economy of Distribution in the Middle East, International Development Policy, 7 (1). (spring 2017)
State and private sector in the GCC after the Arab uprisings, Journal of Arabian Studies, 3 (2). 174-195 (December 2013)
Rentier militaries in the Gulf states: the price of coup-proofing, International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 43:3 (November 2011)
The sociology of the Gulf rentier systems: societies of intermediaries, Comparative Studies in Society and History 52:2 (April 2010)
Defying the resource curse: explaining successful state-owned enterprises in rentier states, World Politics 62:2 (April 2010) (updated and abridged version reprinted in Michael Roll (ed.), The Politics of Public Sector Performance: Pockets of Effectiveness in Developing Countries, Routledge 2014
(with Diego Gambetta), Why are there so many engineers among Islamic radicals?, Archives Européennes de Sociologie (European Journal of Sociology) 50:2 (August 2009)
(with Diego Gambetta) Tinker, tailor, engineer, jihadi: can university subjects reveal terrorists in the making?, New Scientist, 13 June 2009
Two-level negotiations in a fragmented system: Saudi Arabia's WTO accession, Review of International Political Economy 15:4 (October 2008)
Petromin: the slow death of statist oil development in Saudi Arabia, Business History 50:5 (autumn 2008)
Shaping the Saudi state: human agency’s shifting role in rentier-state formation, International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 39:4 (November 2007)
(reprinted in in Kristian Coates-Ulrichsen (ed.), “Political Economy of Arab Gulf States” (Edward Elgar 2012)
The GCC and Arab economic integration: a new paradigm, Middle East Policy 14:1 (spring 2007)
Modernizing without democratizing? The introduction of formal politics in Saudi Arabia, International Politics and Society, 3/2006
Book chapters:
The political economy of reforms under Vision 2030, in John Sfakianakis (ed.), The Saudi economy in the 21st century (Oxford University Press, forthcoming)
(with Ferdinand Eibl and Shimaa Hattab), Political Economy and Development in the MENA region, in March Lynch, Jillian Schwedler, and Sean Yom (eds.) The Political Science of the Middle East (Oxford University Press 2022)
The Arabian oil state: infrastructural power and social segmentation, in Harry Verhoeven and Peter Lieven (eds.), Beyond Liberal Order: States, Societies and Markets in the Global Indian Ocean (Hurst 2021)
Is there an Arab Variety of Capitalism?, in Ishac Diwan, Adeel Malik, Izak Atiyas (eds.), Crony Capitalism in the Middle East (Oxford University Press 2019)
A Quest for Significance: Gulf Oil Monarchies’ International “Soft Power” Strategies and Their Urban Dimensions, in Harvey Molotch and Davide Ponzini (eds.), Learning from Gulf Cities (NYU Press 2018)
Challenges to the Saudi distributional state in the age of austerity, in Madawi Al-Rasheed (ed.), Salman’s Legacy (Hurst 2018)
The post-WWII consolidation of Gulf nation-states: particuliarities of oil-based nation-building, in JE Peterson (ed.), The Gulf in History (Bloomsbury Press 2016)
(with FA Bishara, B Haykel, S Hertog, C Holes, J Onley) The economic transformation of the Gulf, in JE Peterson (ed.), The Gulf in History (Bloomsbury Press 2016)
Back to the 70s? Saudi youth and the kingdom’s political economy after the Arab uprisings, in Bjoern Olaf Utvik and Kjetil Selvik (eds.), Oil States in the New Middle East: Uprisings and stability (Routledge 2015)
National cohesion and the political economy of regions in post-WWII Saudi Arabia, in Bernard Haykel, Stephane Lacroix, Thomas Hegghammer (eds.), The State of Saudi Arabia (Cambridge UP 2015)
Business politics in the gulf, in Steven N. Durlauf and Lawrence E. Blume (eds.), The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics (Palgrave 2014)
Redesigning the Distributional Bargain in the GCC, in Michael Hudson (ed.), Gulf Politics and Economics in a Changing World (World Scientific Publishing 2014)
The role of MENA business in policy-making and political transitions, in Steffen Hertog, Giacomo Luciani and Marc Valeri (eds.), Business Politics in the Middle East (Hurst/Columbia University Press 2013)
GCC Energy Sectors as 'Islands of Efficiency', in Emirates Center for Strategic Studies (ed.), Global Energy Markets: Changes in the Strategic Landscape (IB Tauris 2013)
Good, bad or both? The impact of oil on the Saudi political economy, in Mehran Kamrava (ed.), The Political Economy of the Persian Gulf (Hurst/Columbia University Press, 2012)
How the GCC did it: formal and informal governance of successful public enterprise in the Gulf, in Alissa Amico (ed.), Turning the Page: Towards New Arrangements for State Ownership in the Middle East and North Africa (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, March 2012)
Public industry as tool of rentier economy diversification: the GCC case, in Giacomo Luciani (ed.), Resources Blessed: Diversification and the Gulf Development Model (Gerlach Press 2012)
A comparative assessment of labor market nationalization policies in the GCC, in Steffen Hertog (editor), Labour Market, Unemployment, and Migration in the GCC (Gerlach Press 2012)
The evolution of rent recycling during two booms in the Gulf: business dynamism and societal stagnation, in Matteo Legrenzi and Besma Momani (eds.), Shifting Geo-Economic Power of the Gulf: Oil, Finance and Institutions (Asghate 2011)
Lean and mean: the new breed of state-owned enterprises in the Gulf monarchies, in Jean-Francois Seznec (ed.), Industrialization in the Gulf: a Socioeconomic Revolution (Routledge 2010)
Saudi Arabia’s political demobilization in regional comparison: monarchical tortoise and republican hares, in Laura Guazzone and Daniela Pioppi (eds.), The Arab State and Neo-Liberal Globalization (Ithaca Press 2009)
The new corporatism in Saudi Arabia: limits of formal politics, in Giacomo Luciani/Abdelhadi Khalaf (eds.), Constitutional Reforms and Political Participation in the Gulf (Gulf Research Centre: March 2006)
Building the body politic: the emerging corporatism in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, Chroniques du Yémen et de la Péninsule Arabe 2005 (abridged version of above chapter)
Segmented clientelism: the political economy of Saudi economic reform efforts, in Paul Aarts and Gerd Nonneman (eds.), Saudi Arabia in the Balance (Hurst/NYUP 2005) [Arabic version published by Center for Arab Unity Studies, Beirut in 2009]
Policy and working papers, reports:
Reforming wealth distribution in Kuwait: estimating costs and impacts, refereed working paper for the London School of Economics’ Kuwait Program, May 2020.
Can We Saudize the Labor Market without Damaging the Private Sector?, special report, King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, November 2018
Rent distribution, labour markets and development in high rent countries, refereed working paper for the London School of Economics’ Kuwait Program, July 2016.
Late Populism: State Distributional Regimes and Economic Conflict after the Arab Uprisings, research note, Project on Middle East Political Science (Washington, D.C.), May 2016
Arab Gulf States: an Assessment of Nationalization Policies, working paper, Gulf Labour Markets and Migration programme, April 2014
The Private Sector and Reform in the Gulf Cooperation Council, refereed working paper for the London School of Economics’ Kuwait Program, June 2013
(with Nathan Hodson), Economic Policy in the ESCWA Region and its Impact on Employment, UN-ESCWA, October 2012
The Gulf's two-speed reforms: bureaucratic fiefdoms and pockets of efficiency, Middle East and North Africa Forecast, Economist Intelligence Unit, December 2010
(with Giacomo Luciani), Has Arab Business Ever Been, or Will it Be, a Player for Reform?, policy paper for Arab Reform Initiative, October 2010
Benchmarking SME Policies in the GCC: a Survey of Challenges and Opportunities, research report for the EU-GCC Chamber Forum project, April 2010
(with Giacomo Luciani), Energy and Sustainability Policies in the GCC, refereed working paper for the London School of Economics’ Kuwait Program, November 2009 (abridged version reprinted in David Held and Kristian Ulrichsen (eds.) The Transformation of the Gulf: Politics, Economics and the Global Order (Routledge 2011))
The GCC economies and the crash: short-term weaknesses, long-term strengths, MEI Perspectives, Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore, April 2009
EU-GCC Relations in the Era of the Second Oil Boom, Centre for Applied Policy Research Working Paper in the series "EU and the Middle East", December 2007
Renewing an old geo-economic axis: Asia and the GCC, Gulf Research Bulletin, No. 1, Gulf Research Center, January 2007
Perspectives of Economic Integration in the Arab countries, study for the Committee of Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament, September 2006
Shorter pieces:
The end of the old social contract in the Gulf – and what could replace it, LSE Middle East Centre blog, March 2023
The emergence of labor market outsiders among GCC citizens, POMEPS Studies 45, January 2022
Why the GCC’s economic diversification challenges are unique, LSE Middle East Centre blog, 7 August 2020
In the spotlight: demands on Saudi Aramco are increasing, Oxford Energy Forum, issue 18, June 2019. 42-46
What would the Saudi economy have to look like to be “post-rentier”?, POMEPS Studies 33: The Politics of Rentier States in the Gulf, September 2018
Subsidies and the political economy of wealth-sharing in the MENA, Oxford Energy Forum 108, March 2017, 5-9
Labor in the Gulf: to nationalize or not to nationalize, Aspenia, no. 61-62, January 2014
Saudi Aramco as a national development agent: recent shifts, Policy Brief, Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Center, August 2013
GCC Macro-Outlook: Great in the Mid-Term, but What about the Long Run?, Gulf Research Center Analysis, March 2013
(reprinted in Middle East Times)
Financial markets in GCC countries: recent crises and structural weaknesses, Policy Brief, Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Center, December 2012
The costs of counter-revolution in the GCC, Foreign Policy, Middle East Channel, May 2011
(updated version reprinted in “Dossier du CERI”, September 2011)
(with Dag Detter), A new social contract: the Arab public sector after the revolution, Foreign Policy, Middle East Channel, April 2011
(shorter version reprinted in Jordan Times and Daily Star)
Small is beautiful – or is it? Challenges for small and medium family companies in the GCC, in Tharawat – the Arabian Publication for Family Businesses, Volume 10 (April 2011)
A rentier social contract: The Saudi political economy since 1979, in Middle East Institute (ed.), The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 1979-2009: Evolution of a Pivotal State, MEI Viewpoints Special Edition (Washington DC 2009)