Lydia Assouad is no longer with the Carnegie Endowment.
Lydia Assouad was the El-Erian fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center. Assouad is a PhD candidate in economics at the Paris School of Economics and a research fellow at the World Inequality Lab. Her research lies between public and political economics, with a focus on the Middle East. She worked on the structure and dynamics of income and wealth inequality in the region.
The 2019-2020 crises not only swept away the idea that Lebanon is a paragon of economic success, but also made blatant another kind of exceptionalism in the country—its record-high income and wealth inequality, which is perpetuated by the corrupt political economy.
To survive its ongoing financial crisis, Lebanon needs a new economic system that addresses massive income inequality. Paired with political and institutional reform, tax reform can help.
Extreme inequality underlies recent protests throughout the Middle East. Without drastic structural reforms, a larger storm is brewing in the region.
The Lebanese are united in revolt, but their political system is not made to calm their rage.
The protests in Lebanon are linked to the extreme level of inequality in the country.
Spot analysis from Carnegie scholars on events relating to the Middle East and North Africa
As Lebanon grapples with its public debt, it is avoiding the most effective means of securing greater revenue.
Where does the Arab world stand in terms of economic inequality and how has it evolved before and after the Arab spring?