This book examines the development of the economies in the Middle East and North Africa over the last 50 years. Exploring the reasons why the economic development process of the MENA Region doesn "t emerge as a simple formula, but as the interaction among a set of changing systems - international relations, the political regime, the economy, and society - the book provides answers to the most pressing issues facing these economies. Taking a methodological approach, the authors analyse the broader topics of the geographical unit, the theoretical approach supporting the study, and the analytical instruments used, in addition to specialized topics of economic interest. Areas covered include the development process and the institutional change, the development politics and the macroeconomic performance, the structure of the economies, oil and gas production, the cycles and the waves in the MENA economic transition process, the demographic dynamics, the labor market and the new familiar system; the migration, the openness of the economies and the economic integration, the social contract and the welfare system, the poverty and the inequality, and the relationships between Islam and capitalism.