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GW School of Business Professor On Roots of Egyptian Crisis

Academic points to stagnant entrepreneural climate as cause of high youth unemployment and political unrest

By  Rob Kirby

Fri Feb 4 2011

BusinessBecause
What does the crisis in Egypt mean for companies there? What role did the economy play in sparking the unrest? And what will the wider consequences be for businesses in region?

These and other questions will be explored on Tuesday 8th February at a George Washington School of Business (GWSB) seminar staring at 4pm.

Dr Ayman El Tarabishy, the GWSB business research professor who'll be hosting the event has published an op-ed piece recently about how he believes a lack of entrepreneurship was behind the crisis.

The failure of individuals in business and education to aid in the development of young entrepreneurs, in effect dismissing their efforts as culturally unacceptable, not only hampers the sort of innovation that leads to fast job growth, it leaves Egyptian young people very angry. They see themselves as excluded from the economic life of the nation. And we now see a lot of this anger expressed on the streets of Egyptian cities.

Throughout the world economy there is concern with finding new ways of economic growth in order to provide good jobs for the large proportion of unemployed youth in less-developed sectors. But without entrepreneurial innovation, economic growth—even at a level that Americans would envy—is far too slow to meet the needs of countries with large and increasing numbers of educated (and relatively less-educated) youth. Entrepreneurial innovation drives growth, and open innovation has the potential to dramatically increase GDP growth and economic development by accelerating the effects of innovation.

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