Oman

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Oman

The Sultanate of Oman is on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It shares land borders with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. The coast faces the Arabian Sea on the southeast, and the Gulf of Oman on the northeast It has a number of smallish exclaves within the United Arab Emirate’s land borders. The capital and largest city is Muscat.

Maps & Flag

Of Oman’s total population of 5.2 million, just over half are Omani citizens (2.9 million, 57 per cent). Oman’s overall score in EIU’s 2023 Democracy Index was 3.12 (out of ten) in 2023 ranking it 119th out of 167 economies. Oman’s score remains around the median for GCC countries, below Qatar’s and Kuwait’s but above those of the UAE, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. The EIU classify it as remains classified as an “authoritarian.”


Notes  Country profile information is compiled from, amongst others, the following sources. See the Reference list below for detailed information.


References

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Asker, J., Collard-Wexler, A., & De Loecker, J. (2017). Market power, production (mis)allocation and OPEC. National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper Series, 1(September, w23801), 1–54. https://doi.org/10.3386/w23801

Assidmi, L. M., & Wolgamuth, E. (2017). Uncovering the Dynamics of the Saudi Youth Unemployment Crisis. Systemic practice and action research, 30(2), 173–186. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11213-016-9389-0

Baumeister, C., & Kilian, L. (2016). Forty Years of Oil Price Fluctuations: Why the Price of Oil May Still Surprise Us. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 30(1), 139–160. https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.30.1.139

Bekhradnia, B. (2016). International university rankings: For good or ill? Higher Education Policy Institute, 1(89), 1–32.

Benítez-Márquez, M.-D., Sánchez-Teba, E. M., Coronado-Maldonado, I., & Sung, W.-W. (2022). An alternative index to the global competitiveness index. PloS one, 17(3), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265045

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Caldara, D., Cavallo, M., & Iacoviello, M. (2019). Oil price elasticities and oil price fluctuations. Journal of Monetary Economics, 103(May), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmoneco.2018.08.004

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Government of Kuwait. (2024). Labour Market Statistics [Dataset: Central Statistical Bureau]. https://e.gov.kw/sites/kgoenglish/Pages/OtherTopics/OpenData.aspx

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Hertog, S. (2024). The Political Economy of Reforms under Vision 2030. In J. Sfakianakis (Ed.), The Economy of Saudi Arabia in the 21st Century: Prospects and Realities (pp. 359–380). Oxford University Press.

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Kashyap, A. K., & Kovrijnykh, N. (2016). Who Should Pay for Credit Ratings and How? The Review of financial studies, 29(2), 420–456. https://doi.org/10.1093/rfs/hhv127

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Nair, D. (2024, May 13). What roles are Emiratis being hired for in the private sector? The National. https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/money/2024/05/13/emiratis-hired/

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Poplavskaya, A., Karabchuk, T., & Shomotova, A. (2023). Unemployment Challenge and Labor Market Participation of Arab Gulf Youth: A Case Study of the UAE. In M. M. Rahman & A. Al-Azm (Eds.), Social Change in the Gulf Region: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (pp. 511–529). Springer Nature Singapore.

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Rutledge, E. J., & Al Kaabi, K. (2023). ‘Private sector’ Emiratisation: social stigma’s impact on continuance intentions. Human Resource Development International, 26(5), 603–626. https://10.1080/13678868.2023.2182097

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The Times of Kuwait. (2024, August 24). Kuwaiti workforce grows to 457,567. The Times of Kuwait. https://timeskuwait.com/kuwaiti-workforce-grows-to-457567-makes-up-21-3-of-labor-market/

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V-Dem. (2024). V-Dem [Dataset: University of Gothenburg, Department of Political Science]. https://doi.org/10.23696/mcwt-fr58

Vaccaro, A. (2021). Comparing measures of democracy: statistical properties, convergence, and interchangeability. European political science, 20(4), 666–684. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41304-021-00328-8

WIPO. (2024). Global Innovation Index [Dataset: UN, The World Intellectual Property Organisation]. https://www.wipo.int/en/web/global-innovation-index

World Bank. (2024). Worldwide Governance Indicators [Dataset]. https://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/sites/govindicators/doc/wgidataset_with_sourcedata_excel.zip

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World Bank. (2025b). Worldwide Governance Indicators – Data Sources. https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/worldwide-governance-indicators/documentation#2


i This is the website of Dr Emilie J. Rutledge who, with almost two decades’ worth of experience in managing, designing and delivering university-level economics courses, is currently Head of the Economics Department at The Open University.

Emilie has published over 20 peer-reviewed papers and is the author of “Monetary Union in the Gulf.” Her current research focus is on employability, the feasibility of universal basic incomes and, the oil-rich Arabian Gulf’s economic diversification and labour market reform strategies. On an ad hoc basis, Emilie provides consultancy on developing interactive university courses, alongside analytical insight on the political-economy of the Arabian Gulf.

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