ABSTRACT This paper examines how economic ideas have been shaped throughout history and the influence of these on the formulation of economic policy. We collect both quantitative and qualitative data from economists who are originally from the Middle East and North Africa region or working on the region. We find that economists and their ideas are more likely to be influenced by multiple schools of thought than adhere to one school. This multiplicity spills over into the type of solutions proposed to economic problems and thus policy implications. One of the main recommendations of this study is that there is a need for the development of economics and economists to recognize the impact of political and social issues that are not easy to grasp through modeling.

中文翻译：

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关于思想和经济政策：MENA经济学家的调查

摘要本文探讨了经济思想在整个历史中是如何形成的，以及这些思想对经济政策制定的影响。我们从最初来自中东和北非地区或正在该地区工作的经济学家那里收集定量和定性数据。我们发现，经济学家及其思想更容易受到多种思想流派的影响，而不是坚持一种流派。这种多样性蔓延到针对经济问题提出的解决方案类型，从而影响政策含义。这项研究的主要建议之一是，有必要发展经济学和经济学家，以认识通过建模不容易把握的政治和社会问题的影响。