A widely circulated fact in Lebanon is that the Lebanese who live abroad make much more money than those who live in the mainland. A new study by the Center for Global Development exposes the real figures for the first time.
So far, all previous studies made on average incomes were country-centric. That means that all figures relate to what is being produced in the country itself. But now, a new statistic by the Center for Global Development measures the average incomes of people who are born in a certain country, not those of people who live in it
After looking at the paper, I made this table for Arab countries’ “income per naturals”:
It turns out that the average Lebanese makes outside of Lebanon 31.6% more than he or she makes inside of Lebanon. A league of our own if we compare the figure to other Arab countries.
Hello, my name is Mustapha and I've been blogging about Lebanese society, business and politics since February 2005.
Thanks for the post Mustapha. Very interesting paper.
I don’t think GDP is a measure of salary but rather a measure of output. They could very well divert. For example a person earning a $50k Salary but reading the newspaper instead of working makes a $0 output. Maybe someone else care to confirm.
Ah yes, interpretation of statistics, one of my favorite topics! Let’s see:
A sad conclusion would be that the higher educated Lebanese cannot find suitable jobs inside Lebanon and thus have to emigrate to realize their potential.
A positive conclusion would be that the Lebanese are exceptionally flexible and can be a success no matter where they go.
Regardless one’s bias, the Lebanese do stand out remarkably when compared to the other Arab countries. Interesting.
Very interesting blog.. just stumbled upon it today.
With regards to this post, could this simply mean that a larger portion of Lebanese have the opportunity to migrate to other countries and thus make more money?
If 100% of Lebanese who were born in Lebanon stayed in Lebanon for work, then the columns would be identical (0% difference). This much is obvious… what I’m wondering is what percentage of Lebanese born citizens actually work abroad. This would be more meaningful in interpreting the data in my opinion because this huge percent difference (31.6%) could simply mean that Lebanese citizens per capita have more of an opportunity to emigrate to developed countries versus citizens of other Arab nations.
If the data were adjusted to reflect the emigration rates I believe these figures would be MUCH different and more meaningful…