Saudi Arabia’s long-run development has expanded capital, employment, and infrastructure, but delivered uneven gains in output per worker. Using Van Ark et al.’s pro-productivity framework, this chapter reviews the Kingdom’s growth record. It evaluates how policies across investment, skills, market functioning, internationalization, and institutional foundations have shaped productivity outcomes since 1970. The analysis shows that sustained input expansion, weak incentives, and uneven institutional capacity limited total factor productivity growth. Saudi Arabia’s current strategy, entitled Vision 2030 aims at coordinated reform, yet implementation gaps persist. The paper concludes by examining the rentier dynamics that have slowed the diffusion of productivity and finds that escaping its influence is essential to future progress.
Author: Chaker El Mostafa