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The contrast between Kuwait and the UAE today illustrates the vastly different possible futures facing the smaller states of the Gulf. Dubai's rulers dream of creating a truly global business center, a megalopolis of many millions attracting immigrants in great waves from near and far. Kuwait, meanwhile, has the most spirited and influential parliament in any of the oil-rich Gulf monarchies. InThe Wages of Oil, Michael Herb provides a robust framework for thinking about the future of the Gulf monarchies. The Gulf has seen enormous changes in recent years, and more are to come. Herb explains the nature of the changes we are likely to see in the future. He starts by asking why Kuwait is far ahead of all other Gulf monarchies in terms of political liberalization, but behind all of them in its efforts to diversify its economy away from oil. He compares Kuwait with the United Arab Emirates, which lacks Kuwait's parliament but has moved ambitiously to diversify. This data-rich book reflects the importance of both politics and economic development issues for decision-makers in the Gulf. Herb develops a political economy of the Gulf that ties together a variety of issues usually treated separately: Kuwait's National Assembly, Dubai's real estate boom, the paucity of citizen labor in the private sector, class divisions among citizens, the caste divide between citizens and noncitizens, and the politics of land.

Background Patients with transfusion-dependent thalassemia (TDT) require lifelong blood transfusions and iron chelation therapy. Thus, patients afflicted with TDT often have to undergo blood transfusion and iron chelation therapy, which causes a major economic burden on them. However, this topic has not been reported in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). Hence, this study aimed to evaluate healthcare resource utilization and associated direct costs related to patients with TDT in Dubai, UAE. Methods For this study, a retrospective prevalence-based cost-of-illness analysis based on the UAE healthcare system and patient perspectives was conducted among patients with TDT treated at the Dubai Thalassemia Center in 2019. Information regarding healthcare resource utilization and direct medical costs was collected from the billing system connected to the electronic medical record system. Patients and their families were interviewed for direct non-medical cost estimations. Results A total of 255 patients with TDT were included in the study. The mean annual direct medical cost was estimated at AED 131,156 (USD 35,713) (95% CI: 124,735 – 137,578). The main driver of the medical cost for the participants as iron chelation therapy AED 78,372 (95% CI: 72,671 – 84,074) (59.8%), followed by blood transfusions, which accounted for AED 34,223 (95% CI: 32,854 – 35,593) 26.1% of the total direct medical costs. The mean annual direct non-medical costs was AED 2,223 (USD 605) (95% CI: 1,946 – 2,500). Age ( p  < 0.001), severe serum ferritin levels ( p  = 0.016), the presence of complications ( p  < 0.001), and the type of iron chelation therapy ( p  < 0.001) were significant predictors of higher direct medical costs incurred by the participants. Conclusion Transfusion-dependent thalassemia poses a substantial economic burden on the healthcare system, patients, and their families. Our results show that the highest medical cost proportion was due to iron chelation therapy. In this regard, efforts must be made to improve the patients’ acceptance and satisfaction with their iron chelation therapy to increase their compliance and improve the effectiveness of treatment, which could play an essential role in controlling the economic burden of this disease. Moreover, greater support is essential for families that suffer catastrophic out-of-pocket expenses.

I argue that Dubai’s smart city project, ‘Smart Dubai’, is a response to the following priorities: (i) the furtherance of the city’s scale-making project and worlding strategies, through the propagation of the smart city imaginary and the buildout of a smart city infrastructure modelled after those in the global north and west and used to compete for members of the creative class and other high-value residents; (ii) a project to enlarge the scope of Dubai’s economy of flow. Dubai in particular, and the UAE in general, have long articulated a political economic project based on the creation of a political economy that positions the country as a regional hub within the global political economy of flow; and (iii) the containment of urban informality, which in Dubai is understood as both a disciplinary problem and an existential challenge to what is still, at heart, a rentier economy. 我认为迪拜的智慧城市项目“智慧迪拜 (Smart Dubai)”是对以下优先事项的回应：(i)通过复制全球北方和西方的智慧城市构想和智慧城市基础设施配置，争夺创意阶层成员和其他高价值居民，以推进城市的规模扩大计划和世界化战略；(ii)扩大迪拜流量经济范围的项目。迪拜乃至整个阿联酋长期以来一直在清晰地阐着述一个政治经济计划，其基础是创建一种政治经济，将该国定位为全球流量政治经济中的一个区域枢纽；以及(iii)遏制城市的非正规性，这在迪拜被看作一个风纪问题，也是对本质上仍然是一个食利经济的经济体的生存挑战。

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic affected the utilization of healthcare services in many parts of the world. The response to the healthcare burden imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with ensuring the provision of optimum healthcare services. This study aimed to estimate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on health services utilization and spending patterns in Dubai, the UAE. Methods: This cross-sectional study used secondary data on healthcare utilization and spending to compare between 2019 and 2020. The data was extracted from the health insurance claims on the eClaimLink platform. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to calculate the percent change of service utilization and spending and percentages of total claims by each encounter type across major diagnostic categories (MDCs). Results: In 2020, there was an overall reduction in outpatient visits and inpatient admissions of 27% and 21%, respectively, compared to 2019. Outpatient visits and prescriptions decreased across all the MDCs except mental and behavioral disorders, which showed an increase of 8% in outpatient visits and 29% in prescriptions. The admissions to the healthcare facilities were also reduced significantly across various MDCs, ranging from 10% to 44%. Similarly, a downward trend was seen in diagnostics for different MDCs. An increase in expenditure on diagnostics and drugs for neoplasm was reported, despite a corresponding decrease in outpatient and inpatient admissions for the same. Conclusion: A significant decrease in overall healthcare utilization and corresponding healthcare spending, resulting from a decline in outpatient and inpatient volume in healthcare facilities at all the levels (hospitals, clinics, speciality centres), was reported during the pandemic. The impact of the pandemic on mental health was reported by this study, as it showed an upward trend in utilization and spending. For the neoplasms, although the utilization declined, the expenditure on diagnostics and drugs during each encounter increased significantly.

The developmental process as it unfolds in Dubai has hardly been analyzed by academics. Most current knowledge about the country originates from media coverage, especially from news magazines and business literature. Recently a number of social science based but historically oriented academic publications have appeared. Only one study, however, has seriously sought to place Dubai in a broader developmental framework: Sampler and Eigner's From Sand to Silicon, published in 2003. Yet, by applying the so-called strategic trajectory model to the case of Dubai, they reduce their focus to the management side. Their aim is too narrow to provide an explanation of the overall development process in Dubai.

The aim of this study was to assess the indirect burden of patients with transfusion-dependent thalassemia (TDT) in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Adult patients with TDT were enrolled during blood transfusion sessions. Productivity loss for patients in the preceding four weeks was reported using the validated iMTA Productivity Cost Questionnaire (iPCQ). A total of 161 adult patients with TDT were included in the study. The annual total productivity loss cost at paid work among 79 employed patients was AED 17,230 (USD 4691) (95% CI: 12,302-22,159), out of which absenteeism contributed AED 10,328 (USD 2812) and presenteeism contributed AED 6902 (USD 1879), whereas the annual total productivity loss cost at unpaid work was AED 4053 (USD 1104) (95% CI: 3471-4661). The annual mean total indirect cost for paid and unpaid work was AED 21,283 (USD 5795). Monthly income, nationality, and having two and more disease complications were the significant predictors of higher productivity loss costs. Having previously had a splenectomy was a negative and significant predictor of productivity loss costs. TDT was associated with substantial productivity loss and indirect costs in the UAE. Health policies that aim to control transfusion-dependent thalassemia effectively are necessary and could result in cost savings for patients and employers.

How can we better understand the complex interaction effects that are triggered when businesses and international government agencies become partners in social development? To answer, this article presents field experiences of Heineken in the Democratic Republic of Congo, ethnic cleansing in Myanmar, and the United Nations Global Compact in Dubai, to show the impact of key multi-stakeholder business-development policies as experienced by millions of people. These cases help us understand business and sustainable development interactions by exploring existing research gaps regarding issues of discourse, guidance, and legitimacy. This article has four aims: (1) to show that business-development interactions are much more complex than most case studies are able to encapsulate; (2) to explore how unintended ripple effects of even the most promising “win-win” business-development policies can carry catastrophic consequences; (3) to illustrate the potential benefits of a novel methodology for future research on business, global governance, and sustainable development; and (4) to show how business and development concerns interconnect across and through the macro- and meso-levels of analysis down to local livelihood interactions and impacts. I contextualize these experiences to emerging scholarship, opening avenues for building theory and improving policy on business, development, and peace.

In this article, I consider how the Dubai government's shift in economic focus from maritime trade networks toward large-scale, Western-style multinational development projects threatened the forms of belonging that Indian merchants had carved out in the emirate during and after British colonialism in the region, and before the liberalization of India's economy, even as Indian merchants were to some extent participants in the production of Dubai as a \"global city.\" I argue that Indian merchants were performing forms of substantive citizenship in Dubai that resemble forms of belonging among South Asian diasporas located in Western liberal democratic contexts. I explore how this was happening despite the lack of formal modes of citizenship and permanent belonging available to Indians in contemporary Dubai and in response to changes in Dubai's migration, economic, and political policies that reduced their privileged status in the country.

Over the last decades, Dubai has applied an economic developmental model which is strongly pro-business, emphasizes market liberalism and economic openness, and embraces globalization, while at the same time refraining from challenging the traditional neo-patrimonial leadership structure in the country. As such, the \"Dubai model\" has so far been distinctly different from economic models applied in the other GCC countries. However, judging from official statements, development projects under implementation, and the effort currently expended in creating economic assets in the other GCC states, these states seem to be embracing the \"Dubai model\" of development. This article will analyze the claim that the \"Dubai model\" is displacing the rentier state model as the general developmental model among the Gulf countries.