Baker Institute expert available to comment on possible merger of Dubai and Abu Dhabi stock exchanges

EXPERT ALERT

Jeff Falk
713-348-6775
jfalk@rice.edu

Baker Institute expert available to comment on possible merger of Dubai and Abu Dhabi stock exchanges
Krane: Merger cuts away a layer of bureaucracy that stands between foreign investors and UAE shares

HOUSTON – (Oct. 3, 2013) – The possible merger of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) stock exchanges in Dubai and Abu Dhabi is positive news for American and other foreign investors, according to an expert on Persian Gulf economics and politics at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.

JIM KRANE

“The merger of these two markets would cut away a layer of bureaucracy that stands between foreign investors and UAE shares and capitalize on the UAE’s recently granted emerging market status,” said Jim Krane, the Wallace S. Wilson Fellow for Energy Studies at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. He said a merger between the Dubai and Abu Dhabi stock exchanges has been in the cards for years, but it fell off the agenda after Dubai’s real estate crash in 2008 and subsequent debt meltdown.

“This is another sign that Dubai is emerging from the devastation of its 2009 debt meltdown, when the world yanked out its cash and Dubai teetered on the brink of default,” Krane said. “One of the lessons learned was that Dubai and Abu Dhabi are stronger when they collaborate, rather than when they compete.”

Krane is the author of the 2009 book “City of Gold: Dubai and the Dream of Capitalism” (published in the United Kingdom under the title “Dubai: The Story of the World’s Fastest City”).

The Baker Institute has a radio and television studio available for media who want to schedule an interview with Krane. For more information, contact Jeff Falk, associate director of national media relations at Rice, at jfalk@rice.edu or 713-348-6775.

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Related materials:

Krane biography: http://bakerinstitute.org/experts/jim-krane.

Founded in 1993, the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University in Houston ranks among the top 20 university-affiliated think tanks globally and top 30 think tanks in the United States. As a premier nonpartisan think tank, the institute conducts research on domestic and foreign policy issues with the goal of bridging the gap between the theory and practice of public policy. The institute’s strong track record of achievement reflects the work of its endowed fellows and Rice University scholars. Learn more about the institute at www.bakerinstitute.org or on the institute’s blog, http://blogs.chron.com/bakerblog.