The disappointing growth in the ESCWA region during the 1980s and 1990s was, in part, due to the failure to balance the decline in investment with an equivalent increase in human capital. The latest issue in this series analyses three member States - Egypt, Jordan and the Syrian Arab Republic - over the period 1975-2000 and concludes that investment and human capital were the main sources of long-term growth and that, while total factor productivity was low, it was not negative. Two main policy recommendations stem from the study: first, that expenditure on education should be increased and, second, that improvements in social infrastructure are essential in order to achieve sustainable growth.